Davie Hay believes that Celtic must not think about playing Oliver Burke as a forward for their second leg against Valencia in the last-32 of the Europa League.
He says that the 21-year-old star belongs at “wide right” rather than leading the line for the Hoops, remarking on how he should not be taking on that type of responsibility for a “game of that magnitude”.
Hay heaped praise on the youngster, adding that he is a player who is not selfish in regards to his whole game, but questions whether playing him out of position is the right thing to do considering that they are 2-0 down from the first leg on Thursday.
“It will be a tough shift on Thursday night now over in Spain. I suspect there will be a few changes for that game and I just don’t think that you can ask Oliver Burke to lead the line for a game of that magnitude,” he said in his Evening Times column.
“I think he is a very unselfish lad in terms of his overall play but for me he belongs at wide right rather than as forward.”
OPINION
Burke is right to question whether it is suitable to play Burke as the striker again on Thursday after their recent defeat to the La Liga club. It is clear that this is not his natural position, and you could imply that from the way he was unable to hold play up. There is no ruling out that he can be moulded into a striker for the league, but a game as important as this should not have someone as experienced as Burke leading the line. They do not stand a chance of progressing to the next stage of the competition by continuing with this decision, and this is nothing to do with Burke’s overall ability. There is no questioning that in the slightest, as we have witnessed many times this season – but he should not be doing it in important matches. Other teams in the competition have established forwards who are more than capable of leading the line for their clubs, and if Celtic cannot match that, then what hope do they have?