Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has confessed he maybe should’ve utilised “certified winner”, James Forrest, more this season.
Forrest, 32, has been restricted to just three starts and 20 substitute appearances. But Celtic’s longest-serving player came up with a huge goal during their Scottish Cup semi-final triumph over Aberdeen last weekend.
He leaped off the bench to net his team’s second and played a crucial pass ahead of their third during a pulsating encounter at Hampden Park.
Fellow wide players Liel Abada, Yang Hyun-jun, Mikey Johnston, Nicolas Kuhn, Daizen Maeda and Luis Palma have all started more games throughout the campaign as Rodgers looked towards the future.
But now the Northern-Irishman has acknowledged that he would utilise Forrest more often as he looks to add to his 22 major trophy haul.
“He’s a certified winner, he knows what it takes, and having someone of his ability and stature around the team is very important,” the Celtic boss said ahead of Sunday’s Scottish Premiership trip to face Dundee.
“I think you’ve seen it in a number of the cameos he’s produced recently.
“He didn’t get so much game time at parts of the season he maybe felt he deserved.
“We were giving other players a chance who were brought in, but longer it goes on you see his qualities and what he brings to the team.
“His mindset and the calmness he brings, along with his quality, will be really important for us.
“He’s a remarkable professional. There are times this season where he might have felt like he should have played more, and maybe I should have played him more, I don’t know.
“What I do know is I was never going to rule him out because I know what he gave me (during) my first time here and this time he’s been absolutely brilliant.
“He’ll be an instrumental figure for us, whether that’s off the pitch or on the pitch for us over these closing weeks.”
The Celtic boss dubbed Forrest as Celtic’s “best” winger a few weeks ago, which raised some eyebrows considering the 38-time capped Scotland international’s game time.
However, Rodgers reckons he still possesses all the key qualities you look for in a footballer.
“I think people were surprised by the fact that I called him the best winger a number of weeks back, but I think you see now what I was meaning – how he looks after the ball, how he takes care of the ball, his game understanding, how he protects it,” he continued.
“He very rarely loses it. He can create goals, he can score goals.
“I think the challenge now for any player as they grow older is the intensity at which the modern game is played, especially in a team where intensity is the demand. That’s how this team works and how my teams have always worked.
“But that doesn’t take away the contribution he can have, whether that’s to start a game or to end a game.
“When I came here the first time and when I left to go to the Premier League, I had no qualms about saying to people that he is arguably the best player I have worked with at receiving the ball on the touchline.
“How he takes the ball, his body shape, how he feints when he receives it, whether that’s on the right side or the left side, and that’s something our younger wingers can learn from.
“If you look at some of the goals we gave away last week, it was from creative players giving the ball away. When you have talented players, they have a love of the ball, they keep the ball and that allows your team to move up the pitch.
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