‘NICE REWARD,’ RODGERS PRAISE FOR PALMA

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LUIS PALMA has been reassured by Brendan Rodgers he has a vital role to play in his plans for Celtic.

The Honduran international winger has been a bit-part player so far this season with just one start in the Premier Sports League Cup quarter-final against Falkirk last month.

However, Palma was hooked just after the hour mark to make way for Yang Hyun-jun as the champions toiled 2-1 down to the Championship side.

A double salvo each from Nicolas Kuhn and Adam Idah fired the Hoops into an intriguing last-four clash with Aberdeen at the start of next month.

JOY BHOYS…Luis Palma and Anthony Ralston celebrate the defender’s goal in the 4-0 opening-day win over Kilmarnock at Parkhead in August.

Palma failed to impress in a season where he has struggled for game time with only 107 minutes in the first four outings of the campaign with substitute appearances against Kilmarnock (4-0) and Hearts (2-0) in the league and League Cup outings against Hibs (3-1) and Falkirk.

Last month, the flamboyant touchline ace, who cost £3.5million when he joined from Greek club Aris Saloniki the previous summer, took to social media to deliver a forthright message.

He proclaimed: “RESILIENCE. That’s why you’re going to get ahead in life, because despite any adversity, you find the positive side and you start working forward.”

Palma underlined his determination with a hat-trick in the 3-2 midweek friendly win over Sligo Rovers at The Showground.

Rodgers was impressed with the performance and said: “All players want to play, but I’m only really concentrating on this next period. We’ve got a really busy period until January. I know I’ll need all the players.

“We’ve just come off a game of a run of seven games in 23 days and there are going to be times where we’re playing every two or three days and we need that energy.

BY THE LEFT…Luis Palma prepares to score in Celtic’s 4-1 romp against Chelsea during their pre-season USA tour.
“Sometimes that won’t be there as we had against Ross County in the first-half, but that will be the case in some other games.
“We need players to come off the bench, bring that energy and Luis is definitely one of those players who can do that for us.”
The Hoops gaffer, speaking to the Daily Record, added: “I was really pleased for Luis the other night. He took his goals really well, especially the last two, where he really got into the areas at the second point where we want him to get into.
“He worked hard, but that’s not an area there’s any doubt. You have to do the work, but that was a nice exercise for him. He wanted to stay in the international break to get the work in and obviously playing this game and it’s been a nice reward for him.

“It’s just about not forcing it. I think sometimes the thing with wingers is, when other players are in the team and scoring and creating goals, you feel you really want to come in and force it a little bit.

“I think sometimes that’s what’s happened with Luis.

“He’s a very good technician and when he plays for the team and works hard and presses well then he can be a really good player.”

It now remains to be seen if Palma will be involved when Celtic resume their quest for a fourth successive title against Aberdeen at Parkhead a week tomorrow.
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