It's a story that has played out before for those invested in Celtic.

A player – in this instance Mikey Johnston – leaves the club, only to succeed on a different team, which happens to be West Bromwich Albion in this case. Still attached to the club with a couple of years left on his deal, Johnston has scored four goals in just eight appearances for the West Midlands side, managed by Spain’s Carlos Corberan.

Deployed as a left-midfielder/winger under Corberan, Johnston has been a constant thorn in the side of England’s second-tier defences competing with West Brom. Conversely, he played mostly as a right-winger for Brendan Rodgers’ side, as he wrestled with the likes of Daizen Maeda, Luis Palma, Yang Hyun-jun and James Forrest for a starting spot.

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Of course, Celtic recruited further in this position last winter, signing Nicolas Kuhn from Austrian Bundesliga side Rapid Vienna for around £3 million. Brought in with a lot of fanfare and a guarantee of ‘electrifying’ pace – Austrian experts’ words, not mine – the former Bayern Munich, Ajax and RB Leipzig academy product has failed to set the heather alight, scoring just one goal. That strike – a deflected effort past Kelle Roos in the Aberdeen goal at Pittodrie – has been his only telling contribution since joining the club in mid-January.

With both players managing a similar amount of minutes between them, we use StatsBomb to compare the wide players, with one currently at the club and the other plying his trade down south in England...

Player radars

Unfortunately, both Kuhn and his right-wing predecessor have played very few minutes in the league this season. This can sway some statistics, but they will give you a rough idea of each player’s strengths and weaknesses out wide. Kuhn has managed 2.6 90 minutes for his new club since his arrival from Austria, whilst Johnston had 3.9 of his own, a poor return given Celtic’s poor output from the wing position this season, especially on the right-hand side.

Kuhn’s lack of effectiveness in front of goal is evident in this radar, as he languishes in the eighth percentile with 0.07 in xG per game. For a player who scored goals in Austria fairly regularly, this is a very poor return. Admittedly, Johnston’s total is nothing to shout about, as he finds himself in the 55th percentile with 0.16 xG per 90 minutes, a total that will have risen down south due to his successful loan spell thus far. Both are fairly ineffectual in front of goal concerning xG, with a specific need to improve for Kuhn, especially if he wants to start to hit the ground running with his new employers.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the two players in an attacking sense is that of shooting, as the player radar highlights Kuhn’s shot-shy start to life at Celtic. Managing only 0.77 shots per game to Johnston’s 3.04, the Germany youth international finds himself in the third percentile, an alarming position for a new signing. His predecessor’s total was a good one, putting him in the upper echelons of the 94th percentile as a result. Johnston averaged more touches in the box than Kuhn, too, with 5.07 for the Irishman compared to 3.85, a 22 percentile point swing in Johnston’s favour.

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Elsewhere Kuhn’s passing is inferior to the recently departed Republic of Ireland regular, as his passing percentage is only 69, whilst Johnston’s is 77, a percentile difference of 43 between the pair. Could this be down to carelessness on the ball, or has Kuhn been trying to take and make risky passes come off for his new team, akin to the likes of Reo Hatate and the aforementioned Palma?

Thankfully for the much-maligned wing option, Kuhn does display strengths in some areas, compared to his fellow wide-man in Johnston. Although a slight increase, he wins more fouls than the West Brom man, with a percentile differential of 14 at 1.54 compared to 1.27. He also completes nearly one more successful dribble than his opponent per game, placing Kuhn in the 92nd percentile with 2.69 compared to the 70th percentile for Johnston at 1.77.

Despite his keenness to potentially take risks with his mixed accuracy of passes, Kuhn takes care of the ball better than his counterpart. Johnston’s 5.07 turnovers per 90 minutes is a high total compared to other wingers, with this being highlighted in his eighth-percentile rating. Kuhn’s placing is far better, as his 2.69 turnovers – while not perfect – have him in the 71st in this metric, a far better showing than the man he replaced.

2.0 Radars

StatsBomb has recently introduced a new ‘2.0’ radar for each position, giving more metrical data for us to document and use in our work. Because of this, we can get an even clearer picture of the two wing options in question. Although some of the metrics are the same as those in the original radar, the likes of OBV (On Ball Value) are now available to use and analyse.

Speaking of the metric, Kuhn’s shot OBV is very positive compared to Johnston, as his 0.08 per match ranks him 91st in the percentile, with his opponent unfortunately in the negatives with -0.03, which correlates to 30th concerning his percentile score. The German’s PAdj (possession-adjusted) pressures per match are high, too, at a whopping 26.24, though 19.91 is still pretty good going for Johnston in the 80th percentile, though not as good as the 96th that Kuhn finds himself in. His xG per shot is impressive, too, scoring higher than Johnston at a difference of 0.04, though a percentile of 39.

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However, there are some areas that the new winger will have to brush up on, particularly in his passing concerning OBV. He finds himself in the negatives for this metric with -0.03, a percentile of eight in the process. Johnston is far higher at 0.11, a colossal percentile increase of 71 places in the process.

Summary

Overall, while there seems to be a lot of clamour – and deservedly so - for Johnston at the moment, there must be some patience with Kuhn, especially due to the player having just joined his new club.

Though that patience must be maintained, it is clear that Kuhn must start to justify his £3 million price tag or face an uphill task to make his mark on the side. While some of his statistics are decent, he has to make a sustained impact from now until the end of the season. If not – and stranger things have happened – then Johnston may find himself fighting with the German for a first-team spot at the club.

Time will tell, though Kuhn must kickstart his Celtic career, preferably this weekend against Livingston in the Scottish Cup.