Celtic headed to Easter Road this afternoon hoping to banish their recent struggles which have included disappointing outings home and away to Norwegian side Bodø/Glimt, as well as a under par performance at Celtic Park against Dundee. The talk all week from both the players and the managers has been that they were ready to put these recent performances behind them and get back to the form that saw them move top of the league at the start of February.
Unfortunately the reality was much different as the team turned out in Edinburgh today. Far from moving on and regaining their post winter break form, the team actually looked as bad, if not worse than they have during the previous few weeks. I won’t be sugarcoating my feelings about today. Yes every team can have an off day but four insipid performances in a row? Unacceptable by the high standards this team and club sets itself.
The first thing I noticed today was the body language shown by the players. They just didn’t look their normal selves. Far from protruding an air of confidence that should emanate from a team currently sitting top of the league, we looked more like a team currently struggling in a relegation battle.
Their energy levels were nearly as bad as their body language. Where has the zip gone? Until about the 85th minute today we were pedestrian. The build up play was slow and uninspiring. Previously the ball was passed with vigour, shuttled from one player to another at speed then hastily moved on once more as opposition teams chased shadows as they struggled to deal with the pace of our attacks. Today was miles off the standards we had previously set and standards that the manager expects.
This Celtic team has thrilled and excited us on countless occasions during this season. We have all marvelled at some of the football on display, at times such as the first half against theRangers, we have been breathtaking. After last season it’s exactly what the Celtic faithful needed. A team that plays football ‘the Celtic way’.
These last few games however have started to remind me of last season. Today’s performance where the ball was often being played around at a sluggish pace with no desire to really trouble Hibs defence was reminiscent of the darkest days during the Neil Lennon reign. It wasn’t pretty to watch.
There are times when you don’t score in matches and you can look back at your misfortune. The woodwork kept us out, the opposition goalkeeper played a blinder or things just didn’t drop for us. You can’t say that today. The Hibs keeper barely had a save to make. He was mainly kept busy by plucking the ball out of the air as we produced yet another high cross into the area that none of our attackers had the height to get near. That tactic was hugely frustrating.
Another thing that many of us have talked about until we are blue in the face but that yet again resurfaced today is our inability to cause any sort of threat from set pieces. A fellow fan in the pub earlier mentioned how we could do with Nakamura as we squandered yet another free kick in a dangerous area, just as a stat appeared on screen showing we are yet to score directly from a free kick this season. Don’t even start me about corners. No stat appeared on them but surely we must be world leaders in having the most corners that don’t lead to goals.
Celtic escaped unscathed from today’s results with our title rivals throwing away a two goal half time lead at Ibrox as their weak mentality resurfaced once more. Or maybe it was tired legs after Thursday nights exertions and the theory that them staying in Europe will be beneficial to Celtic in the league run in is proved correct. Either way they seriously let us off the hook today but we badly need to find our form to prevent further dropped points as the season progresses.
It’s hard to pinpoint what has happened recently to create this sudden loss of form. Could it just be a loss of confidence that happened after Bodø/Glimt turned us over at Parkhead when we maybe believed we were a much better team than we actually are? Or are the players maybe struggling under the workload Ange Postecoglou demands from them everyday whether it be training or in matches. Either way it’s up to the Australian to identify the problem and fix it in a hurry before it’s too late.
Conall McGinty
reason we are so pedestrian,sluggish and one-paced is tom rogic.sucks the energy out the team.all our really good performances this season have came when he is not playing.on a par with bitton.no ZIP.manager must surely see this.
Tom Rogic was woeful. When he fires Celtic fire, when he is off Celtic are off. Not alone though Madea, Hetate and Taylor should ve been off. Also never going to challenge teams in Europe until we get 2 centre halves that win everything in the air. That would solve our problem of not scoring from corners and set pieces and conceding from set pieces.
And Jota never took a defender on in the first half.