Brendan Rodgers left behind a pretty average Celtic squad.
It’s either that or the noise around how Celtic backed Rodgers in the summer affected their on-field performances and meant that players performed far worse than they actually are.
Now, Wilfried Nancy has only been in the building for a little while, so Celtic fans will find out the true answer to all of that in the coming months.
But Martin O’Neill’s interim spell did provide fans with hope, although Charlie Mulgrew isn’t so sure what he is seeing from Sebastian Tounekti.
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Charlie Mulgrew on Sebastian Tounekti’s form at Celtic
It could be argued that Tounekti looked pretty strong under Rodgers, and there was a quality player in there.
Speaking on Go Radio, Mulgrew described the Tunisia international as the ‘saviour’, but following Celtic’s defeat to Hearts on Sunday, he has changed his mind.
Mulgrew wasn’t so sure what he was seeing from Tounekti, who was hooked after the hour mark, as he felt that Kieran Tierney, as a left-sided centre-back, was the one providing the better attacking threat in Nancy’s new system.
“Tounekti, who looked like the saviour, he’s not looking like the same player now,” said Mulgrew.
“Even Yang, who had an effective performance against Hearts, in terms of workrate. He offered very little in the final third. First man crosses all the time. Kieran Tierney was the best attacking outlet.”
You have £20m to spend in the January transfer window. How are you spending it?
How Tounekti has rated in his last five Celtic starts
Celtic take on AS Roma on Thursday night in the Europa League, and now that Nancy has added a few more training sessions, as well as getting to see what the players are like in a game, it will be interesting to see if he sticks with Tounekti in the XI.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if the ball-carrying winger is benched, because O’Neill eventually started using him as a sub.
Tounekti’s last five starts:
- Vs Hearts: 6.4 WhoScored rating
- Vs St Mirren: 6.25 WhoScored rating
- Vs Kilmarnock: 6.77 WhoScored rating
- Vs FC Midtjylland: 6.46 WhoScored rating
- Vs Rangers: N/A rating
- Vs Falkirk: 8.6 WhoScored rating
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