Celtic have a lot of things going for them at the moment and sit a comfortable five points clear at the top of the Premiership table. Yes, they are nowhere near their best right now and have not seemed to have gotten out of second gear this season so far. But that being said, this side full of youngsters is only expected to improve moving forward.
There are quite a few areas they need to work on though. One of them is certainly their penalty-taking.
We saw David Turnbull miss from the spot in the game against St Mirren. If that had been put away, the evening could have been a lot less nervy for the Hoops, who needed a late winner from Oh Hyeon-gyu.
Reo Hatate missed a spot kick not too long ago as well. And their inaccuracy when it comes to penalties is not a new problem. Brendan Rodgers views it in the same light as well.
Rodgers admits Celtic are not good enough in one area
As reported by 67 Hail Hail, Rodgers said while speaking in a media conference on the club’s official YouTube channel:
"“Yeah. We’re not good enough with penalties. I’ve made that clear. When I look across a period of time here.“Especially with the gifted players. There are a lot of technically gifted players here. It’s something we will improve on. It’s a skill you can be better at.“You have to practice and practice and practice and get your routine. It’s something that we do on a daily basis. I can’t deny it’s an area we have to be better in.”"
It is safe to say that there is no lack of technically gifted players in the current Celtic squad. Yet somehow, they have not had a set penalty taker since Josip Juranovic left earlier in the year.
It remains to be seen if anyone can step up and make that role his own over the coming weeks and months. Luis Palma is someone who should be considered.
Palma has taken four penalties in his career so far and scored all of them. He is a specialist when it comes to free-kicks. And we have already seen his ability to score all kinds of goals, even though he only has three to his name for Celtic so far.