As the bones are picked over how Celtic didn’t manage to see out a win over Atletico Madrid last night, one of Brendan Rodgers’ substitutions raised a few eyebrows in punditry land.
No, not the decision to bring on Paulo Bernardo in place of the injured Reo Hatate. It was the fact that Rodgers brought on James Forrest and not Hyeongyu Oh when Celtic were in need of a winner that raised questions with Pat Bonner.
The former Celtic hero thinks that because of that decision, Rodgers has sent a message out that he may not rate the 22-year-old South Korean striker.
Bonner said [BBC Sportsound], “I’ve said that I think they need to get another striker in of some description.
“Oh will be a bit disappointed that he didn’t come on the pitch tonight especially you when they take Kyogo off and they make that change and play Maeda through the middle.
“I think he might have been saying, ‘Get me on there for the last 10 minutes and I could become a hero’ but he didn’t get the opportunity.
“So does Brendan think that he’s not up to it or that maybe he wanted to try something different?
“Listen, all managers will make decisions around that. But I think I think if something happens to Kyogo they are definitely short in that position.
“They can go ahead with Maeda and play him in there. But I’m not sure if he has the answer to it either.”
I’m on record on TBR Celtic many times as saying it’s too early to judge Oh’s performances for Celtic this season.
He is averaging 12 minutes per game at the moment under Brendan Rodgers. And I don’t care who you are, even Messi would struggle to make an impact in that short period of time.
I told earlier that Chris Sutton seemed to suggest that Celtic miss Giorgos Giakoumakis. I would assume that his comments were off the back of Oh being kept on the bench last night.
I don’t even think the Greek striker would have made a difference last night as it looked like Celtic had run out of steam in the end.
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