Chris Sutton has 'sympathy' for Jordan Lotomba after Celtic v Besiktas

Chris Sutton has defended Celtic's Jordan Lotomba after the right-back was thrown into the deep end against Besiktas on Thursday night. The Bhoys defeated Besiktas to keep their chances of progressing in the Europa League alive, but it was as tricky as expected.

Besiktas are a very solid side, and while Celtic did well for the first hour with a much-rotated team, with Martin O'Neill making five changes to his starting XI, going into the laft half-hour 1-0 down was a real concern.

Celtic found themselves 1-0 due to a rebounded penalty which came about because Lotomba, who made his first Celtic start, dived in during a battle with his winger and brought him down just inside the box, on the byline.

It came down to a matter of inches, with Lotomba catching his man a little too late, meaning he was just inside the box, but it was a silly challenge and one born out of panic.

Until then, Lotomba had been doing okay. Not great, but okay, and he produced a near 60-yard solo run after the penalty in a bid to redeem himself, and he almost created a big chance by doing so.

But the penalty concession will define his performance because it was a major error, and it is true that he is lacking some match sharpness that shows at times, especially in the second phase.

"Then there was lobbing in Jordan Lotomba", Sutton assessed in his Daily Record column. "I actually had some sympathy for the full back. He’s clearly not fully up to speed having arrived looking like he’d been on a three month all inclusive holiday over the summer.

"It’s a tough first start up against a team like Besiktas and being asked to do a job on a guy like Leandro Trossard. I thought Arsenal were daft to let him go and he showed his quality the other night.

"Lotomba was up against it and it was a difficult evening. But he’s not the one to blame for the malfunctioning transfer setup that saw him arrive in the final days of the window. It’s a bit unfair to slaughter him. Likewise Hogh had another frustrating night."

In the cold light of day, O'Neill will watch back the footage and see Lotomba's performance as one that certainly wasn't disastrous aside from the penalty concession, which can happen as a defender. Celtic conceded a penalty against Ferencvaros, and we didn't put that down to a lack of match sharpness.

Defenders dive in and sometimes they are too slow to do so. It's a mistake but no one is going through their career without making it.

Lotomba looked decent on the ball, driving forward with power, and it certainly wasn't as though he got burned by his winger repeatedly. In fact, that might have been the only time he let his man in behind.

Alistair Johnston and Colby Donovan will likely remain ahead of Lotomba, but if he can brush up his fitness, he could yet be a useful player.