Alistair Johnston Celtic transfer scouting: World Cup star analysed

The Canada international, currently playing for his country at the World Cup, could become Ange Postecoglou’s second January signing following the recent confirmation of centre-back Yuki Kobayashi's arrival from Vissel Kobe. 

Johnston, 24, impressed in Canada’s fine opening performance in Qatar. He helped the Maple Leafs push big-hitters Belgium, second in FIFA’s world rankings, all the way in their first World Cup appearance since 1986. 

Roberto Martinez’s star-studded side were fortunate to pick up all three points in a narrow 1-0 win but Johnston was among several players in the Canadian side to catch the eye.

Postecoglou is thought to have been tracking the Vancouver-born defender for a while and it is believed a deal could be done in time for Johnston to join the Hoops in the New Year.

With first-choice Josip Juranovic attracting interest from some of Europe’s elite clubs, the right-back could well be a long-term replacement for the Croatian.

Johnston has had a meteoric rise in the past few years but is he ready for Parkhead?

Here, we take a closer look at the 24-year-old to assess what he could bring to the Celtic backline...

Player profile 

Playing college football with Wake Forest in 2019, Johnston was drafted by MLS expansion side Nashville SC for the 2020 season. 

He made 49 appearances for the Tennessee club, making his international debut for Canada in March 2021 before then being traded to Montréal ahead of the 2022 MLS season. 

Also recently linked with a move to Serie A side Bologna, the versatile defender made a total of 39 appearances for the Québec side, scoring four and assisting four as they finished second in the Eastern Conference. 

Johnston played as a right-sided centre-back in Canada’s back three in their Group F opener against Belgium but often took up an aggressive position high and wide. 

At his club, he has played further forward as a right wing-back, in Montréal’s 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 system. 

The above heatmap shows Johnston with a lot of touches on the ball, on either side of the halfway line, while we can also see him offering plenty of width too.

The above chart gives further insight into Johnston’s profile from his minutes played in the 2022 MLS season. The chart uses Wyscout per-90-minute data converted into percentile ranks to compare him with other full-backs and wing-backs (minimum 1,500 minutes played). It covers attacking, possession and defending metrics.

Attacking 

As mentioned, Johnston had eight goal contributions from right wing-back for Montréal in the 2022 MLS season, which worked out at 0.24 goal contributions per 90 (0.12 goals per 90 and 0.12 assists per 90) and sees him rank in the 87th percentile.

His expected goal contributions were a little lower (0.15 per 90) but he still ranks highly among his peers here too.   

His advanced positioning for Montréal this year has allowed him to get to a decent number of opportunities himself – all his shots on goal from this season’s MLS are shown above.

When he does get into shooting areas, Johnston is calm and composed, measuring his attempts at goal. An example of this was his cool finish against Houston Dynamo in August. 

Receiving the ball in space on the right-hand side of the box in the second phase of a Montréal set-piece, Johnston takes one touch to get the ball out of his feet before cleanly striking through it to place the ball into the far corner. 

Much of his creativity comes from his crossing. He is a high-volume crosser, attempting 3.51 per 90 with a solid accuracy rate of 38.01 per cent.

Again, he is measured in his crossing, ensuring his deliveries find team-mates in good areas in the box to get an attempt on goal. 

An example of this was in Montréal’s convincing win over Orlando City in July. 

With attacker Joaquin Torres carrying the ball inside, Johnston makes a lung-busting run from deep to make the offer on the overlap. 

Torres then rolls the ball into Johnston’s path who slows up, giving himself time to pick out Djordje Mihailovic who has the simple task of tapping home at the back post thanks to the Canadian’s accurate low cross. 

Here we can see another example of his accurate deliveries, this time from a deeper position in the half-space.

Controlling a lofted ball out to him, the 24-year-old takes a good second touch with his right that kills the ball and allows him to quickly face the ball up.

As soon as he has set himself he curls a brilliant ball into the box onto the head of his team-mate Kei Kamara who sees his effort come back off the post. 

Possession

Looking at the possession section of the percentile rank chart, we can see Johnston ranks highly for the number of general passes he attempts (42.92 per 90). This will be influenced by Montreal’s style of play which looked to dominate the ball – they averaged just over 55 per cent possession in this year’s MLS. 

Johnston looks pretty secure when he is on the ball too though, boasting an 83.85 per cent pass completion rate that sees him rank in the top quarter for all MLS full-backs/wing-backs for that metric.  

In terms of more advanced possession metrics, he attempted an average of 6.68 progressive passes and 0.81 dangerous passes (a combination of key passes and through passes) per 90. 

He is assured in possession and rarely looks rushed. He is also more than comfortable stepping into advanced areas to pick a pass. 

Although he doesn’t rank too highly for more dangerous types of passes, as mentioned much of his creativity comes from crosses, he does have the ability to produce a defence-splitting pass when required, as he showcased on the biggest stage in Canada’s opener against Belgium. 

In possession, deep inside his own half in the early part of the game, Johnston weighted a fine pass through the Red Devils' lines to find Junior Hoilett in behind. 

Given that Celtic tend to dominate the ball even more than Montreal did in MLS this season, Johnston’s ability in possession would likely scale up quite well in Postecoglou’s side thus offering more regular opportunities for him to execute dangerous passes. 

Defending 

His defensive numbers show up at around average for an MLS full-back/wing-back across the board, averaging 6.18 defensive duels per 90, with a 58.28 per cent win rate, and 1.86 aerial duels per 90, with a win rate of 50.0 per cent. He also registered 0.12 shots blocker per 90 and 5.52 possession-adjusted interceptions per 90. 

This profile is likely due to the previously mentioned style of play of Montréal, as well as his advanced position in their system as a wing-back. 

Playing at right wing-back, where there is a requirement to get up and down the pitch consistently throughout 90 minutes, should prepare Johnston well for life as a Celtic full-back though, in a defensive sense as well as an attacking one.

He may not have the same explosiveness as Juranovic but does have decent pace and certainly does not shirk his defensive responsibilities. 

As seen in the attacking section earlier, he has plenty of energy and stamina too which allows him to make recovery runs, such as in the below example playing in MLS last season.

With his advanced position allowing space in behind for the opposition, Johnston has plenty of ground to make up to catch the Cincinnati attacker as he bears down on goal. 

Although the forward takes a little too long on the ball, Johnston is quick to get back in and halt his progress as he attempts to cut inside to go around the goalkeeper.  

This ability to get up and down will potentially be a key asset for him in Postecoglou’s Celtic which not only makes demands of the full-backs to do just that but also to have the physical capacity to continuously invert inside to help build up play too. 

He’s not afraid to get stuck in when he gets involved defensively either, honing his physical attributes playing ice hockey in his youth.

This aggressiveness in his defensive work can be seen in the below example where again he works back, this time sliding in to cleanly win possession back. 

Conclusion

He may not be as flashy, or perhaps as dynamic, as Juranovic as his best but Johnston possesses plenty of valuable attributes that should make him a success in a Celtic shirt. 

He is a player who has enjoyed a dramatic rise in recent years and, given he is still only 24, there should be plenty of room for further development as well as his recent stand-out performance on the biggest stage in international football hints at. 

Confirmation of his arrival ahead of January, following Kobayashi’s, would also present further evidence of Celtic getting ahead of the game when it comes to recruitment, something which will stand them in good stead, not only for the crucial second part of this season but long-term too.  

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