The real ‘reason’ Brendan Rodgers dropped Liam Scales for Celtic vs Aberdeen in League Cup

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Brendan Rodgers has proven that when it comes to making tough selection calls, the Celtic boss does not shirk away from them.

The Hoops boss made some big changes to his Celtic side that faced Motherwell last week as Rodgers brought in Luke McCowan to start and put Arne Engels on the bench.

Against Dundee, the Celtic boss also raised eyebrows as he made more changes to rest his big players for yesterday’s League Cup semi-final against Aberdeen.

However, Rodgers made what was probably his most controversial decision when he decided to name a Celtic starting lineup to face Aberdeen minus the ever-impressive Liam Scales yesterday afternoon.

Why Brendan Rodgers partnered Auston Trusty with Cameron Carter-Vickers for Celtic vs Aberdeen

Here, Rodgers explains his reasoning behind the call and admits that the decision to leave his in-from defender out of the starting lineup was ‘very tough’.

Rodgers told Premier Sports, “It was very tough because Liam’s been absolutely brilliant for me since he came into the team.

“But we try to look at each game, and I felt that with the striker that we thought Aberdeen were going to play who likes to run in behind, so we [wanted to] add that extra bit of pace into the backline.

“Auston’s physicality is very good, and that was the reason for that.”

Alan Thompson’s verdict on Celtic beating Aberdeen

Rodgers clearly sent out a statement by dropping Scales because regardless of how well the Celtic players are performing, if the Hoops boss believes he can start another player to give an advantage to his team, he will have no qualms in doing so.

And that wasn’t the only statement Rodgers sent out according to Celtic hero, Alan Thompson.

Thompson referencing the 6-0 result with six shamrocks is a class gesture from him but the statement is clear for all to see.

Aberdeen were sent a clear warning by Celtic that if they want to get anywhere close to Celtic, then they will need to up their game because beating the current Scottish champions is going to take something special from them regardless of how they are playing right now.