Alistair Johnston has been a solid signing for Celtic.
The Canadian joined the club in January 2022 and since then he has won five winner’s medals at Celtic including a record-breaking treble.
Johnston has carved up a great relationship with Nicolas Kuhn on the right flank of the Hoops attack but it’s another Celtic first-team player who has left the fullback blown away after reading the data on his performances so far this season.
Alistair Johnston is blown away by Celtic man’s ‘off the charts’ GPS data
Johnston told the Sunday Mail [print edition page 60], “Daizen does that and the rest of us feed off it as you saw the other night when he got us back in the game.
“All the guys in the team cover a lot of ground. Just look at the kilometres Callum McGregor does, it’s amazing.
“But I look at the GPS data a lot and Daizen’s is off the charts. When you see the number of sprints he makes you’d need to sleep in an ice bath to recover.
“His hamstrings must be made of something different to everyone else’s because that’s not normal muscle.
“I can’t imagine how sore you’d be from all that sprinting. That explosive power to hit top speed is what causes most wear-and-tear injuries – yet he’s doing it for 90 minutes every three days.
It’s a trait that’s almost unique in world football. The man’s a unicorn.
Daizen Maeda’s Champions League data has Celtic hero equal to Jeremie Frimpong
Maeda is best known for his relentless press and pace during his time at Celtic. In truth, there is not many players who can keep up with the winger.
In fact, such is the speed of the Japan international, Maeda is in the bracket of the top 20 fastest players in Europe according to UEFA’s Champions League data.
With a minimum one more game left to play in this season’s campaign, it’s great to see two Celtic players mixing it up with the big boys of Europe’s elite.
