Celtic’s exit from the League Cup at Kilmarnock on Sunday was probably less of a surprise to the Celtic supporters who witnessed two underwhelming performances in the Scottish Premiership wins against Ross County and Aberdeen.
With Ange Postecoglou leaving for Tottenham Hotspur shortly after completing the Treble at the Scottish Cup Final at Hampden in early June against Inverness Caley Thistle, Brendan Rodgers was enticed by to the club by the combined efforts of major shareholder Dermot Desmond, CEO Michael Nicholson and the club captain. Callum McGregor took time out of his short holiday on Majorca to meet up with his former manager to discuss where the club was at over lunch and that helped make up Brendan’s mind that a return to his former club was the right next move for him after losing his job at Leicester City.
Rodgers walked into Celtic, inheriting a treble winning squad with a playing identity that the supporters loved and which allowed the club to dominate domestically but had its failings in the Champions League. The Australian manager won five from six domestic trophies while at Celtic but his record in European football was disappointing to say the least. That’s not to say that the football or the performances were bad, but the opposition were always able to exploit the Celtic system to meet their own objectives and invariably take the spoils.
Brendan Rodgers wants to do something about that and accordingly he has introduced a different style of play which it is fair to say is still bedding in with a squad that had gelled playing the relentless, Angeball style of football over the past two seasons.
The pre-season matches in Portugal, Japan, Ireland and back at Celtic Park against Athletic Club produced a mixed bag of results and performances as the new style of play was introduced. Some players seemed to take to it quickly enough but it’s fair to say that this has not yet been fully integrated into a coherent, playing style that is going to maintain Celtic’s domestic dominance while giving us a better chance of winning points in the Champions League Group stages.
Celtic will find out who they will play in the Champions League next week. Then you can go to the best football bookies for you to analyse and pick from as you consider how Celtic can collect enough points to come through the Group stages to at least guarantee European football after Christmas. That has to be the minimum objective for Brendan Rodgers and his squad.
As things stand there will be little confidence with the league cup defeat fresh in the minds, two lacklustre performances so far in the league – admittedly without dropping points – and a mounting injury list that cannot surely just be down to bad luck, although that has certainly played a part.
Celtic didn’t only lose Postecoglou, but also some key players in the summer, course and distance winners. Aaron Mooy, so impressive at the World Cup for Australia in Qatar last winter, decided to hang up his boots due to an ongoing back problem. That was after an outstanding season at Celtic.
Carl Starfelt, who alongside Cameron Carter-Vickers, never lost a league match while playing together over two seasons, decided to head to La Liga side Celta Vigo on the Atlantic coast of Spain, to be closer to his partner, the former Celtic FC Women star Jacynta who had moved to Sporting in Lisbon.
Celtic’s hitherto Portuguese superstar, Jota, decided to take the mega-bucks on offer from Saudi Arabia – and who could blame him – with Celtic collecting a £27m transfer fee, some of which was payable via a sell-on clause to his previous club Benfica.
Players signed by Postecoglou in the January 2023 transfer window have yet to establish themselves in the first team with Yuki Kobayashi (already injured while playing on the club’s tour of Japan last month) and Tomoki Iwata both struggling to gain any real traction in the first team. Kobayashi played against theRangers at Ibrox in the Scottish Premiership dead rubber in May and was given a torrid time, leaving a lasting negative impression within the Celtic support.
Summer signings have all been along the same lines, players in their early twenties who can be developed by the development coach Brendan Rodgers, then sold on for a significant profit. Mark Lawwell, the son of Celtic Chairman Peter Lawwell, heads up the recruitment but will be working to an agreed brief. And if that brief is simply to recruit talented teenagers and early twenty-somethings then the squad will be filled with these signing and the experience and the quality of players who have already reached a higher level without a few years development at Celtic, will be missing. That was apparent at Rugby Park on Sunday afternoon.
And what’s worrying is that experienced Celtic players like Callum McGregor and Greg Taylor, both had outstanding seasons last year, seem to be getting dragged down rather than lifting the younger players up.
Gustaf Lagerbielke was thrown in for a debut at Rugby Park playing alongside another new signing Maik Nawrocki – who was subsequently injured, another with a muscle strain. That came just two days after Stephen Welsh signed a new contract at the club only to get injured in training and he will not play again until 2024.
With Reo Hatate missing through injury – a calf strain picked up at Aberdeen – Norwegian summer signing Odin Thiago Holm got a start at Rugby Park. After a promising opening ten minutes he completely disappeared from the match before being substituted. Korean midfielder Hyeokkyu Kwon was signed in summer but after a shaky showing against Athletic Club in the final pre-season match, he has dropped out of the picture for now.
The official Celtic FC website lists nine forwards, although it should be ten as they have James Forrest listed as a midfielder. From this list we have five players who are currently fit, available and in the manager’s plans. They are Kyogo Furuhashi, Liel Abada, Daizen Maeda, Sead Hakšabanović and summer the other signing from South Korea, Hyunjun Yang.
Unavailable through injury are South Korean internationalist, Hyeongyu Oh, Mikey Johnston and Australian winger Marco Tilio who appears to have been signed while carrying an injury that looks like keeping him out for a while.
Then there’s Albian Ajeti who along with James McCarthy and Ismaila Soro (has his deal gone through yet?) are all surplus to requirements and hopefully will be moved on in this window.
If you look ahead to the Scottish Premiership match on Saturday against St Johnstone and try to guess the team that Brendan Rodgers will be able to select then it’s clear that at the moment Celtic are vulnerable. Maybe Hart; Ralston, Scales, Lagerbielke, Taylor; McGregor (c), Turnbull, O’Riley; Abada, Kyogo and Maeda with the subs coming from Bain, Alistair Johnston (if fit enough), Bernabei, Iwata, Holm, Forrest, Yang and Hakšabanović.
And after that it’s a trip to Ibrox. Maybe there will be a few non project signings ahead of this Glasgow Derby? They certainly appear to be needed.
How many of the injured players would make a difference ? not too many. Have the players been worked too hard in pre season ? injuries are part and parcel in football, but this many after a couple of games is unusual.
Recruitment is one the most important aspects, you can have a good manager but if the signings are not good enough he will fail. One of the main reasons Ange was successful was most of his signings were not only decent players they made a real impact. One big money buy who has not done so well so far is Bernabei, though Ange probably had a say, I seriously doubt he identified him. We know Ange wanted Kogo and Maeda, the rest of them ? who knows.
Is it possible the much lauded recruitment team after a bit of success have got carried away with themselves, how many of the recent Japanese and Korean players we have signed are going to make any impact, one, maybe two as it stands in my opinion, and that is part of the problem. Even if we had no injuries, is the squad stronger than last season, I don’t think it is.