The 24-year-old has been a peripheral figure for the majority of the time since he broke through in Rodgers’ first spell at Parkhead, making his debut at 18. Despite earning a new deal last season, Ange Postecoglou sent him out on loan to Vitoria Guimaraes in the Portugal to gain regular first-team football. It worked a treat. Johnston hasn’t just returned to the east end of Glasgow with his confidence back, he’s also become a regular for the Republic of Ireland having chosen his grandfather’s country over Scotland despite winning three caps for the Scots’ Under-21s earlier in his career.
“In the end we were attacking, we were going for it, we needed to win. It’s just the way we play, we want to attack all the time. It’s not paid off so far but this is the way Celtic play and it’s what we will keep doing. We’re moving in the right direction. We’re playing football and going toe to toe with teams and that’s what we want to do. Coming away from home we might need to adapt the way we play a bit. But look, we need to go and finish the campaign on a high now.”
It’s not that long ago Celtic were on the wrong end of heavy defeats to Barcelona – 7-0 – and PSG – 7-1 – in Rodgers’ first spell in charge. That brought an outpouring of flak for the former Liverpool manager’s open and expansive tactics. But Johnston insists the Hoops will never resort to parking the bus in a bid to nick points. He said: “I wouldn’t say that run is playing on people’s minds. Maybe before – you see results we had against for instance Barcelona – and maybe people would take parking the bus and getting results that way.
“But we want to play the Celtic way, playing football and getting results that way. That’s what we’re trying to do. The manager has said the same. He likes the way we are playing. He knows we are trying to play the football he wants to play and obviously results haven’t come yet. This is his first year back here in Europe so I’m sure there’s a lot more to come for us.”
