There are some players at Celtic, who deserve more minutes on the pitch than they are getting at the moment. Sead Haksabanovic falls under that category. He has been brilliant when he has been brought off the bench and made an impact. But despite that, starts have been rare and hard to come by for the summer signing.
Haksabanovic had started to establish himself as a starter before the World Cup. But the break came at the wrong time for the Montenegro international and ended up disrupting a lot of the positive momentum that he had built up.
It is not hard to understand why Haksabanovic is not starting regularly, considering the quality that Celtic have in their ranks. But it is great to see that that has not affected his attitude.
In fact, Haksabanovic sounds very understanding of the situation and content with his role at the moment. As reported by The Herald (via 67 Hail Hail), the Celtic star said:
"“We have such a big squad. We can put any player out there and they will do well. It doesn’t matter if we start or come from the bench, we all want to play and want to show the manager we want to play and help the team.“I concentrate on trying to score or assist. That’s my game, that’s what I want to do. I was very happy to score at home. I haven’t scored in an away game yet, but hopefully that will come. I’m enjoying myself here in front of our fans.“Strikers get more opportunities here than they did at my last clubs. We play in a way our strikers can get more chances to go one against one and do the stuff we like. I’m enjoying the time here. I love the way we play so I’d say for a striker like me it is very good to be here.”"
Celtic player sends clear message about lack of starts
That is an excellent attitude from Haksabanovic to say the least and shows his maturity as a player. It looks like he puts the team ahead of individual glory, and that is exactly what any manager would want from his players.
Haksabanovic has been providing a lot of quality while coming off the bench as well. He has scored a couple of brilliant goals lately and if he can continue to perform like this, it is only a matter of time before he starts seeing more minutes on the pitch.
There is no doubt about his quality as a player. He has shown that on more than one occasion. And he seems to have the right attitude to go with it as well. Given enough time, he could become one of the most important parts of Ange Postecoglou’s team.