James McFadden slams Celtic star for taking too many touches during win over Kilmarnock

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Celtic returned to the top of the Scottish Premiership table on Sunday by beating Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.

Only 24 hours before, Aberdeen continued their outstanding start to the season by putting four goals past Dundee.

After 11 matches, Jimmy Thelin’s side are neck and neck with the champions and, as of this moment, they are showing everyone that they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

But Brendan Rodgers’ side did what they do best and that’s return to the top of the table.

Celtic’s win over Kilmarnock wasn’t easy and the manager did make some changes to his XI following the gruelling, yet satisfying week for his side.

It all started with that semi-final thrashing of Aberdeen, before Celtic put on a show against RB Leipzig and, understandably so, that took a toll on the legs.

That’s why players like Adam Idah came into the XI, but he didn’t put in the performance he would have liked.

James McFadden critical of Adam Idah’s performance as Celtic beat Kilmarnock

The great thing about this Celtic side is that the competition for places is growing and there is some serious quality on the bench.

Even those from the Rangers side are scared of Celtic’s bench strength, but Idah couldn’t show it on a difficult afternoon against Killie.

McFadden highlighted what the player was doing wrong and how he was almost taking ‘four touches’ at times just to control the ball.

The former midfielder added that, when Idah tried to lay the ball off the first time, that didn’t work either and it was a poor performance overall, as he told Sky Sports Football (10/11/24 at 4:00 pm).

“It can happen,” says McFadden on Celtic struggling after the performance against Leipzig.

“I think they struggled because it worked before with Idah. They can beat the press, play up to Idah and he holds it in, and then they play from there.

“He’s not been able to hold it in. His touch has been poor. He has taken three or four (touches) just to get it under control. He’s trying to lay things off the first time and it isn’t working, so it stops Celtic from getting forward, in that sense.”

Idah’s stats for Celtic against Kilmarnock

There is no doubt that Kyogo Furuhashi is the main man for Celtic and he will play in the big games.

But that doesn’t mean Rodgers won’t turn to Idah because he did fairly well during that goalless draw against Atalanta in the Champions League.

The difficult nature of playing at such a high level is that, as soon as your performance drops, it is felt and it can be seen.

WhoScored rated Idah’s performance against Kilmarnock at 6.51.