Celtic midfielder Paulo Bernardo was one of the team’s standouts in the recent derby win so some were surprised not to see him in the starting eleven against Hearts on Saturday.
The Portugal U21 captain was named on the bench with new signing Arne Engels taking his spot in the team, to great effect.
Brendan Rodgers’ decision ended up fully justified after Engels produced a man-of-the-match calibre performance and scored his first goal after bravely putting himself forward to take a penalty.
Bernardo did get minutes, coming on after 66 minutes in place of Reo Hatate to help the Bhoys push towards a 2-0 victory.
Brendan Rodgers addresses his Celtic team selection vs Hearts
After the match, asked if it was a tough decision to leave the Portuguese out after the way he played against Rangers, Rodgers stated [Celtic Way]: “I have to prepare the team for the season. It’s no good having a strong squad and then not using the players. I like to make minimal changes, but I will still make changes.
“I felt that it was important for Engels to come in and get that feeling playing in the team, trying to understand some of the patterns, because then we can look at and analyse the game with him for areas he can be better in.
“I want to build a team here that has power, speed and unpredictability. He certainly gives us that on a European level.
“He’s come in and played in the top 5 leagues in Europe and played very well in that. That’s a player that we need, and we’re very happy that he’s chosen to come here.
“I wanted to get him in – Paulo’s been brilliant, so I’m happy he’s here. There are other players waiting in the wings too to get game time. It’s such a long season, and they’ll get that.”
Paulo Bernardo will play an important role for Celtic
Engels also returned to Bhoys training from international duty earlier in the week than Bernardo, so it made sense to give him the nod.
Rodgers is spot on with his comments here and hopefully as the season progresses there’s more understanding that this isn’t an issue that really needs to be justified by the manager.
Bernardo is going to get plenty of game time at Celtic and there’s a strong chance he starts against Slovan Bratislava on Wednesday. That wouldn’t be a surprise at all.