Celtic require tactic tweak after Taylor exit reckons Alistair Johnston

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The Celtic Star

·7 August 2025

Celtic require tactic tweak after Taylor exit reckons Alistair Johnston

Alistair Johnston has insisted Brendan Rodgers will have to tweak the side tactically following the departure of Greg Taylor…

Greg Taylor. Photo PAOK

With Taylor moving on to Greek side PAOK this summer and Kieran Tierney returning to Celtic, Rodgers no longer has the option of relying on the former Hoops left-back coming inside and playing as an inverted full-back.

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A minor dilemma is that the team loses the additional midfield presence created by an overlapping full-back, as that is quite clearly not a role suited to either Tierney or Johnston.

Kieran Tierney of Celtic Celtic v St Mirren, Scottish Premiership, , Celtic Park, 3 August 2025. Photo Stuart Wallace, IMAGO / Shutterstock (The Celtic Star)

So often last season, and in campaigns previous, Taylor’s effectiveness of drifting into the middle of the pitch which created chances and goals for his teammates went under-appreciated.

Although Tierney’s dynamism and one v one defending will add more security to Celtic’s backline and forward play, he has never played in that type of inverted full-back role for Celtic, Arsenal, Real Sociedad or Scotland.

Now, Celtic defender Alistair Johnston concedes that this matter will require conversation and a solution. “We’re going to have a bit of a tactical thing to figure out in terms of Greg was an inverting fullback,” the Canadian said via The Herald.

Anthony Ralston of Celtic FC in action during the Como Cup match between Ajax and Celtic FC at Giuseppe Sinigaglia Stadium on July 24, 2025 in Como, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

“Me, Tony [Ralston] and Kieran definitely are not. So we’ll see in terms of what the gaffer is going to plan around how we’re going to do that.”

“Kieran kind of joked it’ll be rock, paper, scissors to see who has to do it. But no, we’ll figure that out. I think there’s a world where we both play kind of as more traditional fullbacks and we find that extra number in the midfield in another way.”

Alistair Johnston of Celtic blocks a shot on the Celtic goal line. Celtic v St Mirren, Scottish Premiership, Celtic Park, – 3 August 2025. Photo Stuart Wallace, IMAGO / Shutterstock (The Celtic Star)

Johnston added: “In the past couple of years, I haven’t been inverting but the positions that I take up when the ball is on the other side are still technically inverted positions to a degree compared to what a normal fullback would do.”

“I wasn’t doing what Greg Taylor was doing, who was literally just standing in the middle But when you watch him, he was unbelievable at it, how he moved off the back of the winger and found space.”

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