{"id":674651,"date":"2026-09-06T00:53:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T00:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/674651\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T00:53:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T00:53:18","slug":"chris-sutton-celtic-need-midfield-enforcer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/674651\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Sutton: Celtic Need Midfield Enforcer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ex-Celtic<\/a> striker Chris Sutton spotted a key problem that his former side have during their victory over St Mirren. <\/p>\n

Celtic secured a 2-1 victory over St Mirren on Saturday evening, as they extended their lead at the top of the table to five points. <\/p>\n

The Glasgow club went behind in the first half after Nicolas Agrafiotis found the back of the net from the penalty spot. <\/p>\n

Celtic struck back just after the break, and Liam Scales made up for conceding a penalty by equalising for the Scottish champions. <\/p>\n

Later in the half, Hyun-jun Yang scored Celtic’s second from around 12 yards out, which turned out to be the winner. <\/p>\n

It was far from a vintage performance from Celtic, but St Mirren certainly looked like a well-coached side. There’s a reason they are sitting in second place in the league. <\/p>\n

Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton provided his assessment after the game, praising both Haissem Hassan and Camilo Duran. <\/p>\n

Sutton also pointed out that Celtic still don’t have that midfield enforcer they need<\/a>, despite securing the three points against St Mirren. <\/p>\n

“Celtic deserved the win. Hassan absolutely outstanding in the 1 v 1\u2019s Duran works so hard and another assist. Yang will be badly missed. The subs not giving the team the desired effect. Celtic don\u2019t have that midfield enforcer they need. St Mirren brave. A very well coached team.”<\/p>\n

Celtic did try to address the midfield situation in the summer transfer window, bringing in both Oliver Sorensen and Joel van den Berg. <\/p>\n

Both players were on the bench for the Glasgow giants, with Sorensen coming on in the second half. <\/p>\n


\n \"Celtic<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\tForget Bissouma: Celtic Should Sign Another Former Tottenham Midfielder For Free
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Celtic could be in the market for another midfielder after failing to sign Gvidas Gineitis<\/p>\n

Celtic need instant impact in midfield<\/p>\n

\"Celtic
\n Action Images via Reuters\/Andrew Boyers<\/p>\n

Whether either player can be the midfield enforcer that Celtic need remains to be seen, but it could take them time to get up to speed due to their lack of experience in Scotland. <\/p>\n

It’s hard to criticise too much after Celtic secured all three points, but it’s clear they need something extra in midfield if they want to go to the next level. <\/p>\n

O’Neill will soon have a decision to make about whether to bring Sorensen or Van den Berg into the starting 11, as he does have plenty of options in the middle of the park. <\/p>\n

The midfield enforcer that Celtic need maybe wasn’t addressed in the summer, and it remains to be seen whether it will cost them in the long term. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ex-Celtic striker Chris Sutton spotted a key problem that his former side have during their victory over St…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-674651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117221367385234254","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}