John Hartson names 2 Celtic players who will get ‘better’ as a result of European exit

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John Hartson thinks Hyunjun Yang and Hyeongyu Oh will get ‘better’ from Celtic getting knocked out of the Champions League by Lazio.

It was another humbling lesson for Celtic. Last season, it was Ange Postecoglou in the dugout and now it’s Brendan Rodgers. 

Celtic went into last night’s game knowing they had to win, instead, they suffered a 2-0 defeat and that after Lazio’s best player, Ciro Immobile, didn’t even start the game – Alan Brazil slammed the striker for his actions during the match.

There isn’t a quick fix here and John Hartson mentioned the young players on the pitch ‘getting better from these experiences’, including Hyunjun Yang, who started the game, and Hyeongyu Oh, who came on as a sub, as he told TNT Sports (28/11/23 at 7:30 pm). 

On the domestic stage, the Bhoys can get away with having injuries or not putting out the strongest XI.

But the team can’t afford such situations in Europe, with the likes of Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda proving to be huge misses.

Either way, John Hartson was pretty sombre when Celtic were crashing out of Europe yesterday.

Celtic defeat to Lazio

“Celtic were well in the game up until 75 minutes,” said Hartson. “The first goal came in the 82nd minute from Immobile.

“I know Brendan (Rodgers) is looking to strengthen. He still has got a lot of young players out there, the likes of Yang and Oh, who will get better from these experiences.

“But that’s Celtic lost three of their away games. And they certainly need to look at that. But we have been looking at that for years and years. Our record in the Champions League, away from home, is not the best, to say the least. 

“It’s also conceding the late goals. The breakaway against Lazio when we going for the winner – two late goals.”

Forget about performances

This was said last season. The performances were great, the start against Real Madrid, the performance at home to Lazio this term etc…

Yes, that’s all great. But it’s the end result that matters, especially when the same old story keeps playing out.

You can’t just blame Rodgers here because this is a long-term problem.

In some cases, you look at it and think that it can’t get any worse.

Well, lose to Feyenoord or fail to beat them during the final group game, then it really is worse than the previous campaign.