Brendan Rodgers explains why Celtic fans haven’t seen much of Luis Palma this season.
Since our UEFA Champions League defeat to Lazio, Brendan Rodgers has been speaking about Luis Palma.
The Honduran winger, who joined from Aris Thessaloniki at the end of August, has made an impression in recent games. Palma scored a crucial goal against Motherwell last weekend and then appeared to score an even more significant goal against Lazio before VAR intervened.
The attacker has shown promise at times, but he will have a difficult time matching former Hoops winger Jota. He joined the club as the apparent left-wing successor for the Portuguese great, but hasn’t played as much as fans may have expected.
Palma has appeared in six Celtic games but has only started once, against Feyenoord. He has come off the bench in three other games, including Wednesday’s encounter against the Italians.
Because he was up against Motherwell, Hyunjun Yang was chosen ahead of him. Despite not yet lighting things up, the South Korean appears to be ahead of Palma in Rodgers’ pecking order.
Rodgers has spoken to The Herald about his plans for the Lazio game.
“[Yang] brings a little more physicality,” Hoops’ head coach stated. “I thought Luis played well when he came in.” He’s still getting used to the intensity and tempo of it all. That was the reasoning for the choice.
“Obviously, we’ve moved the wingers around to look at the best opportunities for us in the games.” But I thought Luis looked terrific and had some really good moments when he came on.
“He was unlucky with the goal.” Daizen is struck by the ball. It would have passed through Luis if it hadn’t touched him. He finishes it quite beautifully. But I believe he will continue to improve.
“Until then, we have to look at them.”
both of them, and take a look at them all. Hopefully, these will be useful to us. I believe [Luis] will improve as a result of the experiences, demands, and expectations that come with playing for a team like this.
“He possesses technical ability.” He altered it and completed it quite nicely, as evidenced by the disallowed goal. He secured the ball after a couple of great cross-field passes. “The young players will get better.”
Palma is an intriguing character. On the surface, he appears to be doing well. He handled his disallowed goal against Lazio admirably. It was a genuine piece of quality that demonstrated his ability to contribute on that stage.
At Motherwell, he scored the opening goal and should have assisted James Forrest five minutes earlier.
Despite those high points, there is a growing suspicion that he is a touch one-dimensional. It’s early days, and he may still have a lot of growth in him, but he almost always wants to cut inside onto his right foot.
That’s terrific when it works, like it did against Lazio and Motherwell, but it’ll become incredibly easy to counter. Jota was always able to go any way, which made him such a threat.
These are just a few of my initial views on Palma. I’m not dismissing him, but I’m hoping there’s something else in his game that we haven’t seen yet.
