Celtic defender Jozo Simunovic made his first league appearance of the season on Wednesday night after a lengthy injury absence but his performance drew criticism from some Hoops fans on Twitter.
The 25-year-old centre-back was one of three players brought into the team by Neil Lennon for the trip to Kilmarnock as he made his first start for the club in five months since suffering a knee injury early in the season which required a surgical clean-out (as per The Telegraph).
However, some Celtic supporters felt that he was culpable for the passage of play which led to Nicke Kabamba netting for the home side in the 66th minute to make the score 1-2 and cut the Hoops’ advantage, with Amy Canavan of Read Celtic decrying “woeful” defending from the visitors in that incident.
She wrote that Simunovic was “caught out a few times” after Eamonn Brophy came on for Kilmarnock, while Hamish Carton of 67hailhail.com gave the Croatian a five in his player ratings and said that he “wasn’t one of our best performers on the evening”.
These Celtic fans on Twitter were left feeling short-changed by the defender’s display on the artificial surface at Rugby Park despite him only just returning from injury. One fan compared him unfavourably to ex-Hoops defender Efe Ambrose, who endured some rough criticism during his time at the club:
https://twitter.com/MrMulcahy/status/1220090970320097280
https://twitter.com/Gavv_67/status/1220090851545821187
https://twitter.com/mcginleybhoy/status/1220090667751354369
https://twitter.com/KC67___/status/1220090506232901632
Jozo is a bigger bombscare than ambrose. Change ma mind
— Liam Martin (@LiamMartin91) January 22, 2020
Jozo needs to stop punting the ball out the park every 5 minutes, really doesn't do us any favours
— Larssons Son (@ProjectKeekz) January 22, 2020
https://twitter.com/SCass67/status/1220091524534370304
Kinda wish we had to sub Jozo. Been awful.
— DC (@dcolton67) January 22, 2020
Did Jozo just forget Kabamba was there or wit?
— Georgios Stepharas (@chibchenko) January 22, 2020
Did you think Simunovic was unacceptably poor against Kilmarnock or did he perform well considering how little he has played this season? Join in the discussion by commenting below!
