SENTINELCELTS

I watched the game a day later with the benefit of hindsight, intrigued by posters comments and the line-up, anxious to dissect the tweaks and individual levels of play.

That proved nigh on a thankless task due to the low side-on camera angle. It was very poor to say the least and together with the small single tier stadium, the entire affair had a bit of a Cup feel rather than a top flight game.

The lineup was a bit surprising, I was surprised to see Reo in there as he hasn’t done much recently, and I felt Greg was a certainty to prolong the arm around the shoulder approach Brendan had been showing by starting him consistently. But the big call was Kyogo on the right.

My goodness it worked a treat. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but he has all the attributes to play that role well, and whereas I see Kuhn as a shoot and score wide man, our Japanese talisman very much followed into the 6 yard box to get on the end of things, which he accomplished in each half.
But he also got involved in the play a lot more and having someone ahead of him was beneficial.
We seen a new side to him.
Brendan has a new option to call upon.

The right flank being lively doesn’t mean the left was poor, not at all. The backups were good going on excellent, especially Yang who pulled out his best game yet, and looked a proper Celtic player. He was very unlucky not to score, tracked back, crossed, passed and moved, beat a man,,,I think this proves the old football saying correct, it takes a player a half a dozen games to come upto speed. With the attack having notched up two, there was time left for the midfield to do the same, one from the spot and one from open play, Engels and Luke back on the scoresheet again. Yang played a part in both, but another player deserves praise for helping the fourth arrive.

One of the reasons Brendan was able to field his first two strikers simultaneously is because the backup third has arrived ready after actually playing and doing well elsewhere. It showed. Almost scored, instantly involved, his dangerous drive towards goal helped force the finisher.

While I thought Reo had a pretty good game including some good tackling, Arne needs a mention. He’s coming to the fore and growing into his role. Almost every game now he produces something but without being flashy, his actual striking of the ball continues to impress, slowly but surely he’s becoming the teams beating heart.

Between the Cup feel, the different players in different positions including Arne and Luke taking over from Reo and Callum as the midfield scorers, Yang and Kyogo terrorizing the flanks, Valle, Adam, Kenny,,,the game was different overall in that it just wasn’t the usual, it was a variation of Celtic that was seriously interesting, that worked on the day.

While the manager must get some kudos for that, his possession/passing game needs a mention as 3 goals from the 80th minute suggests it worked on the day. Finally, he praised the support (they were absolutely fantastic) to finally put the KT chant storm in a teacup behind everyone. Good day all around for the troops who managed to go a tremendous 18 points clear on the day. Two weeks ago Celtic were humiliated. Since then, amidst the fallout, we have responded by winning even if injury plagued, one might go so far as to say all involved have been stung into action. I’ve got that feeling again, the feeling we are going to give someone an absolute doing. How timely.

By Mahe
sentinelcelts@gmail.com