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Rodgers explains Dembele decision

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Brendan Rodgers has explained why he substituted Moussa Dembele- denying the striker the chance to score his third hat-trick in four matches.

Dembele scored Celtic’s second in the 59th minute but was replaced in the 72nd minute by Leigh Griffiths as Celtic strolled to a 2-0 win over Hamilton.

It was just the second appearance of the year for the former Hibs striker with Rodgers looking to have two striking options available ahead of a critical period of the season.

Like I said before, there is no individual bigger than the team and I always think about the team,” the Celtic boss explained to the Sporting Life.

“He was outstanding today. Maybe he could have got another hat-trick, but it doesn’t matter, he got two, the first goal was great and the second one showed composure.

“The boys oozes quality and to see the improvement he is making for a 20-year-old is fantastic but Leigh has been working very hard.

We can’t go with just one striker. I need to have two as fit as they can be. Moussa is at a high level and Leigh is working his way back and it was a nice 20 minutes for him.”

Dembele’s double lifted his Celtic total for the season to 29 with nine of those goals coming in the last four matches.

With Aberdeen beating Ross County 1-0 Celtic’s lead at the top of table remains at 24 points with crisis club Sevco 33 points behind the hoops.

Over the next fortnight Celtic are away to Inverness Caley Thistle and at home to Sevco in the SPFL either side of hosting St Mirren in the Scottish Cup.

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