BBC Sport pundit John Hughes has said that Celtic central defender Yuki Kobayashi struggled on Saturday afternoon.
Celtic suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Rangers at Ibrox in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday afternoon.
Ange Postecoglou’s side were 2-0 down after just 34 minutes.
Rangers scored their third goal of the game on 70 minutes.
Former Celtic defender Hughes was following the match for BBC Sport, and he noted at half time that Kobayashi was struggling to cope with Rangers centre-back John Souttar at corners and struggled to cope with the physicality of the game.
Criticism for Celtic defender Yuki Kobayashi vs Rangers
Hughes said on BBC Sport: “Kobayashi is a beautiful footballer. He’s got a sweet left foot. But, in terms of physicality, he’s found it difficult, especially at set pieces. He needs to get touch tight to Souttar at corners.”
Disappointing
Rangers were far the better team against Celtic, who really failed to do much of note and were very poor at the back.
That the Hoops, who have already won the Scottish Premiership title this season, conceded three goals shows just how bad they were defensively.
And Kobayashi was one of the Celtic players who had a poor game.
The 22-year-old Japanese centre-back started the match against Rangers in place of Cameron Carter-Vickers.
The youngster did not appear to be switched on from the very start and slow to react when Todd Cantrell scored.
Kobayashi was beaten in the air by Souttar for the second goal as well, and he really did not look very comfortable at the back.
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