All eyes were on who Martin O’Neill was going to start in between the sticks during Celtic’s clash against Hibernian on Sunday.
O’Neill decided to stick with Kasper Schmeichel despite his error-prone display against VfB Stuttgart in the Europa League on Thursday night.
But Chris Sutton thinks his former boss got it ‘wrong’, and he feels Viljami Sinisalo should have started Celtic’s defeat to Hibernian instead.
Whilst Celtic’s number one took the limelight for the wrong reasons in midweek, there were far more pressing issues against Hibs, as O’Neill suffered a first domestic defeat since returning to the dugout in Glasgow this season.
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Chris Sutton says Martin O’Neill was ‘wrong’ to start Kasper Schmeichel against Hibernian
It’s pretty clear that O’Neill won’t drop Schmeichel now because if there was any time to do it, then this was the game to do it.
But that hasn’t stopped Sutton from telling 606 on BBC Radio 5 Live that, if it were up to him, he would have started Sinisalo in goal.
The former Hoops striker wanted to make it clear that Schmeichel has been a ‘top, top’ keeper, but he clearly feels his time is up.
Sutton: “Is he (Schmeichel) the only one, though? (that needs to be looked at). That’s what I would say.
“Schmeichel is getting singled out. I agree, I think Sinisalo should have got the nod against Hibernian. Can I just say that I think Schmeichel has been a brilliant keeper. He has had a great career. Top, top goalkeeper.”
Robbie Savage: “What are you saying that Martin O’Neill got it wrong against Hibernian?”
Sutton: “Yeah.”
How Schmeichel has been rated by WhoScored this season
The issue with Schmeichel is that performance against Stuttgart wasn’t a surprise because the Celtic fans have seen it again and again this term.
At the age of 39, it’s pretty clear that he can no longer operate at the top level, and it has nothing to do with quality, but just age catching up with him.
The bigger problem, and perhaps fear facing the Celtic Park faithful, is the fact that more errors will occur if O’Neill keeps him between the sticks because it seems inevitable.
- Premiership games: 26
- Goals conceded: 26
- Clean Sheets: 12
- WhoScored rating: 6.64
- Europa League games: 9
- Goals conceded: 19
- Clean Sheets: 0
- WhoScored rating: 6.36
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