Celtic have kicked off the Scottish Premiership season in comfortable fashion, taking care of Ross County at Paradise by a 4-2 margin.
Goals from David Turnbull, Kyogo Furuhashi and Matt O’Riley contributed to the victory after some big selection calls from Brendan Rodgers prior to kick-off.
The manager opted for Turnbull over Reo Hatate in midfield, with new signing Maik Nawrocki getting the nod over established regular Carl Starfelt.
Those decisions undoubtedly paid off, with both starters impressing during their time on the pitch and attracting attention from BBC Sportsound’s pundits at Celtic Park.
Pat Bonner said of Turnbull’s display: “He’s played exceptionally well. An excellent performance. It’ll be interesting to see how Reo Hatate reacts to not starting.”
Michael Stewart said of the Scotland international: “Brendan Rodgers clearly likes David Turnbull. He wants to develop the guy. You’ve got to grab your chance. He’s making it very difficult for Rodgers to drop him.”
Meanwhile, Pat Nevin added on BBC Radio 5Live: “I don’t want to say he’s the same player, but David Turnbull arrived in the box from midfield like how Frank Lampard did. His timing is superb and that’s incredibly hard to pick up. He is lighting this place up here, it’s an incredible finish from the back-post too.”
Turnbull has certainly played himself into contention for another starting berth away to Aberdeen next weekend, too. As said above, it’ll be hard for Rodgers to move him out of the eleven on that showing.
He came through pre-season flying and the manager has managed to capitalise on that confidence at the right time. The player now has a big chance to re-ignite his Celtic career after a fairly disappointing 2022/23 campaign.
It’s great to see him up his game and hopefully it continues, making that midfield area increasingly competitive.
In other news, Nawrocki verdict, Kyogo’s new role; 3 things we learned as Celtic beat Ross County.
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