In a night where every Celtic player shone, Pat Bonner has lauded one of Brendan Rodgers’ players for his brilliant performance against Atalanta in the Champions League.
Not many people will have tipped Celtic to get anything in Italy last night but Rodgers’ team defied all the odds as the Hoops delivered a defensive masterclass to earn a draw against Atlanta.
To a man, every Celtic player put in a great performance in Bergamo but Pat Bonner pinpointed one who put his body on the line to ensure the Hoops left Italy with a positive Champions League result.
Bonner lauds ‘brilliant’ Auston Trusty in Celtic’s Atalanta draw
In only his fifth start of the season, Auston Trusty stood out in the heart of the Celtic defence last night and Bonner praised the American for putting ‘his head in where it hurts’ in the Gewiss Stadium.
Bonner told The Scottish Football Podcast, “Brendan talks about him being an aggressive manager always. I think that was the word he used yesterday.
“What does that aggression mean from him on the ball? Yes, when you want to go and attack teams, but you also from an aggressive point of view of defending, and that means then that you have to keep going and keep going right up until the last minute of the game.
“And when you’re really, really tired, that’s when you have to be kind of almost fighting that tiredness and keeping your head going and so on. And you’ve got to give great credit to the players.
“The manager can only do what he can do but the players have got to go on the pitch and do it, and they did it well tonight
“Trusty was brilliant tonight heading the ball and that’s what they have to do centre-halves. You know, you can get on the ball and do all of that and be comfortable doing that, but when it comes to defending, you’ve got to put your head in where it hurts.”
What people are saying about Auston Trusty’s performance for Celtic vs Atalanta
The US defender is the talk of the town after his Champions League performance in Italy last night. The Celtic fans labelled Trusty as ‘outstanding’ and who now ‘looks like a Celtic player’.
Chris Sutton pinpointed the Celtic defender in his post-match praise for his ‘last-ditch defending’ and said Trusty was ‘excellent’ in beside Liam Scales.
Costing Celtic £6m in the summer, it’s fair to say that Trusty paid back a massive chunk of that fee with his brilliant defensive display against one of the best-attacking teams in Italy.
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