Alistair Johnston's start at Celtic: What have we learned?

That being said, like a child at Christmas, who doesn’t want to have a peek at their presents; hold, weigh and shake the box to wonder what is inside?

In that spirit, let’s gauge some early impressions of Alistair Johnston, Canadian international, World Cup star and Celtic right-back.

Johnston joined post-Qatar and was sufficiently integrated into the squad to be given his debut at Ibrox in the derby. Ironically, this was the situation Josip Juranovic was placed in upon joining the club, the player Johnston may well have been signed to replace if recent transfer rumbles prove correct and Juranovic is seeking his ‘next challenge’.

He has played the full 90 minutes in the derby and the recent win over Kilmarnock – but what are the points of interest?

Playing style

Purely aesthetically, and eschewing the data for a second, Johnston looks like an athlete. Tall and wiry, he enjoys physical contact – a legacy of an upbringing playing street hockey and ice hockey – and is particularly strong at holding players off.

He does not appear flamboyant in terms of on-ball actions. Few killer passes spring to mind, nor attempts at goal from 30 yards. He seems relatively safe and composed on the ball.

READ MORE: Why Celtic's wingers give Ange Postecoglou an answer to every problem

What has been noticeable, especially against Kilmarnock was his willingness to stretch the parameters of the inverted full-back role. He was everywhere; left wing, inside left, central midfield. What was equally pleasing was that he seems to have the innate athleticism and speed to recover when a turnover occurs.

To settle on one adjective sans data? Confident. But, of course, you are here for the data so let’s see what shape and weight the Johnston parcel is…

Derby debut

Johnston’s bow was tricky in that he did not always have a direct opponent. Rangers tended to play their three forwards quite narrow to force Celtic wide and to rotate positions such that there was rarely an out-and-out winger in direct opposition.

Of course, Johnston also had the threat of Borna Barisic, one of their main creative outlets, to contend with.

He won the ball through successful challenges and interceptions seven times, the second highest after the two centre-backs. Four were unsuccessful although there were no calamities. One turnover forced by John Lundstram was minimally impactful on 65 minutes.

Here is his pass network for this match, showing that Johnston had the highest On-ball Value for passing in the match according to StatsBomb.

The red colour indicates a higher OBV. The left-hand side of the Rangers attack was also their dominant area of attack. However, Barisic was restricted to only one chance-creating pass and one pack pass all match. This absence of danger on that side despite the slight ball dominance is encouraging.

It is noticeable there are very few interactions between Johnston and his winger, James Forrest. Yet, of his 12 pack passes (third highest on the team), six were to Forrest. The suspicion is that the StatsBomb model is accounting for the outcome rather than the potential of the situation when the pass is made. Johnston made one key pass to create a chance for Abada on 63 minutes.

Here is his heatmap from the match courtesy of SofaScore:

This indicates a disciplined performance in that his heatmap displays a largely orthodox full-back performance. There are hints at inverting all the way over to the left-hand side, but those are fleeting.

Where StatsBomb OBV and my overall packing framework align is that for me he had the highest overall packing score in the match (93 – next highest was Daizen Maeda on 80) as well as the highest StatsBomb passing OBV.

Finally, he had the third-highest pressures at 12 behind Kyogo Furuhashi (16) and Maeda (27).

Kilmarnock

It was a very different type of challenge against Kilmarnock where Celtic dominated utterly. Again, Johnston did not have a direct wide opponent and the Killie left-sided wing-back (Ben Chrisene) was extremely limited in his forward intent.

Such is life playing for Celtic though. Ibrox or a tough European fixture one day, then a dominating game versus one of the SPFL lesser lights the next.

Defensively, only Carl Starfelt won more challenges/interceptions with 13 to Johnston’s seven. His overall defensive action success rate of 88 per cent was the best on the day. He also won the ball back three times in Celtic’s defensive third.

Few defensive alarms then, but how did the full-back contribute to what was a frustrating afternoon until the second goal went in?

Here is the overall team pass map from StatsBomb:

Celtic were hugely left-side dominant on the day. Especially in the first half, the ball was relentlessly rotated between Starfelt, Alexandro Bernabei and Reo Hatate. Jota is normally a ball-hungry winger and even he struggled to get in the game.

Johnston ended up completing 70 of his passes at 92 per cnet completion. Of those, eight were pack passes and five were to Jota. He created three chances, one less than Hatate, and provided two secondary assisting passes – third highest on the day.

He had six receipts of pack passes, less than half of Bernabei’s 13 on the other side, and took possession in the box three times with no shots attempted.

If we look at his heatmap, we get a sense of his overall movement:

This seems the very essence of the inverted full-back role. Johnston popped up on the left wing, the inside left channel and central midfield.

While he did not try extravagant passes, he worked very hard off the ball to move the Kilmarnock low block around and make space for others as well as providing an overload in unexpected positions

This element of his play was probably the most interesting and one to monitor going forward.

Summary

Johnston has quickly settled into this Celtic team. Most encouragingly, he seems defensively solid and strong in the challenge.

Going forward his passing is relatively safe. However, he manipulates the opposition by making interesting runs and taking up inverted full-back positions all over the field.

In both matches, he was ‘packed’ (bypassed by the opposition) less often than the left-sided full-back. This means his recovery energy and speed often compensate for his thirst for space in the opposition half.

Clearly a very athletic player, it appears Johnston will make Celtic more solid defensively while offering up attacking opportunities once he adjusts to the team’s forward patterns.

We shall, of course, report back on that after 900 minutes.