William Herbert Johnson (4 June 1916 – 30 June 2009), was an English
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
player, manager, and coach who played as a wing half in the
Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...
. He played in both the
1946 FA Cup Final for
Charlton Athletic.
Matt Gillies brought Johnson on as a coach at
Leicester City in 1959. He was originally signed as head scout, but soon become Gillies' assistant manager. He was influential in the signing of both
Dave Gibson and
Mike Stringfellow, both of whom would become key figure in Leicester's success during the 1960s. Johnson is often credited as having come up with a tactical innovation of switching the positions of
Frank McLintock and
Graham Cross, upsetting the traditional 1-11 formation. This hugely influenced
Liverpool manager
Bill Shankly
William Shankly (2 September 1913 – 29 September 1981) was a Scottish football player and manager, who is best known for his time as manager of Liverpool. Shankly brought success to Liverpool, gaining promotion to the First Division and winnin ...
.
Gillies said on the innovation: "confused opposition" as opposition players would often be asked to mark "our
eicester'snumber eight, so they thought
Cross was their man, when
McLintock had replaced him" as "players hadn't got beyond thinking about numbers then."
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Bert
1916 births
2009 deaths
Footballers from Stockton-on-Tees
English men's footballers
Men's association football wing halves
Spennymoor United A.F.C. players
Charlton Athletic F.C. players
Welling United F.C. players
Cambridge United F.C. players
English Football League players
English football managers
Welling United F.C. managers
Cambridge United F.C. managers