John Hughes believes Ryan Christie could solve Scotland’s problem in attack, with the 23-year-old being in fine form of late. Christie has struggled for playing time at Celtic, but he’s impressed when called upon this season which could lead to him adding to his three caps for the Scotland national team.
With Leigh Griffiths having withdrawn himself from international duty in October and Steven Naismith currently injured and ruled out for two months, Scotland need a centre-forward for their upcoming Nations League double-header against Albania and Israel.
Hughes wants to see Christie given a chance to prove his worth to Alex McLeish next month, as he believes he can successfully operate up front and has a good relationship with the Scotland boss.
He told BBC Sportsound (h/t The Sun): “I’ll fling a name in – Ryan Christie. “He had a wonderful game at the weekend there. The reason I’m saying that is because he can play centre-forward. He played centre-forward for Celtic against Motherwell, 7-0, last game of the season.
“And he had a man-of-the-match performance. I know Alex likes him. Maybe it’s a little bit early for him but when you’ve got a guy who’s on form and on a high…I don’t think he’d let the country down.”
Christie joined Celtic from Inverness Caledonian Thistle in 2015 and has gone on to make 24 appearances in all competitions, scoring and creating six goals. He was loaned out to Aberdeen in his early years at Celtic but is finally making a name for himself in the Hoops first-team.
With the talented attacking-midfielder getting more senior game time and being called up to the national team, Christie could be in for a bright 2018/19 campaign.
Stats from Transfermarkt.
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