Anthony Ralston has been impressing in the past couple of matches but Celtic are clearly still in need of a top-quality right-back and have been since Jeremie Frimpong and Hatem Abd Elhamed were both allowed to leave at the start of the year.

The latest name to be linked with a move to Parkhead is Legia Warsaw defender Josip Juranovic.

Here, The Celtic Way analyses Juranovic, where he's played his football so far, his style of play and whether he could be the answer at right-back.

Who is Josip Juranovic?

The 25-year-old has had a remarkable rise in the game. Starting off in the Croatian lower leagues as an attacking midfielder, it took impressive displays during an amateur competition before, at the age of 19, he was handed a chance at a bigger club in Hajduk Split.

He made the most of it. Fast forward two years and Juranovic - now a right-back - found himself making his debut for the Croatia national team in a journey that would culminate in representing his nation at this summer's European Championships. 

While at the Euros, Juranovic dislodged Atletico Madrid defender Sime Vrsaljko from the starting line-up ahead of the last-16 tie against Spain following a stellar showing in Croatia's 3-1 win over Scotland at Hampden.

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Last summer, after more than 130 appearances for Hajduk, Polish giants Legia Warsaw came calling and Juranovic made the move to the Ekstraklasa, winning the title as a team-mate of former Celtic keeper Artur Boruc.

The move to Legia was only a year ago and Juranovic is contracted until 2023, so why is he rumoured to be departing so soon? The Warsaw club missed out on Champions League qualification with a 2-1 aggregate defeat to Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday night. It has been reported Celtic could land Juranovic for around €3million (£2.5m) as a result.

Player profile: Attacking

Juranovic's years as an attacking midfielder may have been spent at amateur level but you can almost see traces of that role in his style of play even now with his technique and varied repertoire of crosses (Exhibit A being his ball in for Croatia's opener at Hampden).

Last season alone he played almost 54 passes per game (79.8 per cent accuracy) and backed that up with almost five crosses, three dribbles, seven passes into the final third and two-and-a-half progressive runs per game too.

To put that into some context, another right-back linked with a move to Glasgow - Independiente's Fabricio Bustos, who is also a former midfielder - keeps pace with Juarnovic in terms of total passes per game and passes into the final third but lags behind him when it comes to more creative traits. I have included Greg Taylor, Celtic's current left-back, and Jeremie Frimpong, their most recent first-choice right-back, in the table to give a flavour of how they compare with the two targets.

Celtic Way:

In terms of raw numbers, Juranovic contributed a goal and seven assists last term - the latter total good for third-best in the league behind winger Mateusz Szwoch and attacking midfielder Filip Starzynski - as Legia won the title. He already has two assists so far this campaign.

Last season Legia switched between playing three at the back and four. In both systems, Juranovic was the wide right option as either a full-back or a wing-back. Regardless of the system, he is used to being part of a ball-dominant side for both club and country.

Legia averaged 58.2 per cent possession across the whole season and Juranovic would only see more of the ball in Celtic colours given the responsibility Postecoglou's system places on full-backs coming inside and getting on the ball. Indeed, his heatmap suggests he has no problem taking up positions further in-field over the course of a game. Married to his capable distribution stats, Juranovic could be an ideal fit offensively.

Celtic Way:

Player profile: Defending

Defensively, Juranovic neither contests (0.45 per 90) nor wins (37.5 per cent) many aerial duels. For reference Taylor, who is often targeted by opposition teams with high balls due to his perceived lack of aerial prowess and questionable positioning, has registered 3.83 aerial duels per game so far this season and won 30 per cent of them.

Juranovic profiles well in other aspects, however. He wins more than two-thirds (67.8 per cent) of his defensive duels per game, makes more than four interceptions per game and more than eight total recoveries per game too. 

Celtic Way:

The table - which again includes Frimpong and Taylor for reference - shows fellow target Bustos may have a slight edge in terms of his involvement in the selected defensive metrics, there is not much between the two and a further caveat is that the Argentine does play in a team that spends most of the game without the ball (Independiente average 49 per cent possession).

While overall the data suggests Juranovic could fit in well at Postecoglou's Celtic the overriding concern, as ever, is the time it is taking the club to replace what has long since been lost.

The Celts boss probably summed it up best himself; when asked if reinforcements would arrive in time for the potential Europa League play-off next week, he simply replied: "I live in hope". Watch this space.