Celtic’s Croatian right-back Josip Juranovic had yet to play since returning to Glasgow after his heroics for his country at the World Cup in Qatar where he was lauded around the world for his standout performances.
But it was a surprise to many that he did not start the game today as many fans and pundits alike expected him to do, with Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou preferring to give Canadian World Cup star Alistair Johnston his debut in the derby today.
If you’ve read any of my stuff over the last few days, you would have read that I fancied Johnston to star today, due to the fact he has apparently impressed in training and he seemed to have the right temperament and physical attributes for the game today.
In fairness, I thought he had a solid game today. Not outstanding as he stood too far off Kent to let him score their first goal, but I thought he looked very comfortable overall and did tremendously well to get back to stop their counter attack as Sakala was bursting through on goal.
Juranovic did however end up coming on, but surprisingly, it was at left-back as he replaced the injured Greg Taylor midway through the first half.
I’ll write more about this later, but it was a shocking mistake from Ange to do that.
First of all, yes, Juranovic has covered in that position before, but he’ not a natural left back and Ange said himself pre-game that Juranovic wan”t fully fit.
So instead of brining on a natural left-back in Bernabei, he put on a half-fit right-back instead.
As I said, it was a huge mistake from Ange as Juranovic had his worst display of his Celtic career as he got absolutely torched by Sakala time and time again.
Not a good look when you have just pocketed Vinicius Jr at the World Cup and have been linked with moves to Chelsea and Barcelona!
But again, he can only really take half the blame because he’s not a left back and Ange shouldn’t have put him on there, especially when not fully fit and probably with his mind elsewhere considering all the talk of a move away for him.
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Juranavic and Starfelt were like Laurel and Hardy and it’s not funny if you are a Celtic Supporter