The depth of the problems clouds any such judgment.īeyond the principle of failing to see the forest for the trees, the pinpointing of individual players feels disingenuous, if not outright cynical. But every player at the club should be allowed to succeed, and fail, on their own terms as part of a system and team that works. Some might never replicate their form of past seasons, and it might transpire that some of those who arrived in the summer are not of the level required as has been suggested in recent months. It is entirely possible that if and when a new manager enters the club they will deem certain players not good enough. The summer additions could well fail to work out in the end, but dismissing them as flops given the structural issues that have plagued the club since the season’s start feels premature. For months there has been so little semblance of shape, of gameplan, of footballing identity that any footballer irrespective of their talent would feel lost. No Celtic player has been consistently good this season, including the key figures of recent seasons like McGregor and Edouard. You have to analyse all of their Celtic careers to date against the wider context though even Duffy, despite the infamy of his displays so far. Moi Elyounoussi is an exception to the rule given he contributed to last season’s success but Albian Ajeti, Barkas, David Turnbull, Diego Laxalt and Shane Duffy have all failed to set the heather alight. This is particularly relevant to any analysis of Celtic’s recruitment from this summer. When a group of players who have proven their quality over a sequence of consecutive seasons are suddenly delivering these poor final balls more regularly, making those daft fouls more frequently, and are underperforming week-in, week-out as a collective by their own high standards - nitpicking individual performances is arguably fruitless. There is a vacuum of attacking structure and the defensive organisation is shambolic, but that does not excuse each and every poor final ball and daft foul.īut there is a limit to this allocation of accountability. Everyone on the pitch, as well as those off it, are complicit to an extent. This is not to absolve the players of blame in what is happening. Even if there are one or two bad apples, and that in itself is debatable, the orchard is still on fire. But these discussions, beyond coming across as deflective of the underlying issues, just seem futile. Hatem Elhamed’s positioning too, or McGregor’s profligacy in missing that chance in the game’s prologue. There are accusations from some quarters that the playing squad, or at least some of them, have let Neil Lennon down - in their on-pitch performances, and in alleged disruptions behind the scenes.Īgainst Milan for example, you could point to Vasilis Barkas’s strange decision not to dive for Milan’s first goal, or Christie’s stupid foul which led to it. Terrific composure from the 21-year-old □ /jrQBqXL91kĪs frustration with the management grows and anger with the board intensifies, one of the parallel arguments adjacent to these two issues is the accountability of Celtic’s players. ![]() Jens Petter Hauge evades multiple challenges before beating Vasilis Barkas! □ The psychological fragility, the procession of minor-seeming errors that snowball, the inexplicable gaps in shape it is par for the course. It was the 25th goal Celtic have conceded in 11 games, the 12th in the last four - and an astonishing 17th in five Europa League group stage games. Conceding four goals a game is just standard practice for Celtic at this point. They conceded a third early in the second half, another catastrophic defensive mishap, but to their credit looked more urgent and inventive going forward than they have in weeks chasing for that equaliser. ![]() It was the least surprising thing to have happened this year. Celtic blew their lead by conceding twice in two minutes. Before the inevitable happened, and it was inevitable. ![]() It was a reminder that these are good players capable of great things, and the muddle of the past four months has not changed that fundamental fact.
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