COMMENTARY
It was a quiet first half for Celtic against Hibernian on Saturday evening and part of the problem was the lack of creativity or vision coming from the midfield. Playing Scott Brown and Nir Bitton together – two very similar ball winning midfielders – is always going to limit the amount of opportunities created and it is fair to say the Hoops faithful were not best pleased with what they saw from the Israeli international in the opening 45 minutes. He might have established himself as a regular in the starting XI courtesy of Callum McGregor’s absence but the fact of the matter is that he does not have the same impact as his teammate at Parkhead. He is always going to look to slow play down and try to keep things safe but sometimes there needs to be a spark of energy and that just does not look like ever happening with the 27-year-old playing with Brown. Neil Lennon needs to find a way to get some sort of creative influence in the middle of the pitch – otherwise his side are going to struggle until McGregore makes his return to action.
This is Futbol has gathered a selection of the supporters’ tweets:
Bitton is slowing our game down so much. With Mcgregor & Christie we had a players running beyond and opening up the wings for Forrest and Sinclair.
— Jamie (@Jamie8419) March 2, 2019
Bitton slows everything down like Brown. Absolutely dire! Lustig is utter gash as well. Sinclair is a frustration as usual.
— Macca8317 (@Macca83172) March 2, 2019
Has Bitton ever played a forward pass? Or at least tried to? Seems to have spent his life passing it to the side
— Murray (@DMMacdonald96) March 2, 2019
https://twitter.com/anthonyconroy14/status/1101900315559952385
He looked miles off after 30 minutes at Hearts. But survived okay. Don't think him and brown should be playing. Together. Ntcham is twice the player bitton is.
— @gally (@__gally) March 2, 2019
Sinclair and Forrest need to operate further back when we’re playing 2 up. Brown and Bitton struggling to create much.
— Eddie Keane (@Eddiek62) March 2, 2019
Not a fan of Bitton at all specially when in the same team as Brown.
— Daviebeer74???????? (@davetorb8) March 2, 2019