Even in the midst of an injury crisis, Ange Postecoglou still can’t bring himself to invest his faith in Celtic midfielder James McCarthy.
Celtic went to St Mirren last night and slumped to a dreadful 0-0 stalemate. With David Turnbull out with a hamstring knock, Postecoglou again turned to Nir Bitton to take up his role.
Not for the first time, summer-signing McCarthy was left rooted to the bench. And once again, James didn’t even make an appearance from it despite Celtic struggling for the entire 90 minutes. Even when the manager is desperate, he’s still refusing to turn to the former Crystal Palace man.
Instead, Josip Juranovic, Liam Shaw, and Greg Taylor all came on to try and change the game. And as for McCarthy, his snub last night made it 11 out of the last 12 league games in which Postecoglou hasn’t given him a minute of action.
McCarthy’s last appearance for Celtic was a workmanlike outing against Real Betis a fortnight ago. But Postecoglou has been doing his damnest not to select him. A worrying sign for the former Palace midfielder, with the purpose of signing him coming into sharp focus.
To pur it into perspective, Celtic were missing 11 players last night. It looked like the ideal moment to give McCarthy a runout. See if he can dictate games for the club and use the opportunity to show what kind of impact he can make here.
James McCarthy’s Celtic opportunities don’t look like coming anytime soon
That Postecoglou didn’t even give him that opportunity tells its own story. This isn’t a player the manager is overly keen on. In fact, when all of our players are available, you would be surpised to even see him in matchday squads.
McCarthy would’ve looked at the festive schedule as an opportunity. A chance to stake a claim for more regular minutes. It looked for all the world as if that’s exactly what was going to happen. But instead, he’s often sat on the bench and watched the fixtures fly by.
When he signed, the idea certainly wasn’t for him to play back-up to Bitton. The fact he is shows exactly what kind of impact he’s making in training. It’s getting to the stage now where you struggle to see where McCarthy’s opportunity is going to come from. Missing out on the Christmas schedule is damning for him.
It’s not as if he’s going to be drafted in out of nowhere at McDiarmid Park on Sunday either. And when Turnbull returns from injury, it’ll be even more difficult for him to break into the squad.
It’s looking more and more likely that McCarthy won’t make any sort of impression this season. Yes, we have the second half of the campaign to go, but can you honestly see him being utilised in the title run-in?
Last night’s omission given the injury woes we had summed the situation up. Ange clearly doesn’t trust McCarthy.
In other news, Pat Bonner provides hard-hitting “not good enough” verdict after Celtic slump
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