Celtic fans unhappy with Brendan Rodgers' risky decision

Brendan Rodgers has been facing heavy criticism since Celtic's 7-1 defeat against Borussia Dortmund. You'd almost forget that the Hoops are yet to concede a goal in the Premiership and went into the Signal Iduna Park game on the back of nine consecutive wins to start off the season. But when you lose a Champions League game by that margin, expect to be in the headlines.

Most Celtic fans would have agreed with Rodgers' selection when the teams were announced. Paulo Bernardo was in good form and many had for him to start over Reo Hatate, which he did.

In hindsight, that was a mistake. Bernardo completed just six passes in the first 45 minutes against Borussia Dortmund while not making a single tackle or interception. He was subbed off at the break in what felt like admitting that a wrong choice had been made.

If Celtic had started with Hatate, perhaps they would have had more control in midfield and done a better job at containing Borussia Dortmund. By the time he was brought in, they were leading 5-1 and the game was gone.

Celtic fans unhappy with Brendan Rodgers' risky decision

Quite a few Celtic fans were not happy with the decision to leave out Hatate. And they made their feeling clear on social media.

To be fair, it is easy to coach a game in hindsight. But dropping Hatate for Bernardo was always going to be a risk and it did not pay off this time for sure.

We have seen Hatate do well against top-level European opposition in the past. He was excellent against Real Madrid a few years back. He seems a lot more ready to play at this level than Bernardo, or even Arne Engels for that matter, who did not have a good game either.