Kieran Tierney

CELTIC and Scotland star Kieran Tierney has featured in more games this season than any other player in world football, a new Germany study has revealed.

And Hoops team mates James Forrest and injured keeper Craig Gordon are next on the list.

The 20-year-old defender has already played a staggering 46 games for club and country this season – 41 for Celtic and five for Scotland.

And German statistical site Transfermarkt has revealed that’s more than any other player in the world this term so far…a total of 4,057 minutes on the pitch already in season 2017/18.

Forrest and Gordon are next with 45 games and they are ahead of Chelsea’s Willian and Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford with 44 and 43 appearances – although many of those came from off the bench.

With Celtic still having 12 league games left this season, at least two more European games and a Scottish Cup campaign, Tierney’s numbers look set to to rise higher.

And he could feature in four more Scotland games this term too – at home to Costa Rica and away friendlies in Hungary, Peru and Mexico.

It means the youngster could be close to hitting the 70-game mark for the season, depending on Celtic’s European progress.

 

If we seal the league early I'd give Calvin Miller a run at LB to give Tierney a rest.

 

When

Good shout though, wee Miller has impressed whenever I’ve seen him.

 

Ridiculous stat which is only going to be worse next season would be hardly surprising then if most of the first 11 are up there as well and it then puts our sluggish season into perspective considering most our lads are playing more then anyone else in Europe regardless of quality they are up against it's 90mins of hard running and craft all the same.

 

He really should be rotated a bit more often.

 

I don’t think he’ll ever be a left back. I’m not against giving him game time there in domestic football though; it will make him a more rounded player.

 

Rodgers said a year ago that he left back was what Miller was being retrained for.

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"Rodgers claimed to see similar traits between Miller and Bertrand, a player he worked with in the youth set-up at Chelsea.

Bertrand, who has 10 caps for England, went on to play in the Champions League final with the Blues before moving to his current side Southampton.

The Celtic manager said: "I was delighted for a young player who has just moved position. I thought he did very well and he wants to learn and develop.

"I did a similar thing with Ryan Bertrand when I was at Chelsea. We took him in from Gillingham to Chelsea and he came in as a left-winger and in the same team was Scott Sinclair, who was a striker.

"I moved Scotty wide and put Ryan to left-back and he went on to play with England and won the Champions League with Chelsea and is now at Southampton and he's an outstanding player.

"I see similar sort of traits in Calvin, where he can do that one position behind but he's only 18 so he needs time to learn that position and role but he's got some outstanding qualities and can offer the club something going forward."

 

iv'e saw Keiran going back the way with passes too often this season same can be said of the back 3/4 though just trying to keep possession for the sake of it too slow build up, he's at his best when driving forward and also taking players on.

 

Deffo. It's an injury waiting to happen.

 

we recycle the ball along the backline too much,we need ajer stepping out from the back a lot more and keiran bursting down the wing.

 

I'd agree with this tbh. Brown plays almost every game as well and he is older with a history of dodgy hips. I he can manage so should a young pro like Tierney

 

I think that's being a wee bit harsh on the defence tbh, I think a problem a lot of the time is lack of movement from static attackers neither running into space to get open for a pass or runnin thier marker inside to free up the space for the guy with ball to advance.

Frustration from Tierney and Broon been evident at times especially towards the left wing and number 10 positions.

 

aye Broon steps into the backline at times, builds up the play in rodgers system he's like gattuso for us and reads the danger perfectly.

 

That's what I mean. Even if it's once every 6 or 7 matches or something. I mean, a home game against Ross County, Hamilton, Dundee etc he can surely be afforded a rest.

Tierney has already played 117 matches. By the end of the season that could and most likely will be about 130 matches. And that's with him missing a decent chunk of last season with an injury.

He'll still only be 20 at the end of the season. That's a lot of football.

 

We are guilty of overplaying him no doubt.. and are lucky he hasn’t picked up an injury..

Miller should have been tried at LB, as we are still none the wiser if he could do a job in KTs absence. If he wasn’t up to scratch we should have strengthened there in the window. Altough Compper can play there.

It’s not fair to Miller or KT... and KT has looked jaded at times.

The squad in general is a victim of it’s own success and it’s an accumulation of the games played over the last season and half. With what a week off?
The CL Qualification and Campaigns, the Invincible cup runs & league domination and if we add this to the international appearances then it’s no wonder we’ve looked tired at times.

Not to mention injuries, it’s unsustainable.

 

Its always when in that position in our own half under pressure he’ll pass back, though better than last season since he always used aimlessly punt it.
Lustig is the worst offender for it but at least with KT Sinclair is usually always inside than keeping the width.