Celtic shouldn't put the pressure of saving a 10 In A Row title-winning season on David Turnbull warns Motherwell coach Brian Kerr.
Turnbull has burst onto the scene at Parkhead in the past 10 days after finally receiving his chance in Neil Lennon 's starting XI following his £3.25million move from the Steelmen.
Impressive displays against Lille and Kilmarnock have earned the 21-year-old rave reviews and led to many calling for him to be the centrepiece of the new-look Hoops side.
However Kerr, who coaches the Fir Park under-18 side, insists it's important to avoid piling the pressure of a 10th consecutive win on the Scotland under-21 cap.
Scotland cap Kerr believes that the pressure cooker of a title race shouldn't be placed on the shoulders of the Lanarkshire academy graduate.
He said: “Maybe some of the results haven’t gone Celtic’s way this season but a lot of that is probably down to Rangers doing so well.
“There are a lot of good players in that midfield like Brown, McGregor and Christie; they have a lot of big names in that area of the pitch so I did know David would have to wait and it would take a bit of time.
“I was surprised he was an unused sub though, and wasn't given more minutes to build up to the start, but I'm not surprised by how well he has done when he got the chance.
“He’s got great quality and he has a knack of doing the right things with the ball 99 per cent of the time.
“He makes great decisions for a young boy, but we do have to remember he’s a young boy.
“Already after two games they are putting a lot of pressure on him.
“It’s almost like he’s going to be the saviour of the season and the 10 In A Row. He’s got to be careful about what kind of pressure gets put on him.
“He’s only played for Motherwell up until now and he’s played a decent amount of games, but you don’t want to put too much pressure on him at a young age.”
Kerr says the performances in recent weeks haven't shocked anyone at Motherwell - insisting it was only a matter of time before he showed his best at Parkhead.
“I think the performances have been an eye-opener to a lot of people but not to anybody at Motherwell who had worked with him before.
“He had one or two things happen with Covid and coming back from the under-21’s, that maybe scuppered his chances a bit, but I’m still surprised he hadn’t had more game time before that anyway.
“He’s now taking his opportunity over the past couple of games and people are really seeing what he can bring to the team."
