Darren O’Dea has put his neck on the line for one of Celtic’s inconsistent players to come good.
If there’s one thing that the team haven’t been this season, it’s consistent. Even under Martin O’Neill, you’ve just never known exactly what you’re going to get.
The team’s attacking numbers have fallen off a cliff this season, not least due to the team’s lack of creativity in wide areas.
But despite saying that he “lacks belief”, Darren O’Dea thinks that Sebastian Tounekti is worth sticking by.
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Darren O’Dea says Sebastian Tounekti can come good at Celtic
Initially asked on the Go Radio Football Show what he would change at Celtic, O’Dea said: “I would find a way of putting two players through the middle.
“Because they don’t have the wingers that they’ve had in the past.
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Daizen Maeda is clearly not in the form that he has been, but he’s not a player that, when you’re playing against a deep on the pitch, that can go and beat players when he doesn’t have space.
“Yang is not that type of player [either]. So they don’t have a Jota or a Kuhn that could last year. They could open up teams.
“And that’s what Celtic, invariably, were doing. What was happening was that (opposition) full-backs were getting tight with the wingers, [and] there [were] spaces then. That kind of half-space run.
“Celtic are predictable at the minute – so sometimes it’s as simple as: ‘We’ll put an extra body in the box, and just deliver’.
“I’m going to put my neck on the line and say [Tounekti] will come good. He will come good, I genuinely do think.
“I don’t know if it’ll be this year, but he’s the only one that looks like he can beat a man. One of the wingers can beat a man.
Does Sebastian Tounekti have a future beyond this season at Celtic?
“He just lacks belief. He lacks belief, and he lacks clarity in what he’s doing.”
Tounekti was a £3 million signing from Hammarby last summer, initially being described as a “Real Celtic winger” by Brendan Rodgers.
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