Celtic right-back Alistair Johnston has been raving about one of his younger Hoops teammates.
The Canadian defender returned to the lineup at the weekend against Motherwell in a mask. When the hosts went 1-0 up, however, he immediately removed it, later admitting that it distorted his peripheral vision and that he felt that it needed to go.
When he did play with a free face, Johnston was much better. He got up and down the right-hand side with ease, assisting Adam Idah for the Celts’ crucial go-ahead goal.
Much of his productivity in the second 45 came in partnership with winger Yang. The South Korean wide-man came on with around half an hour to go and made quite the impact.
He too set a goal up, sliding the ball across the face for Luis Palma to tap home. Many Celtic fans have rightly called for the 21-year-old to start tonight’s match against Dundee, and Johnston has been impressed by him since he moved to Glasgow.
Signed from Gangwon FC last summer, the South Korean internationalist has struggled to find consistency in Glasgow in terms of minutes, but he has been hailed by a senior member of the squad: “Yang is an extremely talented footballer”, said Johnston (Celtic FC on YouTube).
“He’s really young, I want to say he’s 21 or something but when he can get that end product and that consistency to his game he’s going to be a top, top winger. He’s shown flashes of it.
“For a player coming here in his first year in a foreign language, foreign country, I think he’s done really well.
“It’s not an easy club to come into (Celtic), especially when you’re trying to fill the shoes of someone like Jota, for example.
“I think he’s actually done a really good job and we’ll see what the next couple of months hold for him.”
All indications point towards Yang getting the nod against Dundee this evening. He was effective off the bench a few days ago, and much more impactful than what other Celtic wingers have in recent times.
Johnston has clearly been taken aback by his talents and still at the tender age of 21, Yang has much more time, and room, for future development.
