The hidden plan Brendan Rodgers had by making Tomoki Iwata to start the match and and leaving Gustaf Lagerbielke on the bench vs St. Johnstone revealed

The experts had a lot to say about Brendan Rodgers’ choice to start Tomoki Iwata in the middle of Celtic’s defense on Saturday instead of replacing Gustaf Lagerbielke.

Cameron Carter-Vickers was taken off when Celtic was up 3-0 and comfortably ahead of Craig Levein’s team. Rodgers chose to bring on Odin Thiago Holm and move Iwata to the back four.

It might have been a bad choice in the end because Pat Bonner, a former Celtic star, said that if Lagerbielke had been in the back four, St. Johnstone would not have scored, which would have hurt Celtic’s goal difference.

Since the race for the title is so close, goal difference might play a role. And we all know how that has changed title races in the past.

On the other hand, Mark Wilson thinks he knows why Rodgers left Laegerbielke on the bench. The former Celtic defender thinks he knows why Rodgers made that choice.

“He probably thought that I was three goals up now, it would be easy, Celtic would have a lot of the ball, and Iwata would start making moves from the back,” Wilson told Superscoreboard.

“That’s what you need.

“He’s obviously very wrong. On his own, he probably didn’t deserve to go on. It has to be that way. You deserve to play for the club, and that’s the starting eleven.

“But even if you’re not in the starting eleven, you need to show in practice that you deserve to be on the bench.”

“That’s why these guys are sitting on the bench and not coming on.

“Things are different when you make a change and only have one center back left against a strong St. Johnstone team. You had to handle that situation yourself, which is why Lagerbielke comes in to finish the game.”

Stupid goals Celtic has lost the race for the title.
It’s important for Celtic fans that the goal they gave up against St. Johnstone doesn’t affect the race for the title.

But the truth is that Celtic have given up goals many times this season when they really shouldn’t have. It cost them points too.

This season, Celtic gave up two late goals to Motherwell. Thanks to Matt O’Riley’s last-second goal, it didn’t cost us any points in the September game at Fir Park.

But Jonathan Obika scored the game-winning goal at Celtic Park in the 90th minute after Joe Hart missed a cross. The goal was a bad one for Celtic.