Chris Sutton rips into Celtic’s Dorus de Vries after his post-match comments against Zenit.
Writing in The Record, Chris Sutton has slammed Celtic goalkeeper Dorus de Vries for his failure to save Zenit St Petersburg’s second goal in Thursday’s 3-0 demolition in Russia – and for his defence of the perceived gaffe.
Brendan Rodgers’s side were sent crashing out of the Europa League at the last-32 stage after being humbled by Roberto Mancini’s side.
First-half goals from Branislav Ivanovic and Daler Kuzyaev gave Celtic – who won 1-0 in the first leg – a mountain to climb, before Aleksandr Kokorin killed off their hopes on the hour mark.
De Vries came in for criticism for failing to save Kuzyaev’s effort from outside the box, with the Dutchman getting a firm hand to it.
Speaking to The Mail afterwards, the former Swansea goalkeeper defended himself and labelled the shot a “knuckle ball” in comments which haven’t gone down well with the former Hoops striker.
“Celtic were off the pace but it was through a lack of confidence – and it comes back to signings,” he wrote in The Record.
“Brendan’s blind loyalty to de Vries, for example, has come back to haunt him in many ways. What did the keeper call that second goal? A “knuckle ball”. What a load of b******s.”
De Vries is playing in the absence of Craig Gordon, who is missing with a knee injury.
Celtic will definitely need at least one new goalkeeper in the summer. Gordon turned 35 in December, while De Vries, signed from Nottingham Forest in 2016, turned 37 in the same month and maybe it’s time for fresh blood.
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