The former Celtic hitman suggests Brendan Rodgers needs a dead-ball specialist.
John Hartson has told The Glasgow Evening Times that he believes former club Celtic are lacking a free-kick specialist.
Celtic lost 2-0 to Hibernian on Sunday and, with it, lost their spot at the top of the Scottish Premiership, after Rangers leapfrogged them later in the day.
Hibs’ second goal came very shortly after the Hoops had a free kick within shooting distance, but Olivier Ntcham failed to get his effort over the wall.
It was not the first time that Ntcham was guilty of that at Easter Road, and Hartson feels that Brendan Rodgers’s side need a modern-day Shunsuke Nakamura.
“The Celtic team I played in were great at free-kicks,” he told The Glasgow Evening Times. “Shunsuke Nakamura, the best I ever saw, treated free-kicks as penalties. His ability to get the ball up and over a wall and past the goalkeeper took your breath away.
“I cannot over-emphasise who important set-pieces are. On Sunday, Olivier Ntcham was given two goes, both pretty central and a good distance outside the box, and twice he failed to get the ball over the Hibs wall.
“Within ten seconds of the second effort, Hibs had made it 2-0. Good grief.”
Leigh Griffiths, who is not available at the moment, scored a wonderful free kick at Hamilton last month.
Hartson is right in saying that they don’t have a Nakamura, but do they need one? Celtic have completely dominated Scottish football since Rodgers took the reins in 2016, winning back-to-back trebles in his first two seasons.
And all without a typical free-kick specialist. Having one certainly wouldn’t do any harm, but a goal is a goal at the end of the day and the Bhoys, under Rodgers, haven’t had much problem scoring them.
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