Pundit Sends Warning to Celtic Stars With One Player Ready to Step in

Peter Grant has expressed his concern over the performances of Celtic wingers Hyunjun Yang and Luis Palma, claiming that James Forrest should have started ahead of them at the weekend.

Despite Celtic’s eventual victory after penalties, Grant feels that Yang and Palma have not been delivering to the expected standards.

Palma has recently taken to Instagram to reflect on his own performances, acknowledging that they were substandard, and vowing to improve.

Grant highlighted Forrest’s impact after coming off the bench and changing the Game’s dynamics, suggesting that Forrest’s experience and recent form might make him a better starting option. This critique comes amidst Celtic’s push towards crucial fixtures, where every player’s contribution is under scrutiny.

As quoted by Football Scotland, Peter Grant said: “Before the suspension at Hearts, he had found his Game and was playing well. Since he’s come back from that, he’s not been near the levels he was showing then. It’s the same with Luis Palma. That’s why I thought James Forrest would have started.

“I know James gets criticism but it was ironic, I thought his best period of the Game was when he was on the left hand side. When he switched to the right hand side and Palma went on the left, I thought we started to lose the flow again. That was the difficulty we had, we let too many crosses into the box and that was playing to Aberdeen’s strengths.

“James made a big impact when he came on, Celtic were on the front foot, but Palma and Yang have not done enough in the last few weeks to warrant playing in front of James. We don’t know if he’s carrying injuries, I know James had problems before. So maybe Brendan sees that he’s more effective coming on rather than starting, which leaves him with Yang and Palma at this moment in time.”

It’s hard to argue with Grant’s point, however, James Forrest can’t start every match and play a significant amount of minutes in the run-in. He simply doesn’t have the legs to do so. So, it’s over to Yang and Palma to step up to the plate in Maeda’s absence.