FORMER Celtic star Kris Commons has opened fire on the shot-shy Hoops attack who did not get a single shot on target to test Allan McGregor on Saturday.
The champions surrendered all too tamely for the liking of their ex-midfielder against Steven Gerrard’s Ibrox visitors.
After their 2-0 success, the Govan gaffer rubbed it in when he stated his side “didn’t have to be at their best” to record a second successive victory over Neil Lennon’s side in the east end of Glasgow following December’s 2-1 triumph.
The Hoops gaffer started with the game with Patryk Klimala and Mohamed Elyounoussi in the main forward areas, but both were replaced in the course of the match with Leigh Griffiths and Albia Ajeti coming on in the second-half.
In a frank and brutal summing up, Commons, who spent six years at the club after arriving from Derby in January 2011, didn’t hold back in his summing up of the qualities of the Polish Under 21 attacker, the Norwegian international, who missed a glorious chance to equalise only six minutes after Connor Goldson’s opener, and the £5million Swiss raider who arrived from West ham in the summer.
Commons, writing in his Daily Mail Column, said: “Celtic haven’t got going this season. Even when they’ve got their strongest starting eleven, they are not free-flowing or looking like scoring many goals.
“Without Ryan Christie, James Forrest and Odsonne Edouard, they were probably always going to struggle up front. But with amount of money spent, you’d still think they would have enough to put in a performance.
“Mohamed Elyounoussi looked like a rabbit in the headlights. Albian Ajeti looked way off the pace and Patryk Klimala didn’t look like he’d ever played football before.”
Vasilis Barkas, the £4.5million buy from AEK Athens in July, arrived to take over as No.1 keeper with Fraser Forster electing to remain at Southampton to see out his lucrative last two years of his contract and Craig Gordon rejoining Hearts at the end of his contract.
The Greek international hasn’t impressed Commons, either. He said: “As for Vasilis Barkas in goal. Can he make one save in a big game? He doesn’t save enough shots, has no presence and doesn’t shout.”
The former Scotland international, now a media pundit, added: “They seem to have lost their identity. No-one is doing anything off the cuff or is being imaginative.
“Watching the ball being rolled back and forth between the defenders and the goalkeeper, it looks like a computer game from the 1980s.
“It’s as if someone is saying: ‘That’s what you are programmed for, so don’t do anything other than that”. Everything was sideways. It was like watching rugby league.
“For all the world, it reminded me of the latter days of Brendan Rodgers ‘ time where everything had to be built so slowly up the pitch.”
