Celtic outcast has already emerged as the "best player" at his new club

Celtic outcast has already emerged as the “best player” at his new club

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers decided to allow a number of the fringe players in his squad to leave the club during the January transfer window.

Mikey Johnston and David Turnbull both moved to the English Championship as the former signed for West Bromwich Albion on loan and the latter joined Cardiff City on a permanent deal, whilst Hyeok-kyu Kwon signed for St Mirren on loan.

One of those outcasts has already made a big impact for his new club as Johnston had a full debut to remember for the Baggies in their 2-0 win over Cardiff City in the second tier on Tuesday night.

Mikey Johnston was the “best player on the park”

He had made two appearances for the English side off the bench, against Birmingham and Ipswich, but finally made his full debut against the Bluebirds and quickly got on the scoresheet.

The winger positioned himself perfectly from Tom Fellow’s cutback to slot the ball into the back of the net to make it 1-0 inside the opening minute of the match.

It was not just his goal that made his performance impressive, though, as his all-round play led to Sky Sports pundit Courtney Sweetman-Kirk describing him as the “best player on the park” out of the two teams, in a game that included former teammate Turnbull.

Impressively, Johnston completed a whopping 96% of his attempted passes throughout the match, with 25 of his 26 passes finding a teammate.

This shows that the Ireland international, who also made one tackle and one block to help his side out defensively, was extremely reliable in possession and rarely gave the ball away, to go along with his goal to set the tone for the game in their 2-0 win.

No West Brom player has completed more than 89.6% of their passes over the course of the Championship season, which speaks to how impressive Johnston’s 96% completion rate was against the Welsh side.

Mikey Johnston’s performances for Celtic

His emergence as the Baggies’ best player on his full debut for the club, with a fantastic performance, may not be a huge shock to some Celtic supporters as he showed signs of quality during the first of the season in Scotland.

The 24-year-old whiz was a back-up option for Rodgers and, therefore, did not have regular opportunities to showcase his ability in the final third.

23/24 Premiership

Mikey Johnston

Appearances

Nine

Starts

Three

Goals

Two

Big chances created

Two

Sofascore rating

7.11

Stats via Sofascore

As you can see in the table above, the Irish dynamo did produce a fair amount of end product in limited minutes on the pitch for the Scottish giants.

Four goals and big chances created combined in nine appearances, with only three starts, is far from a poor return in the final third for Johnston.

Therefore, it should not be a surprise that he has caught the eye with plenty of minutes on the pitch as a starter for West Brom in England this week.

Hopefully, Johnston will play week-in-week-out for the Baggies and either increase his market value ahead of the summer or do enough to convince Rodgers that he deserves to be in the Hoops squad next season.