SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

The good thing about being a Celtic supporter is sharing our optimism about a forthcoming match with our fellow Celtic supporters. The downside to that is post-match post-mortem syndrome,and I fear that the only cure for that is to get back to what we were doing so well previously.

On current evidence,we are miles away from that. Our midfield is struggling to hold the line,which is putting too much pressure on an already makeshift defence while strangling the supply to the forward line. The forward line itself is too often hesitant at best when they get the ball,and the final ball to the danger zone is getting poorer by the game. Where’s the previous Angeball urgency,whipping it in across the line at speed?

As for the defence,they try manfully but too often there are gaps between themselves,and also between them and the midfield. It’s an open invitation to a decent counter-attacking side to swarm forward on us while panic ensues all around.

Twice we got a Get Out Of Jail card,courtesy of VAR decisions. Twice we failed to heed the warnings and allowed RB Leipzig to carry on regardless. And then we helped them along with the biggest howler I’ve seen by a Celtic player in many a long year when Joe Hart got himself an assist to gift them a lead which they never looked like surrendering.

I’ve seen it said that 3-1 might not be too bad on the face of it,given the head to head rules. Well,anyone who thinks we will win next week by two clear goals against that side will do well in a future career as Mystig Meg. I saw very little that gave me that kind of optimism tonight,that’s for sure.

If we can’t get our passing game back,our tightness in midfield,our sharpness up front and a desire to be first to every bloody ball,we can forget about progress in Europe. And might well even struggle to grind out the results domestically as well.

If we can’t find a way to deal with sides hitting us on the break,we can look forward too to many more disastrous nights like last night.

Our defence shouldn’t be put in a position where they are constantly fire-fighting. For starters,they aren’t very good at it. And we have four centre backs at the club vying for those two places-none of whom are left-sided! Sometimes it shows worse than others,and last night was just one of those occasions.

I mentioned the other day that perhaps we should be looking at a slightly different formation,where we sacrifice an attacker for a dedicated ball-winning destroyer playing in the gap between our midfield-which is perhaps too attack oriented and thus prone to being caught on the break-and our defence,which is far too often left completely unprotected. I just want someone who can win the ball and pass it five yards to a ball player,nothing fancy!

I honestly think we should look at that,or nights like the one just gone are going to be an unwelcome if frequent occurrence.

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Above article by BMCUWP