Chris Sutton has destroyed Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon for an “inexcusable” error in the 2-1 defeat to Red Bull Salzburg at Parkhead on Thursday night.
Gordon practically gifted the Austrians their second goal when he rolled the ball straight to Fredrik Gulbrandsen, who had the easy task of knocking the ball into a virtually empty goal as the Hoops goalkeeper was more bothered about appealing to the referee than trying to make amends.
While commentating on the game, Sutton went in hard on the Scotland international, claiming that it is mistake that he has made before and one that a player of his experience should not be making.
“He’s made some crucial saves, but what on earth is Craig Gordon doing there? Disaster for Gordon, disaster for Celtic,” said Sutton during BT Sport 3’s live coverage on Thursday night [09:34pm].
“We’ve seen that mistake somewhere before in a big game and he can’t get back.
“It’s inexcusable, it really is for such an experienced player.”
OPINION
Gordon had a very good game for Celtic up until that point but the goalkeeper managed to show why he was so widely criticised for his performances last season when he gifted Salzburg their second goal. In the first-half, Gordon did brilliantly to ensure that the score was level at half-time but he could do nothing about Munas Dabbur’s opener in the 67th minute. 10 minutes later the shot-stopper made arguably one of the biggest blunders of his career when he just rolled the ball straight at Gulbrandsen. As Sutton said, it was an inexcusable mistake for a player of his experience. Hopefully that does not impact Gordon’s confidence because something like that can make him a bit shaky for upcoming games as that error will be in the back of his mind. Brendan Rodgers needs to make sure that Scott Bain is ready to step up if he needs him over the festive period.