Time for £4m star: Rodgers must brutally ditch 3/10 Celtic man after Hampden howler

Rodgers must instantly drop 3/10 Celtic man after Hampden struggles

Celtic advanced through to the final of the SFA Cup on Saturday as they beat Aberdeen on penalties at Hampden Park after a 3-3 draw to take it to spot-kicks.

Joe Hart missed a penalty himself, striking the post with a well-taken effort, and was then the hero with his stop to win the shootout for the Hoops.

Despite their progression through to the final, Celtic had a number of poor performances from players across the park that Brendan Rodgers must keep in mind ahead of their clash with Dundee in the Scottish Premiership next weekend.

Central defender Liam Scales endured a rough afternoon against his former club and must now be brutally ditched from the starting XI to make way for Maik Nawrocki.

Liam Scales’ 3/10 display at Hampden

The Ireland international was handed a 3/10 rating by Football Insider’s Sean Fisher, who described his performance as ‘nervous’ and ‘sluggish’.

Bojan Miovski’s opener was not the former Dons loanee’s fault, although you could argue that he failed to step in to cut out the through ball that caught Cameron Carter-Vickers out.

The left-footed battler was, however, less than impressive with his work for Aberdeen’s second as they equalised in the 90th minute to send the game to extra time.

Junior Hoilett floated a ball to the back post and Scales completely lost track of Ester Solker and got caught under the flight of the ball as he missed his header and allowed the forward to nod the ball into an empty net.

Scales found himself in a similar situation for Aberdeen’s equaliser in the 119th minute in extra time as once again Hoilett sent a cross to the back post and the Irishman missed the header and allowed his marker, Angus MacDonald that time, to head in.

This suggests that the 3/10 rating was not overly harsh from Football Insider, as the 25-year-old dud had a howler at Hampden with his weak defending that cost the Hoops at least two of the three goals.

Time for Maik Nawrocki

Rodgers must now unleash Nawrocki, who was signed from Legia Warsaw for a fee of £4m last summer, from the start after Scales almost let his side down in Saturday’s semi-final.

The 23-year-old star did start the club’s last league match, which was a 3-0 win over St Mirren, and put in a solid performance at the back for the Bhoys.

The Polish colossus, who has won 71% of his ground duels in the Premiership this season, heavily contributed to Celtic keeping a clean sheet in the game, whereas Scales was directly at fault for two goals against Aberdeen on Saturday.

This is why Rodgers must brutally ditch the Irish defender from the starting XI against Dundee next weekend and unleash Nawrocki, who was superb in his last start, alongside Carter-Vickers.

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