James Forrest before Yang for Celtic’s Dens Park mission

James Forrest has been a great influence in recent weeks when coming off the bench, most notably at Hampden last Saturday. Is it time for the veteran to be handed a first team place, starting on Sunday at Dens park?

With Daizen Maeda still sidelined, and Yang underperforming in recent outings it wouldn’t be the worst decision to give the evergreen Celtic the nod to start on Sunday at Dens Park. Luis Palma too is still working his way back to full sharpness so there is no question that James Forrest is the winger on form and deserves  to start.

James has undoubted experience that is needed for this stage of the season. He along with Callum McGregor and Joe Hart are the players who can be a great influence to those around them in the dressing room. What’s more, while his best days are clearly now behind him, James still has a lot to give to the side in terms of ability. That’s been noticeable in the past few weeks.

James Forrest can score goals as well as create them, and that along with his experience makes him a very valuable asset to our team.

Yang is a player with great potential, but despite seemingly coming on to a game not so long ago, he’s seemed to have regressed since his harsh red card at Tynecastle courtesy of John Beaton.

That’s evident in his stats these past few weeks. James may be on the fringes of the side, but his numbers make for better reading than Yang’s. That for me is enough proof that he should be starting ahead of the South Korean. Hopefully Brendan agrees.