Five Talking Points from a frustrating day at Paradise

Five Frustrations from a goalless day in Paradise…

1. Far too many changes. Brendan picks the team and gets far more right than he gets wrong. Yes, he has the trip to St Petersburg in mind and wanted to re-introduce the likes of Tom Rogic, such a crucial player for us at the business end or the season. However today’s team sheet had too many changes and it showed. St Johnstone, after withstanding a decent enough start from Celtic, were comfortable and when they weren’t comfortable they were agricultural. A handful of yellow cards for rugby tackling was a price they were happy to pay.

2. Too much drink was had in the sponsors lounge. How else could you explain naming Charly Musonda as Man of the Match? Charly after his wonderful cameo on Thursday was back to being rotten today. His first touch continually let him down, his decision making was dodgy and he was lucky not to be pulled off as the bench looked for some urgency in a desperate last ten minutes. The only thing you could say in the sponsor’s defence is that there were few contenders when a 5/10 would have won the Champagne.

3. So we have a title race? Aberdeen dropped 3 points yesterday and Celtic dropped 2 today. So it’s been a good weekend for the Ibrox club who won at Hamilton. The gap is now down to 9 points against them but up to 9 points against the Dons. Both need snookers, granted but it’s frustrating to allow their toe back into the title race door.

4. Three diamond three was effective on Thursday. A change in formation against Hearts a few weeks ago brought out another good showing but this back passing stuff with the 4-2-3-1 is pinning us deep within our own half. Against St Johnstone at Parkhead we spent periods unable to go past the half-way line. Anyone else starting to think we need to accept that this is an increasingly flawed system?

5. The Russian Front. The only positive is that some players have had a rest. Let’s hope it’s worth it. David Potter will be writing the Match Report for The Celtic Star but he’s hardly likely to be talking about this afternoon in Paradise in any future book he writes.

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

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