Celtic moved to within two points of Hearts at the top of the Scottish Premiership table with a dramatic 3-2 win over Motherwell at Parkhead on Sunday.
The Hoops needed a stoppage-time winner from Daizen Maeda, who bundled in a cross from Michel-Ange Balikwisha, to claim all three points in front of their own fans.
In fact, they had to come from 2-1 down to claim a win in the second half. Benjamin Nygren equalised after snatching the ball inside the Motherwell box, before Maeda’s winner.
They had to produce a stunning comeback, in part, because Marcelo Saracchi conceded a penalty that allowed the away side to take the lead.
Why Marcelo Saracchi should be dropped
The Uruguay international was brought into the side in place of Kieran Tierney to provide the Scottish full-back with a rest, but failed to put in a solid performance.
He attempted a challenge in the box with the wrong foot, stepping on the attacker with his left foot instead of using his right to make a block, which resulted in a penalty to Motherwell.
That came after he gave Tawanda Maswanhise too much time to put a cross in for Motherwell’s first goal in the first half, standing too far off the winger out wide.
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Despite those errors for the goals, which should see him dropped from the XI, Luke McCowan was even worse than the Boca Juniors loanee in the middle of the park.
Why Luke McCowan should be dropped
Brendan Rodgers should ruthlessly ditch the Scottish central midfielder from the team after the international break because of his disappointing performance against Motherwell.
The left-footed star was put in the midfield to provide a spark and creativity in possession for the Hoops, yet he played 60 minutes without registering a shot on goal or a chance created, per Sofascore.
This shows that the former Dundee star was completely ineffective in possession for the Scottish giants, because he did not provide any sort of threat as either a scorer or a creator of goals.
The 27-year-old central midfielder’s general play throughout the match was not much better, unfortunately, as he was even worse than Saracchi with his all-round performance in and out of possession.
Minutes
60
64
Pass accuracy
83%
84%
Possession lost
13x
13x
Dribbles completed
0/1
1/2
Duels won
2/5
4/8
Tackles + interceptions
1
3
As you can see in the table above, Saracchi won more duels, made more defensive contributions, and completed more dribbles during a similar amount of time on the pitch.
McCowan was far too wasteful with the ball at his feet, losing possession 13 times, when you consider that he did not create a single chance for his teammates in an hour for Celtic.
It was a big chance for the central midfielder to impress, given that Rodgers now has two weeks to reflect on this performance, ahead of the next block of matches.
Unfortunately, the experienced star failed to grasp his opportunity to nail down a place in the starting XI, as he did not do enough in or out of possession to suggest that he should retain a starting berth.
Hopefully, McCowan will be able to show a better version of himself when the manager next decides to offer him a chance to play in the starting line-up.
