Ange Postecoglou once explained that everyone commenting on his team selection was doing so with around 10% of the information that he had available to him as the then Celtic manager. There were times for instance, under Ange and the three other managers before him, when Tom Rogic would mysteriously drop out of the picture for a while with everyone assuming that he picked up a knock in training or something similar.
In his very moving statement this week to officially announce his retirement from the game, aged just 30, Tom Rogic gave us an insight into some the 90% of that the manager will be aware of that we’ll not know about.
The two big decisions for the Celtic team that we reckoned Brendan Rodgers would have to make were on the choice of central defensive parter for Liam Scales – would he gamble on Cameron Carter-Vickers being ready to start after his injury woes or could he go with Nat Phillips, who himself just came back from injury coming off the bench in the closing stages of the game at the weekend at Fir Park.
Brendan probably thought that he wasn’t going to get 90 minutes out of either of them and had to decide who started and who was going to come on from the bench.
And the second position in the team that the manager would have pondered before making his starting selection was on the wings, with Daizen Maeda already in his plans would Rodgers opt for Yang, who started at Fir Park but failed to make an impact or Luis Palma who came off the bench to score a dramatic goal in to kickstart a frantic few minutes of football that had on that occasion a happy ending for Celtic.
Many thought at Palma would start and could take the high from his goal against Motherwell into the Champions League match against Lazio but Brendan decided otherwise, playing Yang from the start before bringing Palma to make an impact – and he certainly did?
After the match Brendan Rodgers was asked why he went with Yang ahead of Palma in his starting line-up and the Celtic manager explained that selection as reported by The Herald.
“A bit more physicality,” Brendan said. “I thought Luis did well when he came into the game. He is still getting up to speed with the intensity and the tempo of it all. So that was the reason for the decision.
“We have obviously moved the wingers around to look at the best possibilities for us in the games. But I thought Luis looked good when he came on and had some really good moments. He was unfortunate with the goal. The ball hits Daizen. If it doesn’t touch him it would have run through to Luis. He finishes it really, really well. But I expect him to get better and better.
Lazio’s Italian defender #13 Alessio Romagnoli and Celtic’s Honduras striker #07 Luis Palma vie for the ball during the UEFA Champions League group E football match between Celtic and Lazio at Celtic Park stadium in Glasgow, Scotland on October 4, 2023. (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN / AFP) (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)
“I also don’t expect these young players to come and hit the ground running straight away. If they do, it’s great. But they are coming from different cultures, different football, slower tempos. It is just going to take that bit of time for them to get up to speed. Until that moment, we have to look at them both and look at them all. Hopefully they can contribute well for us.
“I just think (Luis Palma) will get better and better with the experiences, demands and expectations of playing for a club like this. He has got the technical quality. You could see from the disallowed goal that he has shifted it and finished it really well.
“He played a couple of nice cross-field passes and secured the ball. The young players will improve.”
It will be interesting to see whether Yang or Palma gets the nod tomorrow, and with our 10% of the relevant information available to us we reckon that Palma will start.
Join The Celtic Star at the Kerrydale on Thursday 19 October when we celebrate the launch of Matt Corr’s new book Majic, Stan and the King of Japan which tells the story of Gordon Strachan’s first season as Celtic manager. We’ll have the trophies that the Celtic team won that season plus we will be delighted to welcome our special guests John Hartson and Stephen McManus, both stars of that Celtic team.
And we have other guests to be announced later this week plus there’s live music from the wonderful Boolavogue. Tickets are selling fast for what is sure to be a wonderful night of Celtic conversation and music and you can order below…
