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News
‘Really excited’… Brendan Rodgers explains surprising Celtic team selection vs St Mirren
Celtic boss, Brendan Rodgers, pulled off a surprising team selection to face St Mirren in the Scottish Cup this afternoon.
Dropping Paulo Bernardo to the bench and starting Kyogo Furuhashi and Adam Idah would have come as a surprise to the Hoops fans.
It’s the first time Rodgers has started two strikers this season and here, the Celtic boss explains the reasoning behind it.
Rodgers said [], “I don’t think the structure of the team changes so much. We’re just replacing a midfield player with a striker.
“But the shape of the team won’t be too much away from what you would see in a normal circumstance.
“But I’ve been really excited watching them in training and linking them together. They both have speed, they both have that quality to score goals.
“So I think when playing against a system that St Mirren have with a back five then of course, those two up there joined in with others can really help us, hopefully, break that down.”
As I said, this is the first time Rodgers has started two strikers from kick-off for Celtic this season. On a few occasions the Hoops gaffer has finished a match with two up top so to see this from Rodgers was definitely a surprise.
With Celtic running out 2-0 winners, Rodgers’ team selection has been vindicated. Watching the match you could see Idah trying to drag the St Mirren defenders out of position to create space for Kyogo.
You could how the Japanese striker was afforded some room through the middle as the two Paisley centre-halves kept close to Idah which allowed the Celtic talisman to fire home the opener from the edge of the box.
The Celtic fans will be hoping to see more of this from Rodgers as the team has struggled to break down stubborn defences of late.
In other news, ‘Painful to see’… Chris Sutton now shares why he believes Kyogo Furuhashi is struggling at Celtic this season