James Forrest is the man of the moment for Celtic after his double at Dens Park kept Brendan Rodgers three points clear at the top of the table.

The Scottish Premiership title race looks like it is going right to the wire and it took the legendary winger to knock in two goals to ensure that no ground was lost heading into the final four fixtures of the season.

And whilst the debate rages on whether or not Forrest should be picked more, Billy Dodds made a weird claim about the Celtic winger’s time under Ange Postecoglou.

Postecoglou ‘didn’t play’ James Forrest

The former Inverness Caley Thistle manager was on punditry duty alongside Pat Bonner on Sunday and whilst he said it’s clear that Brendan Rodgers really likes Forrest, Dodds seems to insinuate that Ange Postecoglou didn’t rate the legendary winger during his time at the club after making this claim.

“He’s come up big time with huge moments for Celtic. He’s such a nice lad as well. Down-to-earth guy and just deserves everything he gets.

“Especially having to battle back from injury after injury to now produce. And it’s obvious Brendan Rodgers really rates him.

“Not sure how much Ange Postecoglou rated him. He didn’t play him even when he was fit. He was just out squads, out of the team and Brendan Rodgers really likes him and he’s produced back at the vital moments.”

The real reasons James Forrest didn’t feature under Ange at Celtic

Accuracy is always key in times like this. As well as context. If you think back to Ange’s time at Celtic, the Australian had Daizen Maeda, Jota and Liel Abada to choose from.

Three exceptional players that anyone would have found difficult to get a start ahead of. And let’s not forget that between the three of them, Jota scored 28 goals and created 26 in 83 appearances.

Abada hit 29 in 112 and created 22 assists and Maeda had (prior to this season) 19 goals and 13 assists in 78 appearances. [Transfermarkt]

So for Ange, it was never about not rating Forrest, the former Celtic manager simply had three wingers who were undroppable over that two-season period.

Also, let’s not forget a simple stat that Ange actually played Forrest 54 times despite having that trio of wingers and that Ange is on record as being ‘really keen‘ on getting the legendary winger in his side but it was injury that hampered that.

With just four games left, Forrest looks like a player who is going to deliver some more big moments for Celtic and the fans will be hoping he does as the title race draws to a close.

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