Chris Sutton raises what he says are “puzzling” Celtic issues

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Chris Sutton is concerned about the depth of the Celtic squad and has raised concerns about the impact of Brendan Rodgers’ summer signings.

Hyunjun Yang, Odin Thiago Holm and Hyeongyu Oh all came off the bench on Wednesday night to make a big impact against St Mirren.

However, Sutton reckons some of the fringe Bhoys should be making a more sustained push into Rodgers’ plans and is worried that recent arrivals don’t seem to be in the picture at all.

The former Celtic striker said [Daily Record]: “The likes of Turnbull have to force their way into the manager’s thinking. Same goes for Paulo Bernardo. He played well coming on against Atletico Madrid but apparently that 80-odd minutes burst him for a week as he had to come off at Easter Road and wasn’t seen against St Mirren.

“That seems strange to me but there are other puzzling issues. Like, what’s happened to Gustaf Lagerbielke? Where is Maik Nawrocki? Both are supposedly fit but nowhere near the squad, with Lagerbielke keeping Starfelt out of the Sweden team yet not getting stripped for Celtic.

“It just seems that 12 months on, some of the players are not at the level yet that Rodgers will want. Luis Palma has shown encouraging signs but he’s not a Jota. Yang has skills but is he a better replacement than Haksabanovic? Not yet.”

Context needed when it comes to Celtic new Bhoys

Some of the assessments are a little harsh here. Palma and Yang need time to prove themselves rather than be compared to players of the past – and Sead Haksabanovic was hardly a standout for Celtic anyway.

Maik Nawrocki is coming back from an injury and Liam Scales is rightly keeping his place in the team ahead of Gustaf Lagerbielke.

In Bernardo’s case, he put in big shift against Atletico having not played much. It would have been nice to see him play better at Easter Road but nobody covered themselves in glory there.

For me, a little patience is required with some of these players. Some of them won’t make it as Celtic regulars but some of them will undoubtedly have a role to play. Just ten or so games into their careers in Glasgow, it’s far too early to make big determinations about their quality.

In other news, Brendan Rodgers’ latest Lennoxtown comments bode well for Celtic.