Celtic’s inability to defend a corner kick, exposed last weekend against Motherwell at a cost of two valuable points was noticed by Lazio in midweek and of course Craig Levein was not going to have missed that potential goal scoring opportunity this afternoon at McDiarmid Park.
St Johnstone got two corners and the home side piled into the goal area looking for another Celtic gift, the first time the header over the bar from Gordon was a warning that wasn’t heeded and the next time Joe Hart’s failure to command his area coupled with a couple of unfunny attempts at clearances gave Saints a lead that was horrible defensively.
It’s been a frustrating first half with Yang surely deserving of being pulled at the break for his lack of knowledge of the offside rules that would embarrass a primary school team.
David Turnbull forced a brilliant save but other than that it was poor performances all over the park. St Johnstone sitting deep with a 5-4-1 system will park the bus and look at hitting Celtic on the break, looking for another corner.
Celtic players were going through the motions and got exactly what they deserved in that first 45 minutes. It’s down to Brendan Rodgers to do something about it at the interval.
Mikey Johnston thankfully has replaced Yang and ideally we’ll see Oh coming on soon.