Celtic star who lost 60% of his duels among team’s three biggest losers from Rangers defeat
Auston Trusty, Johnny Kenny and Kasper Schmeichel were three of the main players to blame for Celtic’s 3-1 defeat to Old Firm rivals Rangers at Parkhead on Saturday.
Celtic looked the most likely to score early on, and they took the lead in the 20th minute as Hyun-jun Yang raced through from the right flank and rifled past Jack Butland for 1-0.
Rangers then levelled the scoreline just after half-time as Youssef Chermiti tapped home from close range after Nicolas Raskin had done well to get to the byline and pull the cross back.
Chermiti grabbed his brace just before the hour mark to turn the game on its head, and Tottenham loanee Mikey Moore scored another in the 71st minute to confirm the result.
Rangers beat Celtic 3-1 to leave Wilfried Nancy in grave danger of being sacked very soon, with three players in particular at fault for the loss.
Auston Trusty
Trusty was anything but against Rangers as he constantly struggled to deal with Chermiti’s runs in behind the defence in the second half and struggled to play the ball out with any kind of adventurousness.
Celtic fans slammed Trusty for his role in the former Everton striker’s second goal as he failed to stop him running through on goal, and he was called out by Chris Sutton after the game on X.
The Hoops legend quoted a pre-match interview of the centre-back and said: “This sums up where Celtic are at as a club at present. ‘Players need to buy into it, we are still learning, it’s a work in progress. ‘ There’s a league to win… too much sleeping at the wheel.”
Trusty emerges as one of Celtic’s biggest losers from Saturday, not just for his on-field performance, but also for how he has been singled out by a club hero.
Johnny Kenny
Kenny was trusted to start up-front for Celtic and had numerous chances to score against their arch-rivals at Parkhead, but failed to do so and was punished in the second half.
He wasted a particularly great opportunity to open the scoring in the 19th minute as he stretched to meet Daizen Maeda‘s cross, but poked it too close to Jack Butland, who got down to save.
Kenny was blasted by Celtic fans as he completed just 11 of his 18 passes, one successful dribble from three attempts, and won just four of his 10 aerial and ground duels before being taken off late on.
Kasper Schmeichel
Football Insider revealed last month that Celtic want to sign a new goalkeeper amid concerns around Schmeichel‘s performances this season.
They are surely set to accelerate a move for a new stopper after this showing, as the Danish veteran conceded three from just four shots on target and was accurate with only two of his 11 long balls.
He was particularly susceptible for Moore’s goal, which took the game beyond the Hoops, as it should have been palmed away with relative ease but crept under his hand and into the bottom corner.
Schmeichel has mainly been trusted as a constant starter this season due to a lack of adequate competition in between the sticks, but that is surely set to change this month, and this game could be a big reason why he is potentially dropped from the team.