James Forrest’s evergreen qualities and his value to Celtic during title push

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Celtic winger James Forrest knows more than most about what it takes to edge Scottish Premiership titles over the line at Parkhead.

During his glittering career in Glasgow’s east end, the 32-year-old has won the league on 11 separate occasions, forming half of his outstanding haul of 22 trophies at the club.

By the end of this season, the Scotland international will hope to have added two more medals to his collection. However, his role under Brendan Rodgers has deviated slightly from the prominence he once enjoyed on flank for Celtic.

In this campaign, Forrest has featured 22 times across all competitions, registering three goals and one assist. Despite this, only three starts have come his way, with most of his involvement coming from the substitutes bench [Transfermarkt].

Clearly, he hasn’t lost his ability to drive at defenders and link the play; however, Rodgers did elude to his age as a reason to reserve the winger for short bursts of action during the latter stages of matches, simply stating last month: “Sadly age catches up with every player – or person for that matter.”

Taken from our 4-2 victory over Livingston in the Scottish Cup quarter-final, the Irishman also delved into where he believes Forrest’s talents can be utilised between now and the end of the season.

He elaborated, saying: “He still has the ability to make a contribution to the game. We saw that for 25 minutes on Sunday.

“You see the level of quality he has when we are sustaining the attacks and there’s maybe less running back. He’s a fantastic player, and it was a joy seeing the way he kept the ball and worked it.”

James Forrest can still have an influence at Celtic

Admittedly, the likes of Daizen Maeda, Nicolas Kuhn, Hyunjun Yang and Luis Palma are probably all ahead of Forrest in the pecking order, which is natural, as they are simply at a stage in their career where they can bear the brunt of match intensity over a number of months.

Per Transfermarkt, Forrest is now at 487 appearances for the club, with 105 goals and 102 assists claiming him a place in the Parkhead history books. How many players in dressing rooms across the world have a CV like that to compliment such a lengthy trophy haul?

Nobody is saying Forrest should be a nailed-on starter over any of the above; I am just trying to highlight that at a time when Celtic find themselves in the middle of a title battle with Rangers, the veteran winger isn’t a bad head to have in the dressing room due to his experience and wisdom gained over the years.

More often than not, Rodgers has brought Forrest off the bench to maintain in-game intensity, which he has done successfully of late.

He has recently claimed an assist against Livingston and a goal against St Johnstone, and he was also heavily involved in Adam Idah’s effort in our 3-0 home win over St Mirren last weekend, proving my point somewhat.

Japan international Maeda is now potentially out for the season, applying pressure to our other widemen to step up in his absence, coupled with added strain on their legs for the final stretch of league matches and potential extra cup action, should we progress to the Scottish Cup final against Aberdeen [Football Scotland].

With a reduced group of wingers to call upon, Forrest will have some form role to play in the run-in for Celtic.