Take a bow James
Forrest inspires Celts to thumping win... but faces Cup derby sweat
6 CELTIC
0 LIVINGSTON
JAMES FORREST and Moi Elyounoussi have helped kick Celtic back into top gear.
Having both available for the weekend showdown with Rangers could be pivotal in the outcome of the Scottish Cup tie.
Forrest has wasted no time in settling back into the routine. It took six months of injury absence for some outside the dressing room to understand his true value to the group. To most others it’s always been blatantly obvious.
Forrest isn’t just a winger now. Brendan Rodgers changed that. He’s now an all-round attacker who gives his team an added dimension.
The ability to take full-backs out of the game in one-on-ones has been there since he was a teenager but it’s now that ability cultured over the past four years or so to get into regular scoring positions beyond central defenders which make him an even bigger asset.
It attracts defenders away from a main hitman without him needing a designated partner, which helps a manager pick systems that don’t require two out-and-out strikers. It diverts focus. Odsonne Edouard is freed up as opposed to being pinpointed and crowded.
Forrest showed it again by opening the scoring against Livi, darting on to a ball in behind that Edouard flicked into his path having dropped off to drag bodies out of the backline, creating the room his mate loves to attack.
It’s what made the sight of him going off just before the hour so frustrating for interim boss John Kennedy. He knows having Forrest available for Ibrox will give him more options and now key decisions will have to go on hold until he gets the medical updates.
Missing out having just got back would be a bitter setback and the Scotland star’s availability could have a key influence on what the manager decides to do with Elyounoussi.
At least he knows he’s going in with the Norwegian on flying form and in fairness to the caretaker he did call it prematch. Kennedy said Elyounoussi was getting back to his best, rising out of a run where confidence had been hit. It certainly looked like it. When he took the reins from Neil Lennon, he chose a different role for Elyounoussi against the Light Blues. Having failed to net against Rangers in two games beforehand, Kennedy tried a new trick and got a pay-off. He got a central role and was outstanding, scored a diving header and was instrumental in many good things as Edouard drifted out to the left to cause problems facing the goal. Against Livi Elyounoussi was back off the left in 4-3-3, yet superb again. He and Forrest caused no end of bother. Danger came from both sides and through the middle when they often interchanged.
Too often this season Celtic have played in front of teams and been slow. Yet the injections of pace, the bursts into dangerous spaces beyond Edouard from out-to-in were constant.
Forrest for his goal, Elyounoussi’s drop and spin for the run and cross for David Turnbull’s second. The midfielder had a simple task to nudge a ninth of the season over the line with a thigh having gambled on
making a run. Another Elyounoussi thrust wasn’t spotted by Jonjoe Kenny or he’d have been clean through. Callum McGregor did spot one from Forrest and overhit his delivery a fraction, allowing keeper Robby McCrorie to get there first.
The Livi keeper’s fine save stopped Elyounoussi’s volley when he did it again after the interval.
After Jack Fitzwater diverted a Scott Brown header into his own net for the third, Elyounoussi’s strike from the edge of the box was powerful and precise and his dink for the fifth was deft and delightful.
McCrorie denied him a hat-trick and team-mates other goals but he couldn’t stop sub Ryan Christie, on for the stricken Forrest, to stroke home the sixth with panache after an Efe Ambrose error.
It put down his own claim for Ibrox inclusion by scoring in successive games, just like Forrest and Elyounoussi.
Four into three won’t go but Kennedy will be hoping he has that big call to make as opposed to an injury making his mind up for him.
The boss may have one other decision to make at left-back. Greg Taylor was back in the starting line-up ahead of Diego Laxalt and produced a positive display on first sighting since an injury in Dingwall in February. Laxalt has started all three matches this term against Rangers but Taylor is pushing.
The rest of the side, barring a curve ball, picks itself for Ibrox and Kennedy got positive vibes from most of them on a productive day.
Stephen Welsh was tidy, Kenny made a terrific point-blank block just after the fourth goal and Scott Bain made a huge save from sub Matej Poplatnik just seconds later to give him a clean-sheet lift.
Kristoffer Ajer’s stunning 40-yard pas to set up Elyounoussi’s second was classy, while Scott Brown and Callum McGregor were the solid platform that allowed Turnbull to break free to make the type of lung-bursting run that brought an end to his personal five-game scoring drought.
If only Forrest hadn’t had to go off, it would have been just about the perfect day for Kennedy.
But if he gets confirmed news his back-in-the-groove Scotland star is fit and available to travel across Glasgow on Saturday with Elyounoussi in the mood and others growing in confidence, he might just get to enjoy another one at Ibrox.