I´d love to emulate ´Jinky´ Johnstone

I’ve been fairly happy with my own form recently. It’s good to have had a fair run of games and I am enjoying my football a lot. I’ve changed my game a little bit – I’m now more direct. That’s the way the manager wants me to play. It’s best as a winger to be direct if you can be and to eliminate opponents and get to the byline and cross.

I do a lot of work in the gym and that benefits me on the pitch. Maybe in the past I didn’t feel like I had to use my pace - most of the time I can just nick the ball past an opponent - but the best way to play for the team is to look for a way of doing things directly. I know I’ve still got a long way to go but I feel I am adding bits and pieces to my game all the time.

Following the match with Benfica in the Champions League, when I had a very good game, I heard that there were some suggestions that my performance was in some ways reminiscent of Jimmy Johnstone. People can make comparisons all they want with Jimmy Johnstone but I know I’m nowhere near the achievements of a player such as that, a player who was voted the greatest Celtic player ever by the Celtic supporters. I’m still so far off his level – with time I would like to get somewhere close to that but I am well aware that that is something that will take a lot of work for me to achieve.

Massimo Donati, my team-mate, was also kind enough recently to suggest that one day I might emulate Kaka and win the Ballon d’Or for European Footballer of the Year. I think he was having a bit of a laugh but also being slightly serious as well. He has played with a lot of fantastic players, some of the best in the world, at Milan so it was good to hear such a thing from him but I’m not getting carried away yet. I’ve still got a long way to go.

It’s maybe fair to say, as the manager has suggested, that this season it has been all about channeling my talents in the right direction. Before, maybe the manager would get frustrated when I would take too many touches on the ball – it is now about running directly at opponents and using my a combination of pace and touch to get past them.

I’ve also been practising a bit on my finishing. It is good for a midfield player to get a fair share of goals and you can only do that with working on your finishing. Maybe in the past I’ve had five chances and scored from one of them so it has been a case of looking to improve on that. Having said that, last season I was going close but my shots on goal would often hit the post or the bar – this season they’ve been going in and long may that continue.