Jackie McNamara is a Celtic legend, and now it seems that one of the club’s brightest young stars has caught his eye ahead of the 10IAR season.
Back in 1995 Celtic legend Jackie McNamara found himself in the same position, a youth looking to make a name for himself among a pack of established veterans and he did just that. It seems that history is repeating itself and McNamara is giving credit where credit is due to Jeremie Frimpong.
Frimpong took part in the 5-1 drubbing given to Hamilton this past weekend, even netting himself a goal in the process. The Dutch player has been growing this past twelve months under the banner of The Bhoys, and a serious player like McNamara, who played 300 games for The Hoops has sat up and taken notice. He was one of the few people allowed at Celtic Park to watch the game and got to see the absolute stormer Celtic played in real time.
He gave his opinion, a great technical breakdown of Frimpong’s performance, to the lads over at 67 Hail Hail:
"“Frimpong was one of the stand-outs, he was involved quite heavily in the first couple of goals, after taking a few sore ones as well.”"
While his attacking qualities have never been in doubt, questions have been raised about his defensive capabilities. McNamara expects them to come with age:
"“I think he’ll find that through experience. If you look at the games he played last year, you’re hoping he’s learning from occasions like the cup final when he got sent off, getting caught on the wrong side.“But most of the time in the league, Celtic are all-out attack. When I was taught the position, when the right-back went forward, the left-back tucked in and there was always three defenders. It’s a bit different now with Scott Brown protecting the two centre-halves.“You saw that with the second goal on Sunday. Frimpong gets it, the ball is across to the left-back [Greg] Taylor who supplies the cross for Frimpong to stick in at the back post. So it’s all-out attack.”"
He is certainly a greener member of the squad, all of the missing pieces of his game can be put together with a bit of time and experience. He is a dynamo when he gets the ball under him with a bit of room to breathe. With some more game time under his belt he will certainly learn to no be caught with his trousers down when it comes to pitch positioning.
Who knows, we could see Frimpong get some serious game time this coming season. Neil Lennon holds the cards close to his chest, it remains to be seen if the teenager is part of a season winning hand.