Nagging doubt for Celtic

154

Remarkably, that’s three consecutive draws for Celtic across three competitions, as many as we recorded in our previous 24 games this season.  Unlike the 0-0 in Zagreb and the 3-3 at Hampden, the reason for the 0-0 at Dundee United was neither stifled midfielders nor defensive mistakes, it was profligate attacking play.

Kyogo had two great chances: he missed the ball with the first, then bizarrely allowed the ball to run across both feet without actually shooting with the second.  Adam Idah also had a fresh air shot, before he appeared to misjudge a pass from Kyogo when he was clear inside the box.

Surely every Celtic fan watching at some point in the game shouted, “Just hit the target” to either Reo Hatate or Luke McCowan.  Both came close but several attempts went wide.

Pregame, our concerns were for the defence, without Cameron Carter-Vickers, Auston Trusty and Alistair Johnston.  As it turned out, Stephen Welsh, Liam Scales and Anthony Ralston dominated their opposite numbers all game.  The absence of Nicolas Kuhn and James Forrest was felt more, as Yang, and then Luis Palma failed to make an impact.

Brendan Rodgers is entitled to enjoy the results his side have earned this season, but performances dipped enormously between the wins over Leipzig and at Kilmarnock, which leaves a nagging doubt.

Click Here for Comments >
Share.

About Author

154 Comments
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5

  1. Hail hail from the Pot Still.

     

     

    On my second Guinness and pies are enroute.

     

     

    Great to be a Tim! 🍀🍀

  2. GlassTwoThirdsFull on

    Looks like we are still paying the price for the summer 23 window. I’d play Engels out wide before I came anywhere near even considering Yang or Palma.

     

    Aside from the obvious strengthening of this area I hope we can bring in an Armstrong type goalscoring midfielder – somebody who can make the late runs into the box and arrive into the space that the defenders have left by dropping deep. Haven’t really had one since, although MOR added this to his game in his last season.

     

    Anyway, 44 points from 16 games is pretty good going and still on track for 100.

  3. Hard games away lately and we got the results up untill yesterday time for freshening up and adding to the team in an attacking sesne and try and move on a good few non contruborts I feel.

  4. Pls clarify yer nagging doubt Paul…

     

     

    That the squad is not up to consistently executing the plans that just won us deserved plaudits in Europe?

     

     

    Or nagging doubt (masquerading as resentful rancour) that this manager who has – ignoring current status across all comps – not convinced you and yer big pal that he’s doing about as good as we could hope to be doing, given what he has got at his disposal?

     

     

    Or is there another nag in play ?

  5. bournesouprecipe on

    Chairbhoy @ ages ago

     

     

    Yip, hardly the end of the world the Celtic calendar looks good and was immediately pointed out to me by a good friend.

     

     

    If we assume Calmac will rightly start in all competitions as captains normally do ( Scott Brown etc ) then its rotation of four players into the other two berths

     

    Brendan doesn’t deviate in format, whilst the spoils are still to be had at least. If the Japanese trio are all ‘off it’ in the same game, Celtic can easily draw.

     

     

    A scorer of the sublime finish and a talisman to boot, Kyogo’s vital statistics of one in three strikes hit home in away days like yesterday. Brendan Rodgers is the man, he’ll be focussed on Boxing Day in Parkhead and that killer touch.

     

     

    HH

  6. I just know if you have to move about, the stairs are an obstacle. Not lots of room by the door either if I recall.

     

     

    T

  7. bournesouprecipe on

    Aipple

     

     

    Gene Pitney is always 24 hours from Tulsa and Chris Rea has been driving home for Christmas

     

    since 1986 👍

  8. Paul 67,

     

     

    Of course there will be nagging doubt.

     

    We are after all Celtic supporters. We have a strong squad, but it can be improved.

     

    Of that there is no doubt

     

     

    If you didn’t watch the game then an away draw would be totally acceptable; after all we had fitness and injury problems played in very strong wind conditions.

     

     

    However, those who watched the full 90 minutes could see a drab, lackluster per

  9. Good to hear Brendan met DD in Dublin last week, a few in and hopefully a few out next month,needs refreshed a wee bit

  10. Ops, silly fone. And shaky fingers due to early kick off times in the boozer.

     

     

    Performance. Our strikers are not optimising their chances. A lack of service does not account for missing decent chances by a country mile.

     

     

    An 18 year old striker could not have performed worse.

     

     

    Resting on laurels is not for football.

     

     

    HH.

  11. PeterLatchfordsBelly on

    I’m not unduly worried atm. if we are 6 points or less ahead after Ibrox I will become concerned.

     

     

    Kyogo is off it. The midfield is misfiring. For the first time you can see the hole left by MO’R.

     

     

    The defensive record is fantastic. The bhoys never gave DU a sniff yesterday, but we missed CCV and AJ´s contributions going forward.

     

     

    Jamesy is having another stellar season but after him the non-first choice wingers are mince. A massive downgrade. A long-term injury to Kuhn would be very worrying.

  12. Boxing day match should tell us a lot.We definitely need another winger.I know he is hero worshipped by many,but Maeda when not on form,can be so wasteful.On Sunday his main fault was running the ball out of play from good positions.Did it on 4 occasions.I know he is unpredictable,and from being poor can score or assist,but when he does not,a man down.

     

    In fact same can be said for all 3 of our Japanese boys.We only picked up when all 3 went off.As the song says,2 out of 3 ain’t bad,We can’t afford all 3 off at the same time.

     

    That’s my view ,for what its worth.

  13. Could easily have had 3 or 4 goals yesterday but for poor finishing. We did miss johnston and khun on the right and our desire to go inside with no width hust us. We need to up the tempo up and get our fullbacks over and under lapping to force teams to leave the centre of the pitch. We are crying out for a traditional leftback and left winger to give teams other problems. So far this season we are moving along nicely but does not mean we can’t improve.

     

     

     

    HH

  14. A mercurial wind, making the flight and control of the ball a lottery, plus the totally negative tactics of DU, made yesterday’s result almosy inevitable.

     

    A win would have been more likely down to fluke over flair.

     

    One positive was the overall performance of Liam Scales, who appeared to be immune to the conditions

     

    It may be due to be bad luck, but tight wee Tannadice is no place to visit without functioning wingers.

     

     

    Happy Christmas to all and peace and comfort to those who have endured loss and sadness this year.

  15. I see that Christmas has been cancelled this year as Santas little helpers will be on strike…….

     

     

    Apparently its because of ” ELF and Safety Issues” ?

     

     

    LOL

     

    HH.

  16. We need to talk about Kyogo, he is getting by on goodwill at the moment. He is clearly off from, but still ahead of Adam. 6 goals in the league is nowhere near it.

     

     

    Time for a run for the big man

  17. The big concern for me this time last year was our defence. We were losing games and dropping points because we were conceding some really poor goals.

     

     

    That’s not the case this year, our defence is very solid.

     

     

    If teams want to set up like Dundee Utd and not ask questions of a defence consisting of Ralston and Welsh then that’s on them.

     

     

    More often than not, we’ll break these teams down and take the 3 points, as we should have done yesterday but for Kyogo.

     

     

    No panic here.

     

     

    2 defeats in the calendar year doesn’t leave me with too many doubts.

  18. The Blogger Formerly Known As GM on

    I have no nagging doubts whatsoever.

     

     

    For me it’s unequivocal that Palma and Yang aren’t good enough to play for Celtic and the ghost of transfer windows past still haunts the Parkhead dressing room.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5