With the international break entering its second and final week, the Celtic fans are looking forward to the domestic action resuming against Hearts at Celtic Park.
Brendan Rodgers has the opportunity to extend his lead at the top of the table this coming weekend should Rangers drop any more points at Tannadice on Saturday lunchtime.
After that, Celtic see Champions League duty kick off against Slovan Bratislava on the 18th of September as Rodgers enters into the busiest period of the calendar.
With hopes amongst many fans that Celtic can progress in the tournament, Mikael Lustig has named two players who will be crucial to the Hoops qualifying from the league stage of the tournament.
McGregor and Forrest’s Champions League importance
There is no doubt that Brendan Rodgers has sought to strengthen Celtic this summer with the Champions League in mind.
But Lustig believes that the Celtic old guard of James Forrest and Callum McGregor is just as important to his old club’s chances of progressing this season as well as the new summer additions.
Lustig told the Daily Record, “If you take Jamesy [Forrest], I spoke with him a lot. He probably felt like his Celtic career might have been coming to an end.
“But it’s football, it is crazy. He wasn’t involved in the squads for a while and might have gone away. But suddenly you start playing again.
“The way he started pre-season, he was just flying and it is really important to have those sort of players in the group who have been there a while, such as Jamesy and Callum [McGregor].
“When I came to Celtic I felt we had a lot of those boys. Maybe we don’t have so many now, so you look even more to Cal and Jamesy.”
Celtic’s experienced players will be vital
Lustig is spot on with his assertion here. Whilst having the quality of £9.5m Adam Idah and £11m Arne Engels will seriously help Celtic’s chances, their experience at this level is minimal.
Not only will Forrest and McGregor be important to Rodgers, but so will the experience of Kasper Schmeichel.
Youth and skill are great but when the pressure is on and Rodgers needs players to dig in, having stalwarts like these three players will be more valuable to Celtic than the £30m of talent that was added during this summer’s transfer window.
Schmeichel may only have played eight games in the Champions League but he has also faced some of the world’s top strikers in the Premier League week in and week out as well as his extensive international experience with Denmark.
So to draw on that will be worth its weight in gold for Brendan Rodgers in the coming months.
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