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James Forrest hails impact of key Celtic duo

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Celtic winger James Forrest has heaped praise on the influence of both Scott Brown and Mikael Lustig in the Glasgow side’s dressing room ahead of the Scottish Cup final with Hearts on Sunday.

Forrest has enjoyed an excellent season on a personal level having been named Football Writers’ Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year in Scotland, for his role in helping Celtic secure the SPFL title and the Scottish League Cup.

The 27-year-old though has now singled Brown and Lustig out for praise suggesting the pair are heavily influential in the Celtic dressing room, and that they will help keep the players focused for the Scottish Cup final.

“The two of them are similar characters and they don’t let anyone get above their station. I’m a different character, which is fine because I think players maybe respect players for different things,” Forrest told the Daily Record.

“Everyone is different. You can’t have 11 Scott Browns in the team. I think that is why he stands out so much, though, and then Lustig is probably the next one.”

“They are big characters in the dressing room. I still learn from them and definitely the young boys coming in see the standards they set and it definitely helps them. But this is a one-off game, Hearts will be buzzing in a final. We know we are going to need to be at our best to win the game.”

OPINION

Forrest is right to rave about Celtic pair Brown and Lustig for their influence around the club and that both players have the ability to help drive their team-mates on for success. Any club that has the amount of recent trophies as Celtic have, with the Glasgow club already winning back-to-back domestic trebles in the last two seasons and on course for to make it three with victory in the Scottish Cup final against Hearts, needs to have strong characters around the dressing room. Celtic as Forrest acknowledges probably have two of those players at the club, and it is interesting to see Forrest still suggesting that he is learning from the pair even now, with the winger already having secured 16 domestic trophies during his spell at Celtic Park and on course for number 17. That demonstrates the vital role both Brown and Lustig play around the club, and if Forrest can still be learning from the standards they set, then the younger players and new arrivals will be able to learn loads from the pair’s attitudes around the club. Whatever happens in the Scottish Cup final next weekend you can probably be sure that Forrest, Brown and Lustig will have a major influence on the game. 

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