It is not just the season of coughs and sneezes that will have given Celtic fans all the Covid feels this week.
The insipid display at Rugby Park in the second-period of Sunday’s game had that aimless, wanton feel about it that it did in the fan-less Covid campaign as Celtic unravelled.
Brendan Rodgers offered a fairly meek post-match assessment as he lamented his side’s inability to pass the ball, a direct result of which he felt was an inability to offer any real menace in the final third. Kilmarnock were furious at eight minutes of added time in the game but they need not have worried; Celtic looked like they could have played all day and not found a way to goal.
There was none of the ire that Celtic fans got a glimpse of last weekend from Rodgers who confessed that his half-time teamtalk was the ‘angriest he had ever been.’
There were no rockets sent forth in Ayrshire. This was a Celtic team that showcased all the failings of this season – and the failings of a summer window in which Celtic came out of it weaker than when they went into. This season the Parkhead side are currently six points worse off than where they were after the same number of games last term. They also won 5-0 and 4-1 on the the surface that Matty Kennedy, scorer of Kilmarnock’s winner, suggested he knew Celtic did not like.
The fallout this week will be predictable. Celtic have looked comfortable and at ease at the top of the table but if they needed a reminder that they are firmly in a title race they got it this week. December 30th will loom large now over the next few weeks. Celtic have shipped seven points sicne the arrival of Phillipe Clement at Rangers to the Ibrox side’s two across the same period. Regardless of what nonsense is spoken of about form books going out of windows ahead of these games, the reality is that it is the form team who tends to prevail.
Clearly are a team who are vulnerable defensively – and they have conceded four more goals than Rangers this term – need to have the solidity of being clinical in front of goal. With Kyogo Furuhashi isn’t up and on it Celtic toil.
The loss of Liel Abada, Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate has shorn Celtic of a creative edge but their summer recruitment cannot be seen as anything other than abject.
January is never an easy market to strengthen a squad in. But Celtic are bloated and short on quality. It is imperative that they look to add genuine quality when consideration is given to the bounty that lies in wait in next season’s UEFA Champions League.
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