With his second start in as many games, is Mikey Johnston the next Aiden McGeady?
The young Hoops winger has striking similarities with former Hoops favourite McGeady. He’ll line up tonight for the trip to Suduva of Lithuania after being names in Brendan Rodgers’ starting XI.
It’s now Johnston’s second start in as many games after having an impressive performance against Partick Thistle.
The 19-year-old is primarily a left-winger, but has the ability to play on either side. This is the same as McGeady, who burst onto the scene in 2004.
Notching a goal on his debut against Hearts, McGeady went on to have six highly successful years at the club. He then moved on to Spartak Moscow for a then record fee.
Doing all of that would be an extremely tough ask of Johnston. However, the winger has the same talent that a young McGeady did back in the day.
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McGeady Mark 2?
The academy graduate has shown an ability to leave a plethora of defenders in his wake. This was a McGeady trademark, and he went on to make 148 appearances for the Hoops doing just that.
Where Johnston needs to improve upon which McGeady was often also criticised for, is his final ball.
Too often in the youngster’s cameo displays has he been too greedy or just been off with his final pass. McGeady had a great shot on him, but he too saw a lot of moves break down because of his poor crossing ability.
This is where Johnston needs to learn from McGeady’s mistakes. If he can improve his final ball and really make an impact to the same level the Republic of Ireland international did.
What McGeady did do, however, is continue to improve his ball-control and dribbling. This led to him bamboozling the likes of Carlus Puyol and others in the Champions League.
Champions League ambition
In order for Johnston to get to that stage, he needs to continue getting the head down.
Tonight is a huge match for the youngster. A good performance full of attacking endeavour will again show real similarities to what McGeady showed in his early days.
With the Hoops in a mini-crisis at the moment, Celtic could do with a shining light coming up from the academy.
Johnston will want to be his own man. However, at this early stage, you have to wonder whether he’ll be the next talented winger to make waves at Celtic.