CELTIC opened up a slight gap between themselves and second placed Kilmarnock, following their 4-0 dismantling of St Mirren on Wednesday night. Kilmarnock’s win over Rangers meant that a one-point gap opened up between the league leaders and second place in what was an enjoyable night for Celtic fans.
New signings Oli Burke and Timothy Weah both made their Premiership debuts for Brendan Rodgers’ side, having both featured against Airdrieonians the previous weekend in the Scottish Cup. All eyes were on the new players to see how they fared in the Scottish top flight and both will be delighted to have gotten on the scoresheet.
We’ve delved into the numbers to see how each of the new signings fared on their league debuts and to find out what we can learn from each player’s first outing in the Scottish Premiership.
Oli Burke started the game for the Scottish champions and led the line in attack, playing in a more central role than he’s genreally been accustomed to so far in his career. The decision by Rodgers to deploy Burke here paid off handsomely, with the 21-year-old scoring twice against a lacklustre St Mirren side.
READ MORE: Oliver Burke could be the answer to Celtic's striker problem
Burke’s first goal came with just 11 minutes on the clock, when Burke peeled away from the St Mirren defence to fire home a bullet header that no opposition player contended. The second was a little more instinctive, when the former Leipzig player reacted quickest to a spill by the goalkeeper and fired a low shot into the back of the net.
Apart from his brace, Burke impressed throughout the match and was arguably Celtic’s best player on Wednesday night. The forward had one shot assist, when he slipped in Callum McGregor, and in all honesty it should have led to a goal but McGregor scooped his effort over the bar.
Another assist could have came in the second half after Burke brought the ball down before sliding a delightful reverse pass through to Scott Sinclair, but the English winger got the ball trapped under his feet and failed to get a shot away.
A look at Burke’s numbers details the excellent impact the on-loan West Bromwich Albion forward had on his Premiership debut. Both of his shots resulted in goals, 21 of his 23 attempted passes were accurate and, as previously mentioned, his sole shot assist was unfortunate to result in a goal.
However, Burke’s dribbling ability is often said to be on of the strongest aspects of his play but against St Mirren, the 21-year-old only attempted two dribbles, both of which were unsuccessful. His two goals were the only times he touched the ball in the opposition box; this is something that Burke will clearly need to improve upon in the future.
Weah also enjoyed a goalscoring debut and made a sizeable impression despite only being on the pitch for about half an hour. Rodgers clearly instructed his players to look for the American once he had been subbed on; Weah received 16 passes throughout the course of the match, only three fewer than Burke did.
Weah finished the match with a solitary goal but could have had a hat-trick on another day. One chance he strayed offside before sliding the ball wide of the far post and with another he struck the woodwork. It’s impressive that Weah has fashioned these opportunities but at the same time he could probably be a little more clinical in front of goal.
READ MORE: Oliver Burke: Video clips of Suarez can help make me a complete No 9
The on-loan PSG forward only misplaced one of his 14 passes and his one cross into the box met its intended target, which is certainly encouraging stuff from the 18-year-old. He managed to set up one shot for a team-mate and had four touches in the St Mirren box, which is pretty good going for a substitute.
Both Burke and Weah had encouraging debuts but it should be noted that they were up against a particularly accommodating St Mirren side. Future matches will no doubt provide a sterner test for the young forwards but both will be pleased to be off the mark at Celtic Park, and Rodgers will be delighted with their contributions to the win.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here