Thirteen years on from his debut James Forrest is the fastest player in the Celtic squad.
The winger turned 32 during the summer but has made nine appearances this season and retains the confidence of his manager, back in 2016 Brendan Rodgers completely revived Forrest’s career that looked to be drifting away.
It is an easy throw away comment to say that a winger in their thirties has ‘lost a yard’ but the data from Lennoxtown last week suggests otherwise.
Daizen Maeda covers an incredible amount of ground up and down either flank but it seems that in terms of raw pace he isn’t the fastest in the Celtic squad.
Discussing Forrest, Rodgers told The Sun:
Even at 32 he’s still our quickest winger. We did tests the other week and James is still my quickest winger. He’s up there with Daizen, believe it or not, in terms of sheer speed.
He might not be able to do it as much, or for prolonged periods of the game, but his actual football is still outstanding and he can definitely come into the team and impact the game.
I think every game he’s had he’s been able to do that, whether he’s started or come off the bench.
He could have got the winner for us at the weekend. Listen, we understand the modern world and the want for shiny new things.
But I’m not going to throw guys to the garbage who I know are still very, very good players and who can make an impact for us. James came in and did really well.
With the three wingers signed in the summer making a limited impact it seems likely that Forrest will have an important role to play over the coming months, possibly starting Wednesday’s match at home to St Mirren.
Luis Palma has started the last three matches, over seven days against Hearts, Atletico Madrid and Hibs but looked badly out of touch at Easter Road.
All I can say happy 31/10/2012
Never for get HH
Would say Rodgers is trying to feed us bullshit upon that claim, and certainly not biting myself.
More trying to justify his decision making, I would say.
It’s been years since we have seen Forrest leave a full back for dead, with pace or skill, and wouldn’t be expected to see it ever again.
The use of Forrest is nothing more of Rodgers preferred option of using experience over development imo?
The issue I have is how do you gain experience, if not going to be used?
The decision making by Rodgers was just rank on Saturday, for which he has to take ownership of, instead of hiding behind the transfer policy of the summer?
Beginning to wonder if he’s actually interested in trying to develop the younger player, or just interested in polishing up players that have gained experience?
A situation that needs to be improved upon before January regardless.
3 times now this season, we have failed to break down the back to the wall teams, which has to improve upon.
Especially with the amount of games we play, where teams will take the same approach as hibs and get great praise in doing so.
We still lack creativity against the low block defence, where tempo within our play remains the best option for ourselves to break down such defensive set ups.
Badly lacking Saturday, and our use of the full backs hardly helped matters either.
Plenty for Rodgers to ponder upon, but hardly going to be taken in with bullshit either.
Well said that man. I would just add that Rodgers complaining after the match about the build up having been too slow was just stating the obvious. His response during the game was to put Turnbull on as a sub. WTF!