Last night’s Celtic team against Lazio certainly raised a few eyebrows amongst the Celtic supporters.
But in fairness to Brendan Rodgers, injuries to key players like Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda coupled with a suspension to Luis Palma did force his hand to pick players that might not have come into his reckoning.
Starting James Forrest was one that the Celtic manager couldn’t avoid. To get a result in Rome, Forrest’s experience was deemed crucial. The Celtic winger scored an equaliser in the famous 2-1 win in Rome the last time Celtic travelled there.
However, it was the exclusion of David Turnbull that was the surprising selection and deemed a mistake by former Celtic hero, Peter Grant.
So what exactly does Turnbull need to do to get picked regularly under Brendan Rodgers? Craig Moore believes he has the answer.
Moore said [The Go Radio Football Show], “For me, Turnbull, I think the thing that is working against him is probably his mobility. Box to box he’s not really that type.
“He does take up fantastic positions in an attacking sense when Celtic have the ball and we know he likes to get shots off from distance and he’s very accurate in terms of he hits the target a lot.
“I just think that his mobility in the way that maybe Brendan wants to play has been something that has not seen him get the amount of minutes that he would have liked.”
MORE CELTIC STORIES
David Turnbull’s fitness at Celtic is called into question
This is not the first time that Turnbull’s fitness has been pinpointed as a reason why he can’t get regular game time under Brendan Rodgers.
Chris Sutton believes that Turnbull is too far into his career to be able to improve enough to play for Celtic.
Former Rangers striker, Kenny Miller also highlighted that the 24-year-old doesn’t do enough running in the midfield to command a place in Rodgers’ side.
And despite being labelled as a ‘wonderful talent‘ Michael Stewart also highlighted in the recent 1-1 draw with Motherwell that the Celtic midfielder needs to get fitter.
There is no doubt about Turnbull’s quality but with Brendan Rodgers demanding a high-intensity style of football, maybe Turnbull doesn’t have what the Celtic manager is looking for to be able to sustain a regular place in the Celtic team.
In other news, Growing belief £25m player wants to return to Glasgow, Celtic move is possible