Rodgers Risks All As He Ditches His Celtic Formation Change After Just Two Games.

Well, that lasted, didn’t it?

Brendan Rodgers has ditched his Celtic formation change and we’ve gone back to one up front, after a mere two matches. It’s hard to know what to make of that. It seems ridiculous to me, but here we are. I have no idea what his thinking here is at all.

I knew when people were talking in midweek about bringing Iwata back that this was in the offing. You can’t play Iwata in a midfield two because that means leaving out either McGregor or O’Riley. I like Iwata, he’s done well for us so far, but the reversion back to this one up front system, which has freed up Kyogo lately and got him back amongst the goals seems absurd.

One thing I’ll say; he’s gone for Maeda wide left (his best position) and he’s put Kuhn on the right. That means he’s going for pace in the wide areas above all else, because we know that Palma can’t run worth a damn. So maybe we’re going to see the tempo upped somewhat. Playing Iwata means that he can play as the anchor, freeing McGregor to get forward.

So, there might be cause for optimism here, but as it stands, he’s going to look indecisive at best if this goes wrong today and there won’t be less questioning of him but more of it. Amongst other things, the question as to why we don’t at least experiment with three at the back and go to a 3-5-2 will be heard with increasing frequency.

This is a must win game. We’ve gone with a reasonably strong side, and we’ve done the smart thing in not starting Carter Vickers because we’ve lost this guy for enough of the season already and can’t afford to rush him back and get him injured again.

But ditching the two up front … that risks blunting Kyogo’s threat all over again. We’ll find out if that’s the case. The three man midfield can work for us but if we’re going to play the game at the snails pace of recent months this will be a long afternoon.

On the other hand, if the pace out wide combined with McGregor pushing up turns the speed back on and we win this well the guy will deserve a lot of credit for making good alterations. This is the life of a manager. You stand or fall by these calls on days like today.

We’ll see I guess.

TEAM: Hart; Johnston, Nawrocki, Scales, Taylor; Iwata, McGregor, O’Riley; Kuhn, Kyogo, Maeda.

Subs: Bain, Palma, Idah, Yang, Oh, Carter-Vickers, Bernardo, Ralston and Kelly.