Wilfried Nancy told he has a ‘big conundrum’ at Celtic with Alistair Johnston and Jota

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Celtic’s injury issues have further been compounded by players leaving to go to the African Cup of Nations.

Wilfried Nancy has had to shoehorn players into his new system and after six games, it looks like the Celtic manager is getting a tune out of it, despite the defensive aspect looking like it still needs work.

Wins against Aberdeen and Livingston have shown how the Celtic first-team is getting to grips with the new tactics but it does raise a few questions for the Bhoys moving forward.

Nancy has six first-team players on the Celtic treatment table. Jota, Alistair Johnston, Kelechi Iheanacho and Marcelo Saracchi are all due back in the next couple of months.

And that has led to Michael Stewart raising a question on how the Portuguese winger and the Canadian full-back will fit into the new system due to the roles changes the Celtic manager has deployed to his players.

• READ MORE: Wilfried Nancy makes big Kasper Schmeichel decision vs Motherwell

Michael Stewart questions how Jota and Alistair Johnston fit in at Celtic

The Premier Sports pundit was speaking about injury issues at Celtic and about how when Jota and Alistair Johnston return, how does the Hoops duo fit into Nancy’s first-team set-up.

Stewart told The Scottish Football Social Club, “This is the big conundrum for Celtic in terms of do you recruit into this system and sort of box yourself in slightly?

“How do you get Jota into this system? Where do you play Alistair Johnston?

“But here’s what I would say to you on that is it doesn’t look like he wants to play what you would class as attacking full-backs in the wing back position. He wants more wingers. He wants to play out and out wingers there.”

Alan Hutton replied: “Well, you’re not getting Jota playing that way.”

Stewart: “No chance. You’re basically looking for guys that are then capable of playing one v one or even outnumbered at times, one against two strikers because they leave themselves exposed.

“So Alistair Johnston, it will be interesting to see where he fits in. Does he play him right center-half? I don’t know. And then if there’s Carter-Vickers, where’s Trusty playing?

“Where does Tierney play? There’s a lot of moving pieces here that it’s going to be very interesting to see.”

When Alistair Johnston and Jota return to the Celtic first-team

Both players have been missing from Celtic first-team duties for months due to the nature of their injuries, but when are the Hoops duo due back?

According to BeSoccer, the Celtic pair could be back sooner than many fans may think:

• Alistair Johnston: Early March 2026
• Jota: Early January 2026

Celtic fans will be delighted to see both players back in the team and would agree that regardless of how the two would fit into the side, having Jota instead of Yang and Johnston instead of Ralston improves this team massively.