Tomoki Iwata has admitted that he will need give everything and more to reach the levels of Callum McGregor.

The Celtic captain made his 402nd appearance for the club in the 4-1 victory away to St Johnstone and constantly sets the standards which every other player in the squad follows.

Iwata arrived during the January transfer window having been named the best player in the J-League but that wasn’t enough to displace McGregor. The former Yokohama F Marinos midfielder has admitted that the 29-year-old is on a far higher level than him.

Ange Postecoglou has signed a number of players who would typically play in the pivot role but none are yet to really work out at Parkhead as Yosuke Ideguchi and Oliver Abildgaard both left the club during the January window.

Having signed Iwata when he was in charge of Yokohama, he is player that he knows well and has slowly introduced him into the team having made two appearances off the bench so far with bulk of his minutes coming in the second half against Greenock Morton in the Scottish Cup.

Saturday’s contest in the competition against St Mirren may again be the perfect opportunity for Iwata to get some gametime but he knows in himself that he needs to get up to speed quickly.

“I knew if I wanted to play in European football, I would have to play as a holding midfielder. That’s where the manager used me at Yokohama,” said Iwata as quoted by the [Daily Record].

“It’s been about a month since I came here, but the speed and intensity of play is different from Japan, and even the ball and pitches are all different. The reality is I can’t do as well as I did in Japan because we have Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate who all start games and they all have something special that they can do…and I don’t. So I want to gradually get used to it and play more matches.

“My strengths as a holding midfielder are tackling and breaking up moves. But in this Celtic team, you need to have something extra. Here we have players who can create the tempo of an attack and distribute passes, for example, Callum McGregor.

“Callum McGregor is the heart of the team and the captain. I think the bar is set very high for me to be able to compete with him. But I have my own way of developing. Even if I don’t play in as many games, there are things I can learn from him in training.

“When I see how he passes the ball, or how he makes a change of tempo, he is very consistent, which is something I lack. I think it’s important to learn that in a short time and evolve into a player who can do something when he has the ball.

“A large part of my motivation to sign for Celtic was to play in the Champions League and I would love to do that next season and I will keep fighting to improve my game here.”

It’s a very honest admission from the 24-year-old midfielder but it’s now all about getting to work and showing the manager why he should be in his thoughts as players know they will always get an opportunity under Postecoglou.