He was worse than Kuhn: Rodgers must finally drop 117-pass Celtic star

Celtic extended their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership table to 16 points, for now, by beating Aberdeen 5-1 at Parkhead on Tuesday night.

Two goals from Daizen Maeda and strikes from Callum McGregor, Jota, and Hyun-jun Yang secured all three points for the Scottish giants on the night in Glasgow.

It has been a terrific return to life in the city for Portuguese forward Jota, who re-joined the club on a permanent deal from Rennes in the January transfer window.

The right-footed sensation has racked up three goals and two ‘big chances’ created, with one assist, in three starts and five appearances in total in the Premiership this month.

Whilst Jota starred for the Bhoys on the left wing, Nicolas Kuhn operated on the other side and let Brendan Rodgers down with a disappointing showing.

Nicolas Kuhn’s performance against Aberdeen

The German forward was selected to start on the right side of the front three against the Dons, with Maeda through the middle and Jota out on the left flank.

Kuhn was tightly marked throughout his 59 minutes on the pitch and often found himself passing back to Alistair Johnston or one of the centre-backs after being forced to receive the ball with his back to goal under pressure in his own half.

The former Rapid Vienna star did complete three of his four attempted dribbles, when he had the chance to face up against his match-up, but there was a lack of end product when the winger got into the final third.

Celtic scored five goals against Aberdeen and the German attacker was not directly involved in any of them, as he ended the match without a goal or an assist to his name – for the third game in succession in the Premiership.

As you can see in the table above, Kuhn has failed to make much of an impact at the top end of the pitch in any of his last three outings in the league, with zero shots on target and zero ‘big chances’ created.

The forward, who has scored 18 goals and provided 12 assists in all competitions this season, has not been at his best in recent weeks and Rodgers will be hoping that he can soon hit his stride once again.

There was a Celtic player, despite it being a comfortable win overall, who was even worse than Kuhn against Aberdeen on Tuesday night – Auston Trusty.

Auston Trusty’s performance against Aberdeen

The USA international started the game on the left side of the centre-back pairing next to his international teammate Cameron Carter-Vickers, with Johnston at right-back and Jeffrey Schlupp to his left.

Trusty was aerially dominant throughout the 90 minutes, winning all six of his contests in the air, to prevent the away side from causing too many problems from long balls and set-pieces.

However, his work on the deck was far from perfect. Aberdeen caught him out several times, as he twice attempted to knock the ball around an opposition forward, only to find himself giving possession away and trying to defend the potential counter.

The two most notable incidents happened towards the end of the match. Firstly, Trusty attempted to turn on the ball on the halfway line and was tackled by Shayden Morris, who then outpaced the centre-back to go through one-on-one, but he failed to find the target.

Celtic’s left-footed defender then failed to match the run made by Pape Gueye into the right channel and allowed the striker to cut inside and come infield before spraying a pass to Morris, who found the back of the net on that occasion.

These mistakes show that he was even worse than Kuhn on the night because the German forward did not do anything particularly wrong, but was just not at his usual exceptional best.

The 26-year-old completed 117 passes and had 131 touches of the ball, which was even more touches than star midfielder Arne Engels (77) had. Football FanCast published an article describing him as the team’s new superstar after the match, and Trusty had almost twice as many touches as the midfield sensation.

There were too many nervy moments for comfort, which presented Aberdeen with several chances to find the back of the net, and that is a cause for concern.

Why Celtic should drop Auston Trusty

With this performance in mind, Rodgers must ruthlessly bin the central defender from the starting line-up for Celtic’s clash with St Mirren away from home on Saturday.

Trusty was not reliable at the heart of the defence, due to his lapses of concentration in possession, and that came after he was caught out for one of the goals in the 2-1 defeat to Hibernian last weekend.

As you can see in the highlights above, Josh Campbell got the run on the defender to beat him in the air for his second goal of the game in the first half.

Rodgers does have options in his squad to replace Trusty in the starting line-up and could call upon the experience of Liam Scales as a naturally left-footed player, whilst academy graduate Dane Murray is also in contention to feature.

As you can see in the table above, the Ireland international has been more reliable on the ball than the American in the Premiership this season, with four fewer errors in two more appearances.

These statistics suggest that Scales is a dependable option who could be the perfect man to come in for Trusty against St Mirren on Saturday, in the hope that it provides the former Arsenal man with the kick he needs to improve his play in possession.

Scales has proven, as evidenced by his inclusion in the Premiership Team of the Year last season and his aforementioned statistics this term, that he is a quality centre-back at this level and that is why Rodgers must bin Trusty to unleash the left-footed ace next time out.