Martin O'Neill has explained why Haissem Hassan was not included in his squad for Sunday's win over Kilmarnock. Celtic came out on top against the Premiership strugglers thanks to a first-half Liam Scales winner.
The Bhoys also had a goal disallowed for a debatable foul in the build-up and Benjamin Nygren saw a penalty saved.
It was an ugly win for the Hoops, who looked tired amid a relentless four week or so schedule coming to an end, but they also looked in control for much of the game, only really conceding one good chance, and that was in the first few minutes.
There were some positives for Celtic, with Jota starting for the first time in 18 months, and he was withdrawn at half-time for Yang Hyun-jun, who made his first appearance since picking up a hamstring issue for South Korea during the Asian Games in September.
But there was one noticeable absentee in summer signing Hassan, who joined the club on a £9million deal.
Explaining the Egyptian's absence after the game, O'Neill said: “We're trying to do, as much as possible, we're trying to do a bit of manoeuvring at this minute. I just think it'll be great for places. If there's proper competition for places, it can only make us better.”
We wrote this week about Hassan failing to meet the standards he should have. The winger is a very good player with serious ability, and he should be dominating defences in the Premiership.
He shows flashes, but he is not regularly providing assists and goals, with no goals and just one assist across all competitions this season.
O'Neill may well be asking more of Hassan, and part of that is dropping him out of his squad to remind him that no one is exempt, regardless of the fee they arrived for. The big question will be, however, why Kasper Hogh has not been subject to the same treatment.
Hogh is now three months without a goal and has certainly delivered more poor performance than productive ones. Then again, O'Neill hasn't been particularly clear about his reasoning. It would be nice if he could just tell us clearly that he has been dropped.
Add us as a preferred source on Google