Ange Postecoglou has been advised to take Liel Abada out of his starting line-up for Celtic’s clash with Ferencvaros.
Club correspondent Kieran Devlin called for Mikey Johnston to start instead in The Athletic’s matchday discussion.
The lowdown
Abada joined Celtic from Israeli outfit Maccabi Petha Tikva in the summer for a fee of £3.6million.
In his first 16 appearances for his new club, he’s been directly involved in 10 goals (six goals, four assists).
But the stats suggest he struggled in Saturday’s win at Motherwell, his SofaScore rating of 6.8 the second-lowest in the Celtic side.
Not one of his seven attempted crosses found a team-mate and he lost possession 12 times in all before being substituted on 73 minutes.
The latest
Devlin described Abada as ‘badly out of form’ and says he ‘needs a rest’ or, from another point of view, ‘time out the spotlight’.
He said he is a ‘big Johnston fan’ and would ‘like to see him get 60 minutes if he’s capable’.
The verdict
Celtic are in desperate need of points on Tuesday, having lost their first two Europa League matches. Lose, and their prospects of progressing look very bleak indeed.
If Postecoglou selects Abada, he struggles again and the result goes against them, he’ll likely come under fire.
And who knows? As Devlin suggests, the rest could actually rejuvenate him, with another home fixture coming up on Saturday against St Johnstone.
In other news, Tom Boyd shares his ‘horrendous’ fear.
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