It was almost a perfect day of football for Celtic. Both Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate scored a brace each, as they defeated an in-form St Johnstone by a 4-1 scoreline. There was one major blot in the performance late on though, as David Turnbull was sent off late into added time. That means that the Scottish midfielder could be set to miss two very important games, against Hibernian and the Rangers.
Turnbull had not started the game and had only come on as a substitute for Aaron Mooy late on in the game.
Although there did not seem to be any malice or intention on Turnbull’s challenge on St Johnstone goalkeeper, Remi Matthews, it was high and with the help of VAR, the decision was made to send the Scottish midfielder off.
Ange Postecoglou did question the amount of time that it had taken to come to that decision though. As reported by 67 Hail Hail, the Celtic manager told BBC Radio Scotland about the incident:
"“The incident – it’s hard for me to tell. I thought it was addressed at that point by the referee with a yellow card. You usually get a good reaction from the players on how serious or intentional it was. I don’t think it was intentional at all. It’s dealt with.“Obviously, with VAR coming into the game other people are now looking at it and making decisions. The goalkeeper was getting treatment for a good three or four minutes. I don’t know why the referee couldn’t just go over and check the screen then rather than wait until the goalkeeper is up and running.”"
Turnbull looks set to miss two key games for Celtic against Hibernian and Rangers respectively
It is safe to say that Turnbull is not a key starter for Celtic at this point of time and as a result, the club are in a position where they can cope with his absence for a couple of games.
Even then, Turnbull is a good option to have on the bench though and very capable of making an impact as a substitute. He even scored in the previous Glasgow Derby against the Rangers, which Celtic ended up winning by a 4-0 scoreline.
Coming back to the matter of VAR, the biggest frustration that a lot of people have had with the system in Scotland is how long it takes for them to come to even simple decisions and that needs to change soon, as it is clearly disrupting the flow of games.