Jozo Simunovic’s game-time has increased under Neil Lennon, but he believes it should’ve done long before that.
Simunovic made 21 appearances this season under Brendan Rodgers. But, despite that, he believes that he should’ve been featuring more regularly under the new Leicester City manager instead.
Rodgers’ number one centre-back pairing was Dedryck Boyata and Kristoffer Ajer during his time at the club. But at times this season, particularly during the first half, Filip Benkovic was a regular too.
That left Simunovic as the fourth-choice centre-back before injuries gave him his opportunity. And speaking in the Daily Record, Simunovic feels he was hard done by under Rodgers regarding his playing time.
“When you’re not in the team, then it’s just a case of keep going and keep working. You have to be ready when the chance might come and that is what has happened with me.
“I believe that I should have played at some points even before the new manager came into the club, but I couldn’t change that. Now that I’m in the team, I have to keep going the right way.
“If you look in the past, I haven’t played as much, but I have come back and playing well again.”
Opportunity has been seized
To be fair to Rodgers here, Lennon didn’t exactly initially fancy Simunovic either. Lennon continued with the Boyata-Ajer partnership in his first few matches in charge.
Indeed, it was only after the injury to the Belgian that opportunity opened up for the Bosnian. Boyata pulled up against Rangers, and it doesn’t look as though he’ll be playing for the club again given his contract situation.
Added to that, Lennon doesn’t seem to fancy the loan players at Celtic. Benkovic, Jeremy Toljan, Oliver Burke, and Timothy Weah haven’t been regulars. In fact, the quartet have been rarely seen in recent weeks.
Benkovic, therefore, hasn’t been getting the game-time he may have done under Lennon had he been here permanently. So the door opened up nicely for Simunovic, and he’s taken his chance in convincing fashion.
He’s managed five consecutive clean sheets alongside Ajer, and is proving to be a solid choice for next season at this rate. He’ll have bigger tests to come at Pittodrie and Ibrox in the coming weeks, and it will be a big chance to prove his worth for the cup final.
And whether he should’ve played beforehand or not, he’s fair impressing now.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
