BBC pundit Michael Stewart has encouraged Neil Lennon to pinpoint the big games so that Scott Brown can flourish in his “huge” role this season.
Brown has taken part in all of Celtic’s 16 competitive matches this term, but hasn’t started in two of the club’s last three domestic matches.
Indeed, the iconic Hoops captain was only brought on for the final eight minutes against St Johnstone several weeks ago, before again starting on the bench vs Aberdeen and only featuring for the last 20.
However, in both of those games, Celtic have struggled to impress whilst Brown has been on the bench. And speaking in comments published on the BBC’s official website, Stewart believes the Parkhead legend still has a massive role to play this season as he urged Lennon to find the games he needs his captain to play in.
“A lot of the focus before the game (vs Aberdeen), and after as well given how it panned out, was the decision to rest Scott Brown from the start. He is at the age where you can’t expect him to be playing 60-plus games a season, 90 minutes after 90 minutes. The management have to tailor how often he plays and when – and it’s just so noticeable because it’s off the back of two defeats.
“They need to plot out the calendar and look at the games where he can step away for a rest and target the games he can make an impact. If not, it diminishes the presence he has. Even if he’s playing 35 games, he can have a huge role to play.
“Celtic have such a difficult run, it’s so hard to pick what would have been the best game to leave him out. Had they beaten Aberdeen, fans would have been saying “that worked out well”. It’s just unfortunate they’ve got so many difficult games back to back.”
Brown’s absence not necessarily the issue
As much as Brown has always been a key influence in Celtic’s dressing room – 21 competition wins will do that for you – his absence hasn’t cost us this year.
It’s so simple to look at games where Brown hasn’t started where we’ve struggled and think to yourself “well we were clearly missing him”. But how can you watch our game against Aberdeen yesterday and feel we needed him in there?
The goals we lost at the back were all individual mistakes that should’ve been snuffed out. Brown wouldn’t have done anything to stop Olivier Ntcham from barging Lewis Ferguson over in the box. He also wouldn’t have done anything to stop Shane Duffy from giving the ball away for the second.
Besides, he had already been subbed on when Celtic were 3-2 up anyway. He was one of the players Scott Wright jinked past in the build-up to Aberdeen’s second penalty and third goal of the game.
This isn’t a go at our captain, but let’s not pretend the two points were dropped yesterday because he was sitting on the bench. Lennon is right to start the process of phasing him out given his age and need to find a replacement.
So far, nobody has stepped up to the plate to do just that. That’s the real crux of the matter.
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