Celtic moved 16 points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership table on Wednesday night as they secured a relatively comfortable 2-0 win over Dundee United.
The Hoops claimed all three points thanks to goals from Daizen Maeda and substitute Reo Hatate either side of half time, finally taking advantage of their game in hand to move even further clear in the top-flight.
It was a composed, but not perfect, performance from the Scottish giants, who prevented Kasper Schmeichel from being called into strenuous action.
However, there were a couple of players who struggled to make an impact on the match as they failed to make the most of their opportunity to impress, with Adam Idah being one of them.
Adam Idah’s performance against Dundee United
The Ireland international was selected ahead of Kyogo Furuhashi for the second match in a row, but was unable to justify Brendan Rodgers‘ faith in him.
Idah played the opening 62 minutes of the game, before being replaced by the Japan international, and was not involved in the only goal of the clash – Maeda’s opening strike – before coming off.
The 6 foot 3 summer signing from Norwich had 19 touches of the ball in total and registered one effort on goal, which was blocked, and created one chance for his teammates.
Idah may argue that the service into him was not good enough, which may be fair given that he did not get a single ‘big chance’ in front of goal, but he did not do enough during the match to create opportunities for himself, with a lack of movement in the final third.
The Hoops centre-forward, however, was not the worst performer on the pitch for Celtic, as Hyun-jun Yang came in from the start on the right and should be instantly dropped by Rodgers after a disappointing display.
Hyun-jun Yang’s performance against Dundee United
The South Korean attacker was drafted into the starting line-up late into the warm-up after Nicolas Kuhn pulled up with an issue and that may have affected his performance on the night, as it was the showing of a player who did not appear ready to perform.
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It was his fifth start, in 11 appearances, in the Premiership so far this season and the 22-year-old dud is still searching for his first direct goal contribution, with zero goals and zero assists to his name.
Yang struggled in and out of possession throughout the evening at Parkhead on Wednesday, as he lost 83% (5/6) of his duels and was far too easily outmuscled by opposition players down the right flank.
|
Hyun-jun Yang |
Vs Dundee United |
|---|---|
|
Minutes |
62 |
|
Shots |
0 |
|
Key passes |
0 |
|
Dribbles completed |
0 |
|
Duels won |
1/6 |
As you can see in the table above, the 2023 summer signing offered virtually nothing at the top end of the pitch, with no dribbles, no shots, and no chances created.
Idah, at least, created a chance for his teammates and attempted a shot at goal to provide some kind of threat in the final third, whilst Yang did very little to justify another chance to start with an even worse performance than the Irishman in attack.
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Therefore, Rodgers should instantly ditch him from the starting line-up and offer another player an opportunity to stake a claim, unless Kuhn is fit enough to come straight back in.