Celtic were prematurely eliminated from the Champions League group stage on Tuesday after a disappointing 2-0 home defeat against RB Leipzig in Glasgow.
For the first 15 minutes or so of proceedings, Ange Postecoglou’s men had to keep their discipline as RB Leipzig popped the ball about the pitch with ease and confidence. Eventually, Celtic became more prominent as an attacking threat and put together a string of chances, some of which were better than others.
The best chance in the first half came to Kyogo Furuhashi, who headed over after an excellent delivery from Sead Hakšabanović. It was a big miss.
As the game progressed beyond the hour mark Celtic began to look fatigued which led to spaces opening up in dangerous positions. Eventually, Timo Werner opened the scoring and Emil Forsberg then making it two within 10 minutes. The second, in particular, was a hammer blow and triggered a rather disappointing exodus of fans from the stands.
Gorgios Giakoumakis missed two golden chances late on, but by then the game was already gone.
Here are three talking points from Matchday 4 under the Celtic Park lights.
Is Daizen Maeda Champions League standard?
Daizen Maeda’s most impressive attributes are clear – he is an absolute workhorse, is extremely fit, does exactly as the manager asks, and is a team player. Those are all admirable traits for a player and ones that are vital in a side that presses with such intensity.
But, there have been too many occasions in a Celtic shirt when Maeda’s actual quality on the ball has let him down and RB Leipzig again highlighted his lack of ability in crucial areas. Those being harsh would suggest he should have scored with a headed opportunity in the first half, but the cross was behind him and it would have taken a herculean effort to manipulate his body to get an attempt on target.
Nobody has forgotten the actual golden opportunities that he has missed in Europe, though. It was his use of the ball that proved his downfall again. On one occasion, the fans sent a sea of groans in his direction after Maeda encouragingly broke down the left-hand side with Leipzig apparently on the ropes.
Rather than utilising his speed to burst into the area, he proceeded to launch a rather embarrassing left-footed cross into the Jock Stein stand. At that point Celtic were desperate for promising breaks forward, and it was an opportunity wasted.
Whenever he makes a mistake, he subsequently plays within himself which results in constant passes back to Greg Taylor. This would suggest he is a confidence player, and it is up to Ange Postecoglou to take him out of the firing line for a period, at least away from the starting line-up.
Maeda does have some positives and he should not be written off, but either his quality in the final third must improve or he must be left out of bigger games.
Reo Hatate – were we watching the same game?
Following the game, the usual knives were out for some of the players following a defeat, and one of the targets was, mystifyingly, Reo Hatate. Here are a selection of Tweets we found regarding his performance:
“Hatate, for all his skills is so naive on the ball at times. This is the Champions League, you don’t get to wander about with it for as long as you want.”…
“Hatate makes no sense to me. One minute he’s world-class the next he’s worse than Harry Maguire.”…
“Hatate had his worst game for Celtic last night.”…
“Hatate was brushed aside like a schoolboy.”…
“Not a hater, but Hatate is so overrated by our fans. He has moments of brilliance (long balls, vision, goals) but he is also inconsistent, even within 90 minutes.”
You have to wonder what game some fans are watching. Yes, Hatate was caught on the ball a few times, but in the Champions League that is something that will happen against good teams, and RB Leipzig are a very good team.
If a player achieved 100% success rate of passing and split open opposition defences at will, all the while protecting their own defence, then sorry, they wouldn’t be playing for Celtic.
What is important for the players that Celtic have is to bounce back from mistakes, which can be very difficult given the atmosphere among the fans when a mistake is made. Just last week, many fans claimed that Hatate is perhaps the one player who hasn’t looked out of place in the Champions League, and all of that has come crashing down after one game in which he actually played well.
Say what you want, but he very rarely panics on the ball and this can prove vital. Indeed, it was a couple of his shimmies and diagonals out to the wings that allowed for Celtic to break forward. Yes, fitness is an issue, but all you need to look at is how the team was overran in midfield after his departure.
Some perspective required
Celtic are currently a Pot 4 club, and one of the lowest ranked side in the Champions league. This will very likely remain the case whilst the financial gap to Europe’s elite is as wide as it is.
Here’s how Celtic lined up on Tuesday, along with the respective transfer fees of the starting XI:
Joe Hart – FREE
Josip Juranovic – £2.25m
Cameron Carter-Vickers – £6.3m
Moritz Jenz – LOAN
Greg Taylor – £1.13m
Reo Hatate – £1.38m
Matt O’Riley – £1.62m
Sead Haksabanovic – £2.25m
Daizen Maeda – £1.38m
Kyogo Furuhashi – £4.86mTOTAL: £21.17m
Let’s compare that with Leipzig*
Blaswich – FREE
Simakan – £13.5m
Orban – £1.8m
Gvardiol – £16.92m
Raum – £23m
Schlager – £10.8m
Haidara – £17m
Werner – £18m
Szoboszlai – £19.8m
Nkunku – £11.7m
Silva – £20.7mTOTAL: £153.22m
*Values from transfermarkt
David Raum, whom RB Leipzig acquired this summer from Hoffenheim, cost more than our entire starting XI.
Undoubtedly, Celtic need to be more clinical in front of goal and there are players who didn’t play to the best of their abilities on the night, but when you look at what we are up against at this top level in European football then some perspective should always be taken into consideration.
Martin MacDonald
- Martin MacDonald is writing this opinion piece on behalf of The Celtic Exchange. The views expressed are Martin’s alone and are not necessarily shared by the other guys on the podcast, all of whom will be outlining their views personally on The Celtic Exchange’s Final Whistle podcast which you can check out below….
Subscribers to The Celtic Exchange Plus can listen to our post-match reaction podcast now where we cover the above as well as the other key talking points from Matchday 4.
For non-subscribers we offer a free 7 day trial for you to enjoy our content at no cost. Click HERE to get started.
I have to vehemently disagree with your assessment of Hatate, you question what others were watching last night the questions must be asked of you. I am massive fan of Hatate, before a ball was kicked in earnest this season I was tipping him to be our player of the year, possibly the outstanding midfielder in the country. However, not just based on last night where he gave the ball away with wayward passing or was very easily dispossessed, he has been disappointing at best this season. I have watched many really good and poor Celtic teams over the last 70 years since my father first introduced me to Celtic at 5 years in 1950. I think by now I can watch the team and individual players objectively which is fact based, and the facts are Hatate was well below par. Your views Tino are subjective, personal opinions, and not fact based. Here’s hoping for better days from Reo and my preseason predictions are realised and we’ll all be happy.
Maeda is too knackered after being asked to run about like a headless chicken to do anything constructive football wise. His speed is used by the manager to close people down not to contribute to the team in an attacking sense. Then the manager suggests he’ll have to learn to take chances . He can’t win.