BRENDAN Rodgers has insisted Jozo Simunovic has a bright future at Celtic after the Croatian centre half made his first competitive appearance in eight months.
Simunovic, who has been out of action since January after suffering knee ligament damage, came on in the second half of the 2-2 draw with Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the Highlands yesterday.
The 22-year-old had appeared to be on his way out of Parkhead last month when the Scottish champions agreed a £3.5 million fee with Italian club Torino for the former Dinamo Zagreb player.
Read more: Inverness Caledonian Thistle fume as Celtic escape punishment over Draper foul
However, the surprise move to the Serie A club fell through and Rodgers, who rested Kolo Toure after the Champions League game against Barcelona in Spain on Tuesday night, stressed he was pleased to see him back.
“He (Toure) is 35 and has come off the back of two massive games,” the Irishman said. “It was always going to be the case with him that I need to manage his games.He hadn’t had a rest since we came in.
“Anyway, I wanted to give Simunovic some game time today, that was important for us. With the big games we’ve got, I needed to find time to give him a breather.
“Jozo is a class act. He looks like a class player - apart from the time he passed it straight to an Inverness player! He fits the profile of what I like. He defends forward, he is aggressive, wins his headers, can play football and is quick.
“I think there is a lot to come from him. I’m delighted he didn’t leave. I can see why a top Italian team would want him. He is delighted he stayed. It’s now just about getting minutes under his belt. He looks like a big talent for someone so young.”
Rodgers added: “I thought we deserved the three points. Give credit to Inverness, they kept going, they kept fighting, even though we could have scored more goals in the second half.
“We were disappointed to concede from the corner at the end. But they tell me that Inverness is a notoriously tough place to go. I think our general performance especially in the second half was better.
“In the first half we didn’t press the ball well enough to stop their long balls coming forward and we were too deep. We made a slight change at half-time to get us further up the pitch and get a better control of the game.
“If you look at how creative we were, some of our play and interplay was fantastic. I thought that worked well and we created a lot of chances. It was disappointing to concede so late.”
Rodgers, whose side moved three points ahead of Hearts at the top of the Premiership table with the win, appeared unconcerned about his team, who have a game in hand, dropping their first league points of the 2016/17 campaign.
Read more: Inverness Caledonian Thistle fume as Celtic escape punishment over Draper foul
“Listen, it’s five games, three of which have been away at what you would consider tough places,” he said. “We should have picked up three points today, but we didn’t.
“It’s four wins and a draw for us on the back of what was a tough week. I’m proud of the players today in terms of their resilience and level of their game.
“But when the game is at 2-1, no matter how dominant you are, you need that third goal to get any sort of comfort in the game. So when we didn’t get it we were leaving ourselves open a little bit to the equalising goal. But we have to defend it better.”
The game in Inverness was the fifth in the league that Celtic had conceded goals in – but Rodgers stressed that his side was a work in progress and was far from the finished article.
“I still feel there is a lot of work to do on the standard of our game, both offensively and defensively,” he said. “It’s a team formed over the course of the summer and there are still changes because of the level of the games we’ve been playing and the football we are trying to play.
“It depends which way you spin it, really. You can say we’ve had no clean sheets, but I’ll look at it and say it’s four wins and a draw. But there is no doubt at times we have to not be so young and at 2-1 see the game through.”
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