‘It lacks a bit of courage’ – Sutton delivers frank Kasper Høgh Celtic assessment | OneFootball

Chris Sutton believes Kasper Hogh may have been in for a Martin O’Neill “roasting” following his performance in Celtic’s 3-0 defeat to Rangers.

The £11million striker struggled to make an impact at Ibrox, but Sutton has rejected any knee-jerk attempts to write off the Dane and remains convinced there is a goalscorer in him.

However, the former Celtic striker believes Hogh must improve his hold-up play and show greater courage when O’Neill’s side need an outlet in difficult matches.

Sutton said via Record Celtic Podcast: “Hogh probably had his worst game for Celtic. A lot of one-touch stuff. I know Martin would have been cursing him for not getting hold of the ball.

“LASK away and Rangers, in games where he’s not the biggest, tallest physically, he has to find a way of holding the ball in and getting his team up the pitch.

“I think he’s very loose. He’s not clean with his hold-up play. That’s something that he has to develop and, at times, when your team is under the cosh, your team is struggling, you need your centre forward to have a bit of variation in the play and stretch the opposition back line.

“But when the ball does come into you, you really need to make it stick.

“I was on the end of plenty of criticism from Martin for playing one touch if it doesn’t get to my team-mate and he did it, I can think of, three or four occasions [against Rangers] where I was thinking: He’s in for a roasting here because he’s got to take that in.

“In many ways, it just lacks a bit of courage to flick things. Get your body in, take a touch, take a hit, get your team up the pitch and you have to trust yourself in those situations. Back in, scrap, read the flight of the ball and draw free kicks.

“But he shouldn’t be pasted as he has been. I don’t think everything needs to be so knee-jerk and for him to be written off.

“Celtic paid the money, he was a goalscorer who had scored big goals in the Champions League with a bit of pedigree. So, you have to respect that.

“I think he will score goals, but I think that he needs to give far more to the team.

“I do think variation to his play is important. To not always come short. That’s where that understanding is important. In fairness, the understanding he’s had with [Benjamin] Nygren has actually been there.

“I’m not going to pan him because I do think that there is a goalscorer in there. But that conundrum that Martin has about where to play these guys.”

He continued: “I think it’s a fair point to say: How are you going to get the best out of Camilo Duran more than anybody else in the team? Because he looks to be the guy with the X factor.

“So, while he’s brought these two strikers in and it’s exciting. Celtic can’t play 4-4-2 because the central midfielders will get absolutely murdered in a 4-4-2.

“Hosseim Hassan does drop his runner at times and he doesn’t work back the way, but I think that Celtic have just got to somehow accept that that’s the way he is for what he gives them going forward.

“But it will be interesting in time to come whether Martin thinks, well, I need to get the two strikers playing centrally in the team and I’ll go to the three centre-halves. But then, who are you going to play as wing-backs? I don’t know.

“I actually really like the signing of Hassan. In tight games, he looks like he will be a key player for Celtic, but then Martin’s got that conundrum about centre forward.

“As I mentioned, you look at the games that Celtic have won this season. With respect to the teams they’ve played, you could argue Celtic this season are flat-track bullies.

“It’s okay playing Duran off the right-hand side if you’re playing Aberdeen, Dundee and whatever. Celtic will get away with that because they have superior players.

“I thought Celtic’s biggest mistake was not starting Hassan. We saw in the first 40 seconds of the second half when he came on, he did more in the first 40 seconds than [Sebastian] Tounekti did in the whole of the first half.”

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