Celtic return to Scottish Premiership action and will travel to face Livingston at the Tony Macaroni Arena now the international break has concluded.
In truth, there have been more exciting international breaks over recent times; however, a couple of our Bhoys did achieve notable success while away representing their nations.
Daizen Maeda played 90 minutes for Japan in their narrow victory over North Korea during World Cup qualifying.
In an added bonus for Brendan Rodgers, the 26-year-old has had an extra few days off, as the return fixture between the two rivals was called off due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’ amid concerns over hosting the tie in Pyongyang.
Anthony Ralston, Adam Idah and loanee Mikey Johnston also found themselves in action for Scotland and the Republic of Ireland across their March friendlies, respectively.
Nevertheless, Alistair Johnston had the most impressive time away from our involved assets. He helped Canada seal their place at Copa America by featuring for the entirety of their 2-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago in the final round of the CONCACAF Nations League.
As we prepare to face David Martindale’s outfit this weekend, Johnston’s performances returning from a facial injury in February and even before that signify his importance to Rodgers’ side between now and the end of the season.
Alistair Johnston is of vital importance to Celtic
Johnston is an archetypal Rodgers full-back, providing tenacity and unwavering energy to burst up and down the right-hand side.
Per Sofascore, the 25-year-old has excelled from a defensive standpoint this season in the league, making 1.3 clearances, 5.1 ball recoveries and winning 1.8 challenges per match this campaign.
Nevertheless, his quality in attack is sometimes overlooked, and it is no coincidence that both Hyunjun Yang and Nicolas Kuhn have come on to a game since his return to the fold.
The Canada international ranks fifth in chance creation for Celtic this season out of the entire squad, laying on 43 opportunities for his teammates during league duty [Fotmob].
Delving further into his individual statistics, the former CF Montreal man has a relatively high dribble success rate for a defender of 65.4% from 17 attempted. Meanwhile, Johnston has managed 27 accurate crosses and an Expected Assist tally of 5.84, per the same outlet.
In 33 appearances this term, Johnston has registered one goal and three assists (two in the Scottish Premiership) across all competitions [Transfermarkt].
For simplicity, he appears to be doing a lot right without reward, and the fact he is underperforming in Expected Assists (abbreviated as xA) suggest the Vancouver-born man may see his goal contribution rate elevated before 2023/24 comes to an end.
Illustrating his vision, Johnston has also completed around 1.7 key passes per Scottish Premiership match [WhoScored].
To put that into context, he ranks fourth in the Bhoys’ squad for this metric, ahead of Callum McGregor, Kyogo Furuhashi and Paulo Bernardo, to name a few.
With the title race in full swing, Johnston will hope continue his excellent form and is set to be a key player during the run-in.
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