The Celtic youngster is a far more effective option than Gary Mackay-Steven and Sunday’s match proved it.
Sunday’s Scottish Cup quarter-final clash between Celtic and St Mirren gave Bhoys winger Gary Mackay-Steven another chance to impress manager Brendan Rodgers after forcing his way back into the boss’s thinking.
Unfortunately for the 26-year-old, he looked worryingly out of sorts and was hooked at half-time, replaced by Patrick Roberts.
From the moment the 20-year-old took to the field Celtic looked like a different side, and they fought their way back from 1-0 down to win 4-1 in brilliant fashion.
Celtic’s reward was a semi-final clash with fierce rivals Rangers, but before that the two teams square off in the league and Rodgers would be wise to start Roberts.
The youngster has missed Celtic’s last three league matches with a knee injury. However on Sunday’s evidence he is back to his best and he should kick off the clash against a Rangers side desperate to make up some of the ground on the league leaders.
Celtic will have other ideas, and will want to prove yet again how far ahead of the Gers they are right now.
Roberts’ confidence, skill and ability to conjure something out of nothing will help them in that regard and it would be foolish to overlook him after his outstanding cameo in the cup.
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