Kris Commons picks over the bones of Celtic’s Dead Rubber defeat in his newspaper column this morning and reaches the same conclusions that most Celtic supporters watching the match at Ibrox will have been discussing amongst themselves after the 3-0 defeat in the Dead Rubber.
Make no mistake, had Celtic needed something from that game, then the team selection would have been different and the performances would undoubtedly have been better. Whether we’d have won though with key players already missing through injury, particularly Cameron Carter-Vickers and Alistair Johnston, is less certain so the conclusions reached by Kris Commons today seems to be pretty sound.
“If Celtic want to progress in Europe, I still think there’s a slight weakness in one of the centre-backs that could be improved and upgraded,” Commons wrote in his Scottish Daily Mail column. “But let’s not pretend Starfelt was alone in that regard on Saturday. There were several players in the Celtic team who did themselves no favours at all.”
The former Celtic title winner went on the question two of Ange Postecoglou’s signing from this season who he believes have serious questions marks against their names now as far as being up to the job in this Celtic squad.
“Alexandro Bernabei has been a disappointing signing thus far. He was supposed to be the new first-choice left-back ahead of Greg Taylor. Celtic paid £3.75million to sign him from Argentina last summer, but it’s Taylor who has ended up having an outstanding season and has rightly kept Bernabei out the team,” Commons noted.
And on the Japanese defender who had a torrid after at Ibrox Commons pointed out his major failings at the weekend. “Yuki Kobayashi is neat and tidy on the ball. However, the pace and physicality of the game looked too much for him at times on Saturday. He certainly didn’t offer the same level of authority and assurance as Carter-Vickers does when he plays.
“I reckon Carter-Vickers is actually the most dominant defender we’ve seen in Scottish football since Van Dijk. So it’s no surprise Celtic should look so vulnerable when he doesn’t play. He’s a massive loss.”
Despite that Commons does not think that the outcome of the Dead Rubber will have too much bearing on how next season is going to pan out, although it probably does guarantee Michael Beale additional time to build something that can be capable of mounting a challenge. Had Celtic won on Saturday then Beale would have been under immense pressure going into the next Glasgow Derby – which will be at Ibrox – knowing that his neck was on the line.
“I don’t think it changes a great deal for next season. (the)Rangers still face a massive summer rebuild. Celtic will still start next season as red-hot favourites to win a third league title on the bounce. (the)Rangers have at least shown that they can lay a glove on their rivals and at least make it a proper title fight next time round.
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“My old team won’t face anywhere near the same level of transfer activity as (the)Rangers in the summer. For Postecoglou, it should be more a case of evolution than revolution as he looks to tweak one or two areas in his squad.”
Ange Postecoglou talks about not standing still when you are winning things because there’s always a danger that a rival will catch up and overtake you. That’s going to be very much on the Celtic manager’s mind after that performance at the weekend as a few players might find out to their cost.
