Debacle set the scene for Kilmarnock’s deserved draw

For the second time this season against Kilmarnock, the first half offered Celtic promise as well as a lead at the interval.  Celtic’s pace of play and directness had the visitors on the backfoot until the break.  The left wing played an important part of the story.  Luis Palma and Greg Taylor are by far Celtic’s most competent retainers of possession on the left and made sure we were able to quickly attack Killie down that flank.

Luis put in a couple of poor crosses just before the break, and with options on the bench, Brendan Rodgers hooked the Honduran for Yang.  An attempt to aid our attacking efforts would later undermine our ability to progress play up-field.  The rot did not really set in until Taylor, on his first game back from injury, was replaced after an hour.

Daizen Maeda is not known for holding play up, however he gets up and down the park and tracks back better than anyone in the game.  But seven minutes after our left flank’s defensive and ball holding abilities were weakened, Maeda made way for Nicolas Kuhn.  Kuhn is a crosser of the ball (though poorly on this occasion), not a defensive-minded player.  You can be sure, “Tracks back” does not feature on his bio.

Yet again, Joe Hart was called upon to make several saves (more than his counterpart in the Kilmarnock goal).  The defence played well; Tony Ralston and Liam Scales in particular, but in the second half we were without a gameplan to move play forward.

The above debacle set the scene for Kilmarnock’s deserved draw.  Celtic could have got away with the win, just as they did recently home to Ross County, or at Hibs, but it would have been a win despite what happened at crucial times on the field.

We are now behind a team in the league, which lost several first-team players in the summer without transfer fees, who then signed players that overwhelmingly disappointed, some of whom have already been offloaded, and who sacked their manager during an injury crisis which saw them slip well off the pace.

What do they have that we don’t?  They didn’t have a good transfer window, they didn’t have a season without injuries, they didn’t start with a manager who knew what he was doing.  Midseason, they added organisational ability and here we are!

Newco remain in Europe and could find this undermines them in the league, but only if we are able to apply our own pressure, which means winning football games.  We need a robust and functioning gameplan for Sunday, or we risk dropping points yet again to Motherwell and removing any pressure on our title rivals.

Soon Cameron Carter-Vickers will return, and we can hope Reo Hatate gives us the last couple of months of the season.  On their own, this does not feel like it will be enough to push us over the line.