Stuart Armstrong

Rodgers on Armstrong: “If I put him at centre-half he’ll probably score. He’s got an in-built brain for getting in the box & getting goals.“

 

He coulda had a hat-trick that game he played at right back the other month

 

stick him back at RB for the next game.

 

Rodgers backs Armstrong for Scotland call

The next step for Stuart Armstrong in a season that just gets better and better will surely be a call-up to the Scotland squad for their World Cup qualifying match against Slovenia in March. The 24-year-old midfielder has yet to earn a full cap, and has been invited along only occasionally, but his improvement under Brendan Rodgers, the Celtic manager, is such that his case has become impossible to ignore.

Armstrong has been a key figure in Celtic’s unbeaten domestic campaign, having combined crisp, decisive passing with energy, aggression and six goals in his last 12 matches. Rodgers is in no doubt that he has what it takes to play in Gordon Strachan’s national side.

“I always look at what you need to play at international level,” says the Celtic manager. “To play at the highest level, you want to be effective. You want a midfield player that’s got a high level of technique and has mobility to run and be physical, and he’s got all that. He’s shown he’s improving all the time so if he keeps going — you can’t ever become complacent, which he wouldn’t — and keeps knocking on the door, The tools you need to play at that level: he has them.”

In his capacity as a TV pundit, Strachan was at Ibrox on Saturday to see Celtic’s 2-1 victory against Rangers. He could not fail to have been impressed by Armstrong, who was a driving force in his team’s recovery from a goal down. Brian O’Neil, the former Celtic midfielder, later suggested that the midfielder must have “iron lungs”.

All that was missing from his display was the goal that has become a regular feature of his game. Even before Rodgers restored him to his favoured central role earlier this season, Armstrong was showing the new manager his predatory instincts.

“You saw when he played against Inverness at right back, he should have had a hat-trick.” Rodgers says. “If I put him at centre half, he’d probably score. He’s just that type of player. He’s got an in-built brain for getting in the box and getting goals.”

None of this was apparent last season, when Ronny Deila reduced Armstrong to a peripheral figure by playing him wide on the left. Under Rodgers, he has established himself so successfully alongside Scott Brown that, when the Celtic captain was suspended against Dundee, the armband went to Armstrong.

The significance of that will not be lost on Strachan, who is waiting to hear whether Brown plans to extend his international career. Irrespective of that decision, Armstrong has emerged as a strong option in what used to be known as the No 8 role. “He’s fundamentally learned the position,” Rodgers says. “Firstly, you have to defend. You have to press the game, you have to get tight to people, win the ball back and recover. And you’ve got to play in the corridor and not make daft runs to the corner flag.

“He’s got quality. Big, big quality. He’s technically very strong and tactically he’s understanding now how to keep the ball. When I first came in he gave it away too cheaply. He’s also got a good range of passes, can shoot and is good on set-pieces. So he’s really developing very well and, on top of that, he’s a really bright boy.”

Armstrong is also in the throes of a six-year law degree on the Open University. It is viewed as an unusual, even eccentric, way for a footballer to spend his spare time, although Rodgers recalls Andrea Orlandi, a Spaniard with whom he worked at Swansea City, having spun the same plates.

Beneficial though it is to have a bright player in the dressing room, Rodgers admits that another kind of intelligence is more important. “There are lots of footballers I know that are clever. They might not have academic knowledge, but they have practical knowledge and that’s what gets you through in life. If you’ve got practical knowledge – you don’t know where you get it from, but you get it — that’s the most important knowledge. Academia is great but if you don’t know how to implement it, it counts for nothing.”

 

He shouldn't be too far off a Scotland call given his recent performances. He's a player who might suit the Scotland team as well given his drive and work ethic.

But if he doesn't play for Scotland it'll only ever be their loss and our gain anyway.

 

He'd walk straight in to that Scotland side with ease..

Good for him but it'll be quite annoying from a club point of view when he get's called up for every squad as he's high energy and i definitely think it'd roll over back to Celtic duty with burnout and fatigue..

 

outstanding post ,i love this piece ,if this does not make a great player become world class then nothing can ,but the amazing words at the end are truely inspiring to everyone ,he is fast becoming a modern day prophet ,having all the tools and not being able to use them ,but having practical knowledge will always get you by and can be worked with .

 

Him and Brown would be fantastic for Scotland right now.

 

in the SPL team of the week again.


Moussa and Sinclair also made it.


https://mobile.twitter.com/spfl/status/816318926271483904

 

I always liked Armstrong, just thought he was being played out wide when it was never his position, and used to frustrate the * out of me seeing Johansen get a game at CAM every game despite * form when we had Rogic and Stu there as well as commons (under Ronnie).

Didn't expect to see the level of performance he has put in though tbh, thought he'd be decent but he's showing great potential now.

 

Im no clued up with whos had caps for scotland but has armstong never been called up?

 

Called up not long after signing for us but had to pull out through injury.

 

Gordon

Whittaker...Martin...Hanley...Tierney

Brown...Armstrong

Forrest...Snodgrass...Burke

Griffths


That's how Scotland should line up ffs...centre backs are heavy gash though

 

Possibly Mulgrew at CB?

That'd make a good Scotland team, but I'd personally hate to see that as a consistent team sheet! We'd be practically guaranteeing injuries/burnout for some of our best players there.

 

There's a reason we don't have any at Celtic. Only position in the club where we don't have Scottish players. Mental. It's a clear weakness in the NT

Sent from my E6553 using Tapatalk

 

Yea, 100% agree. Ronnie played him out of his preferred position.

 

STUART ARMSTRONG’S sizzling form has not surprised Billy Stark — he made the midfielder his Scotland captain.

Stark, then the national youth supremo, first clapped eyes on Armstrong at St Andrews playing with the Dundee United Under-19s.

He was impressed, and Armstrong wouldn’t just become a regular under Stark through the age groups, he would also become his skipper.

Stark repeatedly went on record claiming the boy’s best position was through the middle, so what the Celtic midfielder is achieving now from that central role is no surprise to him.

Stark said: “When I first saw Stuart there was his mechanical running style, he was mobile and had this high knee lift.


“It has evolved into that lovely running style now. He had broad shoulders and a top-class engine.

“He wasn’t slow in putting his foot in but he didn’t really have the defensive qualities in terms of understanding the game, which isn’t unusual.

“But that running power from deep was the big attraction.

“I always looked at him as a box-to-box player. He always wanted to play in the middle of the park.

“He ate up the ground. Stuart proved in Under-21 games he had really lovely feet to skip by people.


“Breaking the lines was one of his big qualities. What determines if young players become top players is if they can do the final thing, the pass or shot at goal. He’s got better at that.”

Armstrong, 24, has eight goals this season, despite taking time to break into the team.

Stark said: “I used to tell him a midfielder with the qualities he had must be scoring double figures every season.

“He accepted that because he strikes a nice clean ball. He can arrive late in the box and get one-touch finishes.”

Stark scored more than 100 goals from midfield in a top-flight career with St Mirren, Aberdeen and Celtic.

He said: “You take a greater interest in those who play in similar roles.


“But Stuart will be a far better player than me, for sure.”

Armstrong was also handed the armband by Brendan Rodgers when Scott Brown was banned against Dundee last month.

Stark added: “That was clever management and it’s no small feat at his tender age.


“He’s a different type to Scott. He might not crunch into tackles but he’s got that will to win which separates top players from ordinary ones.

“Intelligent boys are thin on the ground as footballers. He will always get stick but he takes it very well.

“He’s so grounded. He was studying Law with the 21s. If we went to the pictures and he had some work to do, we’d just leave him at the hotel to get on with it.”

 

Armstrong been outstanding and a joy to watch for a good few weeks now.....he should be a first pick for scotland on current form.