David Turnbull has implored the Celtic squad to be more cautious when playing under the watchful eye of VAR. The Celtic midfielder said this after the Bhoys conceded two penalties in a match for the second time in 10 days.
Celtic’s encounter with Hearts at Tynecastle with the introduction of VAR into Scottish football proved to be a hectic start, with Hearts gifted two penalties by the Hoops.
Furthermore, Celtic faired no better when coming up against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, where they also gave the Spanish Giants two early penalties. Consequently, all four penalties were scored and put the Bhoys at a disadvantage. Whether by coincidence or just bad luck, Celtic have also missed the last two penalties they have been awarded.
Turnbull’s frustration is understandable as the building penalty count keeps putting the Bhoys behind. As reported by The Herald, the Celtic midfielder said: “Obviously, you need to be more careful because there is more scrutiny to every challenge and block that is made. It was disappointing to concede two penalties, maybe boys are thinking going into games now about keeping their hands behind their back or whatever. Hopefully, we don’t get too many more decisions like that.
“I remember the first game with VAR against Hearts was a bit crazy and we’ll need to get used to it because that is the way it going to be now, but we’ll get there in the end. You get some for you as you saw last Sunday with a cross being blocked by a hand. So it happens both ways. We’ll just need to be more careful.”
Turnbull also reflected on Celtic’s reintroduction into the Champions League after being absent for five years. Turnbull insists there are positives to take from Celtic’s performance and looks forward to Celtic’s Champions League ambitions next year. He continued…
“The overall feeling is disappointment first and foremost,” he said. “But there are positives to take. Every game we had a real go and tried to play our own football
“We created plenty of chances and had great opportunities against great opposition. We’re disappointed, but there’s a lot to take from it going into, hopefully, next year and we can progress further.
“You get punished at that level. If you don’t take your chances, they will go up the other end and score. It’s against top opposition and challenging yourself. It is hard to take sometimes when you have created so many chances, but we will take those positives from it and kick on.”
“We’ve been brilliant in every game, I think. It’s just about taking our chances, but we have played our own football and the way the manager wants us to play. Everyone has enjoyed it and, hopefully, we can have a good league campaign the rest of this season and then more of the same next year.”
“I’m sure all the boys will want more. I know personally that the 30 minutes I played, I enjoyed every minute. It was tough, of course. But challenging yourself against these kinds of boys is brilliant and it just makes you want more. I’m sure other boys are the same.”
