Celtic dropped points in the league for the first time this season in yet another disappointing display following on from last weekend’s defeat in the League Cup against Kilmarnock. Celtic, with a squad ravished by injury, started with what looked like their strongest available starting eleven with Liam Scales partnering new Swedish defender Gustav Lagerbielke at centre back, with the welcome sight of Alistair Johnston making his return at right back.
The only other real surprise was South Korean winger Yang starting the match in place of Liel Abada, with Yang playing on the left and Maeda on the right.
Celtic actually started well and looked like they were ready to atone for last weekend’s devastating defeat at Rugby Park, playing with a high tempo and looking to create plenty of chances. All our best chances throughout the game seemed to fall to Matt O’Riley, in fact all the chances seemed very similar. Good build up play which saw the onrushing former MK Don’s star receiving the ball in the middle of the penalty area. Each chance also had the same outcome with St Johnstone’s goalkeeper making a fantastic save.
I have to say however, it frustrates me in these situations that O’Riley tries to pass it past the keeper rather than just bury the ball in the back of the net. I think O’Riley did well throughout the game to get into the positions which he did but in the end of the day you have to take your chances, especially when they are put on a plate for you like that. He is one of few players who gets a pass mark however.
I also thought Johnston played well for the hour that he was on, I like Anthony Ralston but it was clear to see how much of a downgrade he is when he replaced the Canadian. I also thought Lagerbielke looked decent a centre back, he didn’t make any mistakes, passed out well from the back and did well to get back near the end to put Stevie May off when he was through on goal.
Joe Hart also gets a pass for the two saves he pulled off, the only times he was actually called upon during the game. Thankfully his concentration was on point otherwise we could realistically have been looking at a defeat today.
I was probably most impressed by possibly the biggest surprise to make the starting eleven, Hyunjun Yang. He was a constant menace on the left wing, often beating his man with both speed and trickery. Probably his biggest downfall was being too unselfish. On a few occasions he got himself into really good positions but chose to pass when he could have possibly taken the shot. He does look like he will be an important member of our squad moving forward and I think he will only improve once he’s found his confidence and is comfortable taking on more responsibility.
Now that’s enough of the little positives there were today. Let’s be brutally honest. That was pretty atrocious today. I don’t even fear being called a bed wetter, I will say it as I see it and we look terrible at the moment and I’m more than worried about this team, especially with the Champions League around the corner. To be honest I’m not only worried about Europe, I’m worried about our league title defence. We all like to laugh at theRangers and sure enough they haven’t looked any great shakes under Beale so far this season but we look worse.
Now there is a huge mitigating factor in all of this, our injury list. We are missing some really important players at the moment like Reo Hatate, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Maik Nawrocki. Even if those guys weren’t out however it is pretty obvious we need reinforcements in the door before the transfer window shuts next week.
Im not sure what has happened Greg Taylor but since Rodgers has come in and the inverted full back system has disappeared so has his form. It’s literally dropped of a cliff. He doesn’t look half the player he has been over the past two seasons. His understudy Alexandro Bernabei was awful when he replaced him today and constantly lost the ball due to sloppy play and bad passes. He’s not the answer either which means we definitely need an upgrade at left back.
Hopefully Alastair Johnston can stay fit because I worry about Anthony Ralston. If we are honest he’s just not good enough. Liam Scales stepped into defence today due to our ever growing injury list and again he’s just not good enough to be a starting centre back at Celtic. St Johnstone didn’t attack much during the game but when they did Scales looked shaky, especially towards the end of the game. His passing out from the back is also pretty basic. I worry about him if he starts in the Glasgow Derby next weekend.
Maeda, like Greg Taylor, has also struggled to get accustomed to the role Rodgers is asking him to play. Apart from his renowned incredible workrate he isn’t offering much else. Then there is Kyogo. The striker, who seemed to be able to do no wrong under the previous manager, looks to be struggling. I have seen the interviews with Rodgers where he has talked about changing Kyogo’s role, getting him more involved in the play. If it ain’t broke don’t try to fix it. Today saw plenty of balls zipped across the penalty area but the Japanese star was nowhere to be seen. He would have been there last season.
Our captain Callum McGregor still hasn’t found his form either, perhaps struggling in a midfield alongside David Turnbull and Matt O’Riley who aren’t exactly known for their tremendous workrate. We all know we need a powerful, energetic centre midfielder to help Callum out. Our subs that came on provided nothing. None of them looked like they were going to change the game, in fact we actually looked even more disjointed when they came on.
We just don’t look right at the moment. As the second half wore on I just knew a goal wasn’t coming. It’s been a frustrating start to the season, we just look so uninspiring so far. I just don’t understand how we have regressed so rapidly from last season. Brendan Rodgers has a huge job on his hands to work this out before this season starts to get away from us.
Yes I know some will say Ange Postecoglou had a rough start when he took over and quickly turned it around but you could see how we were getting used to the new system and improving during that time. I just don’t see any hint of that so far under Rodgers.
In the next couple of months before we get the guts of our currently injured players back, we have tough away days to theRangers, Livingston, Motherwell, Hearts and Hibs. During this time we will also have three Champions League games. It’s going to be a extremely crucial period.
In all honesty if things don’t change and change fast then we could find ourselves hanging on in the league and left heading towards a European exit before Christmas. After what we have saw the past few weeks I don’t think any of us can deny this. There have been no evidence of us improving over these past few matches to suggest that we should have a positive outlook.
This is the first time in years I have been worried heading into a Glasgow Derby. Rodgers has a lot of work to do over this next week to get this team up for an already crucial encounter at Ibrox. If we lose that one he will really start to feel the heat.
Conall McGinty
