With Rodgers Praise For Yang, Does It Feel Like Celtic Is Approaching Peak Strength?

Brendan Rodgers was fulsome yesterday in praise of Yang, and I found that interesting. He clearly likes the player a lot. He is obviously one of the few success stories of the transfer business, and I think that’s because he’s so different to the other players.

Yang is quick, with good feet and he is physically strong. In a team where we lack aggression and power, he is one of the players who stands out as having that in his game.

He’s not easily pushed off the ball. He is raw, but he’s talented. I am not surprised that the boss has given him so many games and allowed him to stake his claim.

It’s a strange fate for this player now, though. Because we’ve enjoyed watching Kuhn these past few weeks and most of us probably expected him to start at Livingston and then maybe at Ibrox.

But I can’t help but thing that Yang’s physicality and quick thinking would be something to see against the club across the city. It certainly gives the boss something to think about.

And it gives us something to think about too.

We seem pretty strong on the right side, if Kuhn continues to play the way he has been lately and if Yang is growing into the player you can see is in there trying to come out.

I wish we were as well placed on left. We’ve not heard about the extent of the injury being carried by Palma, but Maeda has made that position his own anyway and Palma has a power of work to do to convince people that he’s more than just a bit-part player.

With Hatate coming back to fitness, and other injured players returning to the side, it seems as if we might be in a good place coming to the home stretch.

In fact, once you factor in players who’ve been out a while and those who are, at last, finding their feet, and you look at the makeup of the side now that they are, I can’t help but think we’re finally close to full strength.

Or at least, what passes for that now. Yet it might not be a minor matter.

Always, this season, some shadow has hung over us in terms of who the boss had available.

The clouds all seem to be clearing at just the right moment though, and if we fully hit our stride on the pitch as a consequence then this really will be our season after all.

That would be amazing, considering all that has come to pass in it.