By support

1st Apr, 2018 | 4:18pm

Celtic senior player cannot be trusted to play out of position against better teams

COMMENT

After being out of the side for a few weeks, Celtic senior player Mikael Lustig returned to the Hoops starting line-up for the match against Ross County on Saturday.

Interestingly enough, the 31-year-old didn’t play in his usual right-back role, and played as a centre-back as part of a three man central defence.

However, whilst playing the Swedish international is all well and good against the team that is bottom of the Scottish Premiership, he cannot be trusted to play in that position against the better teams – such as Rangers in the upcoming Scottish Cup semi-final, for example.

The Hoops are in a bit of a defensive quandary for the semi-final. The one certainty is that Krisoffer Ajer will start, but Brendan Rodgers has a big decision to make on who will partner the Norwegian, and what system to play at the back.

Jack Hendry is ineligible for the game, Dedryck Boyata seems to have lost the manager’s faith in him after being substituted at half-time against Ross County, and Jozo Simunovic has been in poor form and had to deal with being sent-off against Rangers.

Whilst the options outlined above may not be the most appealing, the likes of Boyata and Simunovic are better options than Lustig, as they are actual central defenders, for a start.

Lusitg might well feature in the semi-final, perhaps at right-back, but he can’t play at centre back, it is dicing with danger.

In other Celtic news, Brendan Rodgers was furious at a challenge on Scott Brown in the game v Ross County

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