Celtic star says he is ‘naturally a big talker’ after Brendan Rodgers handed him the most important role

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Celtic produced an impressive performance against Motherwell at Fir Park on Sunday.

There were several reasons behind that display being a champions-like performance because it came only days after Celtic’s draining Champions League draw at Atalanta.

And then, Brendan Rodgers had several players missing for the weekend match, including Callum McGregor dropping out with injury.

Despite that, Celtic strolled to a 3-0 win over Motherwell, with the ever-impressive Luke McCowan opening the scoring, Alistair Johnston finding himself on the scoresheet and Adam Idah scoring from the bench again.

With McGregor absent, Cameron Carter-Vickers not ready to start and Greg Taylor also on the sidelines, the question was raised as to who would skipper the side.

That iconic role was handed to Johnston for the very first time and he loved it.

Alistair Johnston admits he is a ‘big talker’ after being Celtic captain

In the modern era, no man has worn that Celtic armband better than Scott Brown, but years after he headed for the exit door, his departure hasn’t been felt because of the characters in the dressing room.

McGregor leads by example on and off the pitch, but Johnston is also proving he can do the same.

Speaking to Celtic TV, he conducted a brilliant interview about being named skipper for the Motherwell match and how he didn’t want to be ‘the one captain that had a losing record’.

Johnston also shared that he is ‘naturally a big talker’, so that would have helped him very much when doing his pre-match huddle.

“It was a big thing, I didn’t want to be the one captain that had a losing record in my one appearance as captain,” said Johnston.

“But again, Cal (McGregor) kind of picked up something in the last minute there. Big CCV was still out. Greg (Taylor) as well, so I kind of realised that I might be wearing it. I just had to think about my pre-game speech for the huddle. The lads were good with me there. They didn’t put too much pressure on me.

“Again, I just wanted to lead by example on the pitch. I am naturally a pretty big talker, but I didn’t put any real extra pressure on me. I just wanted to play well and perform well for the team. Again, most importantly, go out there and get three points because it’s not an easy place to come as we have seen in the last couple of years. We normally leave it late, so it was nice to wrap that one a little earlier.”

Johnston puts in a captain’s performance

Given that McGregor should be back for Celtic and Carter-Vickers has also returned, then Johnston might not get many more chances to be skipper.

But during the one time he was handed that role, he has done himself proud, including scoring and producing an outstanding display.

WhoScored rated Johnston 8.47 for his performance against Motherwell – no Celtic player ranked higher, with McCowan the only other player getting a rating of over eight.