Those substitutions were horrendous. If I was a player I’d be totally pissed off at having worked my arse off only for the manager to make a total arse of it.
What if we played the same team today and they were still done in from Thursday and lost the game? Do we then ask them to go again on Wednesday or play a weakened team in a potential win or bust game? Surely better to take a calculated risk today and then have the strongest team fit and fresh for Wednesday?
What happened to the days where every player would fight for every ball, defenders would defend as if their lives depended on it, the goalkeeper would pull off a string of great saves and we’d walk away with the points? Nowadays Celtic just have to sit back and wait for us to gift them a goal.
Given the current situation where we could lose players without notice I’d say it’s more important to give minutes to those you could be relying on to start games. Add in that the game was won and there was no pressure on those coming on it was an ideal chance to give Crawford his debut and get game time for Hastie who’s been struggling for confidence.
I’m pretty sure Rangers will be monitoring his loan period and will be keen that he gets game time. If he’s not going to get it with us they’ll take him back and send him out elsewhere as he’s out on loan for his development not to sit on our bench.