‘He isn’t great at it’: Chris Sutton suggests Celtic duo not at Luis Palma’s level

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Chris Sutton thinks Hyunjun Yang and Daizen Maeda lack the quality Luis Palma can produce in the final third for Celtic.

On Saturday, Brendan Rodgers made a number of changes for Celtic’s trip to Ross County, including starting Hyunjun Yang, with the Tuesday night Champions League tie against Atletico Madrid in mind. 

That saw the ever-improving Luis Palma dropped to the bench, only for the summer capture to get thrown into the action after the hour mark and completely kill off the game for Celtic against the ten men of Ross County. 

That included scoring a belter from distance, but also his well-worked dinked assist to the far post for James Forrest to score his first goal of the campaign – Forrest has been backed to earn a ‘statue’.

Chris Sutton thinks that piece of play is something Daizen Maeda ‘isn’t great at’, whilst he feels Hyunjun Yang, who played 81 minutes, has ‘work to do’ with this final third product, as he told Sky Sports Football. 

All in all, it seems as though Luis Palma is setting the levels, with Chris Sutton sharing his thoughts.

Hyunjun Yang and Daizen Maeda

“If I was critical of Celtic, we knew the game was essentially over after Ross County went down to ten men,” said Sutton.

“It was picking that pass in the final third. Maeda isn’t great at it, in fairness. Yang, I think has work to do – I think if Celtic lacked anything in the game, it was that precision in the final third. He (Palma) does brilliantly for the third goal because he has a little look up and his dink to James Forrest, he means it. He isn’t just crossing it into an area – he’s a little bit different, Luis Palma.”

Big game tonight

It’s the one fans have been looking for and it’s probably, on paper, the toughest game of Celtic’s Champions League group.

The performances from the previous two games have been very encouraging and it’s something for the team to build on.

Just like at Celtic Park, open the scoring against Atletico Madrid again, then things could become very interesting.

Whilst it isn’t a worry about what the Bhoys will produce going forward in Madrid tonight, it’s about whether the team can deal with the storm that comes their way.