James McFadden delivers brutally honest ‘way off it’ assessment of Celtic star, is this too harsh?

Add as preferred source on Google

Scotland legend James McFadden thinks Adam Idah was nowhere near up to the required quality for Celtic against Dundee United.

And that’s the despite the Irish striker coming off the bench for the injured Jota in the first-half and scoring two goals as Celtic romped to the Premiership title.

Idah had to make to with a place on the Tannadice bench with manager Brendan Rodgers preferring Daizen Maeda through the middle, Jota on the left and Nicolas Kuhn on the right.

However, Jota suffered a bad knee injury in the first-half and it forced Rodgers into brining Idah on. He went on to score a brace, but McFadden was disappointed with Idah’s display.

• READ MORE: Chris Sutton tells Celtic critics what they’ve been saying recently is ‘ridiculous’

McFadden criticises Celtic’s Adam Idah vs Dundee United

Peter Grant thinks Idah has been “incredible” this season given his current goals per minutes ratio for Celtic. However, McFadden was critical of Idah against United, despite saying he changed the game for the Hoops in the end.

Speaking on the latest Open Goal podcast, McFadden said: “I thought his touch was way off it, but he scores two goals and you cannot really argue with that. But I think him coming on definitely helped Celtic.

“I think he (Rodgers) will play him (Idah against Rangers). As much as I thought he could have been a bit tidier with his hold-up play, he’s still physical and likes to come to feet and try and link up.

“So it’s a different problem. And if Rangers then commit to a full press, then there should be space to clip it in (to Idah).”

McFadden’s Idah comments are overly critical

It’s fair to say that Idah looked a little bit shaky when he came on for Jota after 35 minutes, but he was only just off the bench.

For that reason alone, Idah should be cut some slack. Couple that with the fact Rodgers does not provide the Irishman with any consistency regarding his playing time and you could argue McFadden’s criticism is extremely harsh.

The Open Goal pundit did water down his comments by saying Idah provided Celtic with a focal point, which helped them on their way to a 5-0 victory.

It allowed Daizen Maeda to go out to the left wing and produce two tremendous assists, while Idah got on the scoresheet twice. What else can the man do?

There’s no doubt Idah can be a little bit messy with his hold-up and link-up play, as well as his decision-making. But if the man scores twice after 90 minutes of play, you can’t be overly critical.

As a result, Idah deserves to start against Rangers, which would help Celtic beat the Ibrox side’s press which has worked well for them in the last two Glasgow derbies.