Welcome to Celtic Alex Valle

In the same sense though…that was Valle’s opportunity to prove himself against a better standard of opposition; which for me he (like the rest of the team) sunk into the background. Our full backs are a pivotal cog in our system, and for me he hasn’t shown enough to warrant pushing to sign him. I think Rodgers feels this too and if it wasn’t for Taylor’s contract situation I think he’d have played less

 

It was, but the chances of any sub coming on and making much of an impact while the guys around them who started were crumbling like dust was slim to none. That doesn’t excuse his lack of ability to control a football or pass to a teammate but it would’ve been naive to expect him to really do much yesterday. Their tails were up, had a full stadium behind them and if we’re being completely honest had a free shot at it (not excusing the disgraceful level of performance we showed) but for any sub coming into that game yesterday it was a huge ask.

Had he made those subs at half time I maybe wouldn’t have been quite so lenient on them, because that would’ve been the right time to make them. The break gave us the chance to hit the reset button, subs and a different approach might’ve been more effective then, but changing absolutely nothing was either pure arrogance or insanity, maybe somewhere in between and as such gave anyone coming on next to no chance right from the start.

 

Should’ve started IMHO but that wasn’t the most glaring issue from the off, inability to play out of pressure & xG of the opponents was the difference

 

Rodgers can be extremely stubborn. It was obvious from the cup final a few weeks ago that we struggled to play through the rangers’ press. Valle gives us the option to play around the press and stretch the game (which in itself opens up the game for our midfielders), but for some reason Rodgers didn’t want to utilise this yesterday and we played right into their game plan instead.

If Rodgers doesn’t see Valle as the solution then he’s as well heading back to Barcelona in January and it’s a position we desperately need to rectify.

 

Valle I think is much better and more direct than taylor

 

Looked dreadful when he came on. Not a chance he is a long term solution.