The defence has taken a bit of a pounding both on and off the park. Therefore, I guess I wasn’t the only one who was surprised to read the following headline in The Celtic Star.
“We’re defending really well as a team,” says Celtic Assistant Boss.
Turns out it was the Woman’s team assistant, David Hayley, who made the comment. Well at least it wasn’t John Kennedy, being “delusional”, to borrow that telling word recently used by Chris Sutton.
There have been mitigating circumstances, such as Christopher Jullien being injured, and Nir Bitton and Hatem Elhamed coming down with coronavirus on international duty. In the early days of this poor run, when it was officially described as a “blip”, we were informed the good times would return when we had a settled back line.
So what has happened?
Vasilis Barkas (Greek national keeper) out, Scott Bain in. Oh well, that didn’t work out too well. Let’s try Barkas again.
Stephen Welsh (good young prospect) plays okay in the Glasgow Derby game, dragged off at half time against AC Milan.
Greg Taylor (struggling) out, Laxalt (what have I done to deserve this) in. A big positive.
Jeremie Frimpong (standout player) out, Hatem Elhamed (Israeli internationalist) in. Ooooops.
Shane Duffy (Premier League player, Ireland internationalist and captain) out, Nir Bitton (Man of the Match at centre-back for Israel against Scotland) in. Oh dear! (Interestingly, I see Bitton is listed as a midfielder on the Celtic website and, given the car crash that is currently our midfield, that would not be a bad place to play him).
Nir Bitton out, Christopher Jullien (£7m) in. The jury is still out.
Ajer (probably the best defender in the world according to his new Agent) has been a constant. Definitely pass marks.
It transpires that no matter what combinations we try at the back, the results and performances have not improved. Despite Neil Lennon telling us that the first performance against Sparta was unacceptable and would not happen again, we now all know what deja vu feels and looks like.
And that folks is why we are up the proverbial without a paddle, or more eloquently put, it’s now a full blown crisis. What next, another shuffling of the players? Let’s hope Peter Lawwell or Dermot Desmond can advise Neil Lennon on this during Monday morning’s zoom conference.
How, in the name of the wee man, can we not build a defence from the above talents to at least do the basics right? Is it asking too much? Whoever is responsible, Neil Lennon, John Kennedy, Gavin Strachan, the players or the psychologist get it sorted. Just do it.
Christopher Wotherspoon
