Replacing a fan favourite is never an easy task, every mistake is seized on and compared with how your predecessor would have fared.
Henri Camara had the task of replacing Henrik Larsson and barely lasted half a season before moving back to England, Teemu Pukki didn’t get close to taking over from Gary Hooper.
There are plenty of other examples around with Boli Bolingoli having the near impossible task of taking over at left-back from Kieran Tierney.
A couple of games into his Celtic career he found himself up against the champions of Romania with Lewis Morgan in front of him. True the former Rapid Vienna man gave away possession within the first 20 seconds and was the last man chasing back when Cluj opened the scoring but while the game was in motion Celtic released news that a deal had been agreed with Arsenal to sell Tierney.
The criticism of Bolingoli was relentless.
The importance of considering all the data not remembering a couple of moments, part 251.
Bolingoli at HT v Motherwell
Led team in recoveries – 9
Led team in completed passes – 23
Led team in progressive runs – 3
Led team in Total Impect – 57Just for balance like…..
— celticbynum8ers (@Alan_Morrison67) August 12, 2019
For anyone new to Scottish football a trip to the ‘raw meat’ arena that is Fir Park is an eye-opener, or a leg-breaker. Bolingoli struggled in the first half hour like most of his team-mates.
During the first half he almost found the Motherwell net, the assist for James Forrest’s goal came from Bolingoli raiding into the opposing penalty box.
In the first home match post-KT Bolingoli will be watched more closely than most Celtic players. Three years ago Moussa Dembele was less than impressive in his first half dozen matches, six years ago Virgil van Dijk watched from the bench as Charlie Mulgrew and Efe Ambrose kept a clean sheet as Celtic turned over Shakhtar Karagandy 3-0 to reach the Champions League group phase.
Gumny? Right-Back?https://t.co/fd5Z1zTidL
— Joe McHugh (@videocelts) August 13, 2019
