Celtic have been told to sign a wide man in January who will be a familiar foe to many of the Hoops’ supporters once the winter window opens.
Celtic collapse at Kilmarnock…
Last Sunday, Celtic engineered their own problems at Rugby Park and fell to a surprising 2-1 defeat at Kilmarnock despite Matt O’Riley’s opening strike, as a Nat Phillips own-goal followed by a Matty Kennedy winner turned the tide against the Scottish Premiership champions in Ayrshire.
Truth be told, the hosts deserved their victory on the day and managed to subdue Brendan Rodgers’ side for more or less the entirety of the second half, which ensured that the Glasgow giants remain just five points clear of rivals Rangers in the league standings.
In his post-match press conference, boss Rodgers bemoaned the second half display as a reason why his side ended up second best at Rugby Park, stating via STV News: “In the second half, we never got started. You expect a wee bit of pressure for 10 or 15 minutes, which we weathered at set-pieces and corners. But we never passed the ball.”
He then added: “We were under a bit more pressure, sure, but you have to be resistant to that pressure. We weren’t able to make passes to take us up the pitch and that was the biggest disappointment of the second half. We couldn’t sustain any attacking threat in the game.”
Nevertheless, nothing is won or lost at this stage of the campaign and the Hoops will now compete in their final Champions League fixture against Feyenoord at Parkhead before facing Heart of Midlothian at home next weekend in the Scottish Premiership.
Now, one journalist has made a surprise recommendation regarding a player that he believes Celtic should look to target as they seek reinforcements.
Bill Leckie says Celtic should target Danny Armstrong
According to journalist Bill Leckie, writing for Sunsport, Celtic should target Kilmarnock winger Danny Armstrong, who laid on the assist for Kennedy’s winner at Rugby Park.
Luis Palma vs Danny Armstrong in 2023/24 – Scottish Premiership (via WhoScored) | |
Luis Palma | Danny Armstrong |
Goals – 5 | Goals – 3 |
Assists – 6 | Assists – 5 |
Shots per game – 2.8 | Shots per game – 2.8 |
Key passes per game – 2.8 | Key passes per game – 3.3 |
Completed dribbles per game – 1.8 | Completed dribbles per game – 1.4 |
Average match rating – 7.67 | Average match rating – 7.29 |
In his column, the reporter claims that Armstrong’s impressive performance brought more to the table than Hoops’ winger Luis Palma, also criticising Oh Hyeon-gyu and Yang Hyun-jun. At the same time, he also indicated that Celtic should look to snap up the winger due to his creativity, pace and the unique talent of being able to take long throw-ins.
Without a doubt, Armstrong, who has previously been labelled “different class” by Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes, is a talented player that deserves credit for establishing himself as a key asset at Rugby Park.
Nevertheless, his performance shouldn’t be artificially conflated to convey that he is automatically good enough to start for a club such as Celtic, who, as a consequence of being the dominant team in Scotland, expect their star men to perform at an extremely high level every single week, which is probably why they spent £3.5 million on someone of Palma’s ilk to produce the goods.
