Aiden McGeady on what he told James McFadden about Celtic duo Yang Hyun-Jun and Daizen Maeda

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Celtic fans got to see their bench players in action against Dundee United on Sunday.

Given the rigours of Celtic’s fixture list, it has taken its toll on them and Brendan Rodgers had to make several changes for the Tannadice trip.

It was one week after the magical evening at Hampden when Celtic beat Rangers in the League Cup final.

But Celtic recorded a goalless draw against Dundee United by failing to score for the first time in the Premiership this season and dropped points for only the second time.

Daizen Maeda was one of the men from the Hampden thriller to keep his place in the XI, but Yang Hyun-Jun started for the injured Nicolas Kuhn.

Aiden McGeady wanted to see Daizen Maeda and Yang Hyun-Jun swap wings

Celtic lacked a cutting edge and bite to their play against Dundee United, with Yang replaced after an hour by Luis Palma and Maeda playing 86 minutes.

When the duo were on the pitch, Aiden McGeady stated that he told James McFadden that he wanted to see the wide duo swap wings.

McGeady felt that Celtic weren’t doing enough in the final third and that probably would have aided their quality, as he told Sky Sports Football (22/12/24 at 3:30 pm).

“Lots of control of the ball and the game in the first half, but the killer instinct in the final third just wasn’t there today,” said McGeady.

“Myself and Faddy (McFadden) said, it would have been nice if we saw Yang drift across to the left and change positions with Maeda because Palma coming on, and Idah coming on, did make a slight difference in the intensity of the game and the intensity of the forward play.

“But Palma always likes to cut onto his right foot, whereas, there were times it was screaming out there to just go down the line and put crosses into the box when you are really, really pushing for a goal.”

Yang’s stats for Celtic against Dundee United

Even if Yang performed against Dundee United, he was never going to keep his place in the XI, simply because of Kuhn’s genius.

Kuhn is probably the first name on the teamsheet now and you could tell the gulf in quality between the two.

Yes, to Yang’s defence, he isn’t playing on a regular basis, so he doesn’t have that speed and rhythm to his game, but he didn’t take his chance, either, with WhoScored rating his performance at 6.13.