Alistair Johnston knows there’s always been a demand for Celtic to play with a certain swashbuckling style.
The Canadian might not be aware though that legendary chairman Sir Robert Kelly in the 50s and 60s took it a step further by brining a bonus scheme for players if he felt the fans had been entertained. Playing the famous Celtic Way is in the club’s DNA but Johnston reckons the mantra needs a bit of a tweak when it comes to the Champions League. It’s more about finding another way when it comes to picking up points at the elite level.
But Johnston doesn’t think shifting style is an affront to the club’s ethos. In fact, the all action defender is convinced the other attributes needed when going up against the big boys is exactly the right way. Celtic had to show a few sides to their game the other night against Club Brugge. They had to hang tough in a first half where things were not going to plan. On another day they might have crumbled. That’s what happened on that dreadful seven goal drubbing in Dortmund earlier in the campaign.
But this is a different Celtic to the one left bashed and bruised by Borussia. It’s made of much tougher stuff now and they showed it again on Wednesday. The Hoops held firm, sorted it out and battled back to claim a point against the Belgians that could have been all three given the late push.
A draw was by no means a disaster and Johnston insisted it’s further evidence this Celtic side mean business in the Champions League. He said: “We talked about it after the (Dortmund) match. It’s such a cliche, but if you learn from it then maybe it’s not the worst thing for you.
“I do actually think we’ve learned from it. You saw in the Atalanta match we were really comfortable sitting in a 4-4-2 block or whatever and absorbing pressure.
“You look at all the top teams, Arsenal for example, were perfectly comfortable going away from home and using a 4-4-2 block. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. You are playing these top teams, it’s the highest level for a reason.
“You are going to have to defend at some point. It’s not being naive or not being the ‘Celtic Way’. It IS the Celtic way. You defend, you dig in, and you find a way to get a result. That’s something we’ve shown this year that gives us a lot of confidence. No matter who we are playing, we can do what’s needed to get a result.”
They managed to get one the other night – even if they did desire all three at kick-off. Johnston said: “I think at the Champions League level, any point is a good point. Even though it was at home, it’s probably a sign of how far we’ve come that we were disappointed we were not at our best.
“If we had been at our best, the possibility of three points was there. At the same time, when you go in at half-time 1-0 down and having not played your best football, you know you are mature enough and confident in the system to make a tactical adjustment and go out and find and equalisers – and push for a winner. That’s something we have definitely grown into.”
It was hard graft mind you – and it needed some running repairs. The sight of Kasper Schmeichel holding an emergency conference on the pitch after Cameron Carter-Vickers’ own goal was dramatic but effective.
Johnston said: “Yeah, I think that was the right moment for it. We were a little bit all over the place. They were pressing a little higher than we were expecting and even then I don’t think we were making the in-game adjustments we needed.
“It was about calling everyone in, calming everything down. Again, no one was really shell-shocked or anything. It was just about taking a deep breath and playing through this. If they were going to do that then let’s use our front men, use our pace, and put some fear into them.
“I do think we picked it up and it was a much better second half to give us the result we really needed. We need to get as many points as possible so I don’t think anyone could be too disappointed with a point.”
It could be a huge point in the end with Celtic edging closer to the magic number needed to make sure they progress from the group.
That’s eight on the board now after five games, with three more to come and two or three more needed to just about guarantee a berth in the new look play-off stage after the New Year. Celts face a trip to Dinah Zagreb before – with the Croatians also looking for a win to get through – before Young Boys Bern head to Scotland in January before the campaign finale against Aston Villa in Birmingham.
It’s all in their own hands but Johnston said: “That’s the funny thing with the table. Every match matters. Even if you get through all of a sudden you get Real Madrid in the next round and you are kicking yourself for not getting enough points. We’re just taking it match by match and we’re not looking at the table. It’s up to others who are smarter than me to work out the permutations.
“We have three matched to go, how many points can we pick up? It’s three chances to play at the premier level. You never know how many Champions League matches you are going to get, you can never just think you have it in the bag. None of that is going on here.”