Celtic played out a frustrating 0-0 draw with Livingston today at Celtic Park in a lacklustre display were the oppositions goalkeeper was barely troubled during the 96 minutes.
Like the rest of us I can imagine Ange Postecoglou will be fuming after we had closed the gap at the top of the league to two points and actually had the chance to go top of the league today which would have been a blow mentally to theRangers who have been struggling all season and this was an opportunity to pile even more pressure on them.
The main talking point in an otherwise uneventful game was the moment of madness by Livingston defender Ayo Obileye who lost his cool and slapped Celtic Striker Kyogo Furuhashi with the ball safely in his goalkeepers arms in one of the stupidest actions imaginable which should have cost Livingston the chance of gaining a point.
With the player sent off and the game in the dying minutes Celtic had a penalty to win the game. Every Celtic fan is expecting Croatian international Josip Juranovic to take the ball and rifle the penalty home as he has done confidently twice already for Celtic this season holding a 100% record from the spot.
Unbelievably the ball was handed to Greek striker Giorgios Giakoumakis, who in all honesty looked incredibly nervous. Personally from looking at the players demeanor I had absolutely zero confidence in him scoring it. The player himself looked like he had about as much confidence in himself as I had. The penalty itself was woeful, from the slow run up to the weak strike it was pretty much everything a penalty shouldn’t be.
The big question is why did Gianakomous take it? Well if we look at his last season with VVV-Venlo in the Dutch Eredivisie, he was their penalty taker and in all honesty had a great record with them. He scored 9 out of the 11 that he took which is a conversation rate of 82%. This proves he is usually a more than competent penalty taker.
So, normally I would have no problem with such a player taking a penalty. The thing that annoys me though is that we have a player still on the pitch, Josip Juranovic, who has scored both penalties he has taken for us this season. Why change a good thing? It honestly makes absolutely no sense to me.
Hopefully it can be cleared up in the future but at the minute I doubt I’m the only Celtic fan today left with a bitter taste in my mouth regarding the whole episode. Ange needs to take control of this situation and make sure that we have one permanent penalty taker going forward and personally I hope it will be Juranovic. Not letting him take today’s penalty may be the reason we are currently not sitting in our rightful position at the top of the league.
Conall McGinty
Agreed .. & yep, still bitter
Wouldn’t have minded if he’d just put his foot through it and it was saved but that pen was pathetic. Jesus Christ big man.
Who took the penalties has been clear to the players for a while, Giakoumakis if he’s on the field when it is given and Juranovic if he’s not. So says Ange.