Celtic opened their account for the new season by bagging three points against Malky MacKay and his Ross County team at Celtic Park. There were good spells and bad spells during a game that we started very slowly but still ended up winning 4-2 in the end. Three goals up at half-time, the scoreline did flatter Celtic and MacKay must have been in disbelief as his Staggies side battled well during the first 45 minutes.
A sluggish start for last season’s Treble winners, we just couldn’t get to grips with the game and get a foot-hold on possession, which County were only too happy to oblige in taking advantage of during the first game of the Scottish Premiership campaign. Callum McGregor was unusually erratic in his positioning and looked slightly confused as to what his role was to be in the team.
Rodgers big surprise of the game was the ommision of Reo Hatate for the rarely-sighted David Turnbull. Turnbull was sparsely utilised under Ange Postecoglou and Rodgers did say when he came in that everyone would have a fresh slate to start over. Well, it looks like it has come at the perfect time for Turnbull who looked to be on his way out of the Hoops. The ex-Motherwell man got on the scoresheet twice today and has really grabbed the attention of his new boss moving forward.
Carl Starfelt was the other absentee in favour of new addition, Maik Nawrocki, who partnered perennial favourite Cameron Carter-Vickers at the heart of the Celtic defence. Anthony Ralston played his first ninety minutes of football since returning from injury and it showed big time as he struggled the most to get to grips with the speed of the game, and his heavy touch laboured the build-up on several occasions today.
It’s worrying that County managed to score two goals past us today and every time the away side won a corner kick, they looked like scoring. Rodgers will no doubt have taken a mental note of this and will no doubt have him eager to dip into the transfer market for extra quality; particularly if we are to make any sort of impact on the European stage.
We haven’t learned anything specifically new today in regard the team; we knew we needed to upgrade in the goalkeeping department, we knew we needed to get more energy, pace and power into midfield, and we knew that players would need time to settle in and others to get up to speed. So all-in-all it has been a comprehensive job done on Flag Day but there is far more to be refined as we move ahead in the campaign.
Paul Gillespie