I don’t think many Celtic fans will disagree with what Aiden McGeady is about to say about last night’s team selection to face Lazio.
McGeady, who rose to prominence as a Celtic player during the Gordon Strachan era, said that he was surprised that Brendan Rodgers opted to start South Korean winger, Hyunjun Yang ahead of Luis Palma in a crunch Champions League fixture that his old club couldn’t afford to lose.
McGeady said [BBC Sportsound], “I think he came on it at Motherwell and made a big impact. Surprised to see him not start tonight.
“But again, though, even in his general play he made a difference when he came on, but at times I thought he could have done more.”
To be honest, I was surprised myself that Yang was picked to start. In my Predicted Celtic XI, I favoured the Honduras international as I felt with his confidence being high after scoring against Motherwell, last night was the perfect opportunity to let him loose.
Yang has, so far, flattered to deceive. His product in the final third is poor and even though he did show some flashes of decent skill against Lazio, the hard truth is he didn’t do enough to put the struggling Serie A side to the sword.
Plus, his comments at the weekend didn’t exactly fill me with confidence about whether or not the Celtic jersey is too heavy for him.
Palma came to Celtic highly rated. There is a reason that Rodgers splashed £3.5m on the forward. Hopefully, the Celtic manager will give him more first-team minutes so that he can find his groove and make his mark on this Celtic side.
In other news, ‘Not human’: Lionel Messi highlights one Celtic player’s Champions League display as ‘the best’ he has ever seen