Pundit gives Luis Palma defence after winger’s Celtic misfire | OneFootball

Marvin Bartley has said that Luis Palma’s Celtic career is not over despite the player’s stuttering display against Falkirk at the weekend. The ex-Hibs midfielder believes that nervousness played a part in the misfiring from Palma and the other fringe players.

Palma struggled to take advantage of a rare Celtic start on Sunday but writing off the Honduran won’t help anyone at this stage of the season. The 24-year-old was given as start for the League Cup game against Falkirk as Daizen Maeda was given a much earned rest.

Speaking on Clyde 1 Superscoreboard, Bartley said that Palma shouldn’t be written off. “I think to say someone is done is extremely harsh. It is not very easy to come in and try to impact a game. One thing I would say, I think when you play for Celtic Football Club and you play Falkirk – regardless of how well they are doing – they are a Championship team. So when you do come into that team, you have to be better than Falkirk.

“I just felt that some of the players that came in struggled too much. You are in a situation now that you would be nervous putting three of four of them in, because their standards have to be higher outside of a few. But, no, you can’t say somebody is done off the back of that.”

Palma was ineffectual and was substituted with The Bairns leading. Nicolas Kühn’s display showcased the vast difference in both confidence and quality as the German attacker scored twice and assisted twice.

Celtic will need to have depth in a number of key positions and Palma showed his abilities at various points of last season. The hysteria over Palma’s performance was a bit over the top but it is probably because of the impressive start to the season from the first team picks of Maeda and Kühn.