‘WHERE WE MUST BE STRONG,’ DAVIES

The Hoops’ perfect start to the Premiership was halted by Caley Thistle’s equaliser a minute from the end by substitute Alex Fisher.

New keeper Dorus de Vries has conceded four goals in three league games and seven against Barcelona in the Champions League last week.

Remarkably, the champions have yet to keep a clean sheet in the league and Craig Gordon had their only two shut-outs so far – the 5-0 League Cup win over Motherwell and the 3-0 European victory over Malta’s Lincoln Red Imps.

Davies admitted Celtic should not necessarily have to score two or three goals to win a game and believes they must improve defensively. He said: “We have scored a lot of goals. Owain Fon Williams had a really good game and you can’t always score all your chances.

“Of course, you want to be clinical, but we scored two goals. We want to be a team that wins by one goal and, of course, we can do that. If we are not quite finishing the chances and their goalkeeper is having a special day, then we have to be resilient at the other end and we make sure we win the game by one goal.

“The Inverness second goal was second phase from a corner. You have to make sure your organisation is good from the initial corner and the second phase and we have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

 

In the Highlands, Brendan Rodgers opted to rest veteran defender Kolo Toure from a Celtic back-four that has undergone radical changes during his short spell in charge.

 

Ten players have started in defence and young right-back Anthony Ralston has been involved from the bench.

An 11th, Jozo Simunovic, could start in tomorrow night’s League Cup quarter-final against (Same Old) Alloa after returning from a knee problem as a second-half sub against Caley Thistle.

With a full complement of defenders now available and with the arrival of right-back Cristian Gamboa, Rodgers now has the chance to piece together his preferred defensive formation.

Davies added: “Everybody wants that settled back four, but sometimes with injuries and bits and bobs, it’s not always possible.

“But we’ll be looking in the next few weeks if we are dominating games and can’t quite finish our chances that we give nothing away at the other end.

“We’ve got Jozo back, who came on and looked excellent, he was strong and good with his passing.”