Brendan Rodgers had a selection dilemma on his hands as he prepared his Celtic team to face Dundee this afternoon.
Knowing that Alistair Johnston was struggling for fitness and that Daizen Maeda was injured, Rodgers’ Celtic starting lineup for the game at Dens Park was always going to be an interesting one.
Would the Celtic boss bring Colby Donovan or Anthony Ralston in place for the recovering Celtic fullback or would Johnston still play a part?
As for Maeda, the Celtic manager had the chance to throw in new summer signing Michel-Ange Balikwisha to let the Belgian show what he can do from the first whistle.
As it stood, Hyunjun Yang was picked to start the match and the reasons Brendan Rodgers gave for giving the Celtic winger the nod are very baffling indeed.
Brendan Rodgers’ weird pre-match comments on ‘outstanding’ Celtic winger Hyunjun Yang
Yang has been told that he can leave Celtic. Just last summer he was denied a move after the club sold Nicolas Kuhn to Como.
However, Rodgers still selected the South Korean to start whilst keeping a player who wants to play for Celtic on the bench and his reasons for doing so will baffle fans.
Rodgers told the BBC, “We’re looking forward to the game, I’ve always enjoyed coming here. Hopefully we can put in a performance to match.
“Seven games in 21 days is a tough spell but my message to the players is let’s take on the challenge of that. We want to play well, we want to win games and that’s what we’ll look to do starting today.
“It has been a challenging start to the season. However, that’s in the past and what we can affect is going forward.
“The right side has been a wee bit of a challenge for us but Yang has played well before. Against Dundee at home I remember a game he was outstanding in.
“He’s training very well and he’s that player, naturally, that can come in and give us the energy.”
Hyunjun Yang’s Celtic stats vs Dundee
Yang was hooked at half-time as Rodgers looked to go with two strikers to try and save the game.
It didn’t work for him as, at 2-0 down, Celtic’s players already looked down and out. As for Yang, the winger’s stats in the defeat, or previous performances for that matter, certainly didn’t justify Rodgers’ praise.
Here is how Yang fared against Dundee according to Fotmob:
- Minutes played: 45
- Rating: 6.1
- Goals: 0
- Assists: 0
- Total shots: 1
- Accurate passes: 14/18 (78%)
- Chances created: 1
- Expected goals (xG): 0.25
- Expected goals on target (xGOT): 0.00
- Expected assists (xA): 0.03
- xG + xA: 0.28
- Shots on target: 0/1 (0%)
- Big chances missed: 1
- Touches: 25
- Touches in opposition box: 5
- Passes into final third: 3
- Accurate crosses: 0/1 (0%)
An absolutely woeful performance but one that will not entirely surprise the Celtic support.
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