The Scottish Cup match between Celtic and Livingston takes place on Sunday, and Brendan Rodgers has explained why he would start Nicolas Kuhn for his team.
As the Hoops advanced to the competition’s semifinals, the Celtic boss gave an explanation for Kuhn’s participation. The German winger has been battling to rediscover his form since moving from Rapid Vienna for £3 million in January.
Rodgers said “He’s fast, he’s dynamic and he can get in behind. In fairness to Nicolas, he came into the club obviously during their mid-season break.
“But he also had the issue around his teeth and he lost a lot of weight and he has taken a bit of time to find his strength.
“That said, he knows what we want and we want to use his pace and his directness to get in behind and have all that ability in the one-v-one that he has.
“So that’s an opportunity he has to come in and showcase his qualities.”
In my view, Rodgers took a small gamble selecting the winger ahead of the likes of James Forrest.
Kuhn has offered next to nothing since his goal in the 1-1 draw with Aberdeen at Pittodrie. In just 220 minutes of football, the former German U20 international has struggled to show the qualities Rodgers listed above since his January move.
With an average passing success rate of 73.5% and a long-ball accuracy of slightly less than 67%, the 24-year-old still has to improve his passing.
Kuhn has created 1.76 opportunities per game with a dribbling success rate of 63.6%, although given Celtic’s offensive possession in domestic games, that number should really be much higher.
