Kilmarnock relegation fears and questions over O'Neill's Celtic
The Football Show panel weighed up who goes down, questioned a VAR call at Kilmarnock and asked whether Celtic are really playing Martin O'Neill's way.
By Peter Martin,
Kilmarnock's defensive record left The Football Show panel worried about their place in the Premiership, while the discussion on Martin O'Neill's Celtic centred on a poor run and a style that did not look like his.
Peter Martin, Alan Rough, Tam McManus and Alex Rae were on the live show on 2 November. They covered Kilmarnock 2-2 St Johnstone, Motherwell 1-0 St Mirren, VAR and the relegation fight before turning to Celtic.
Who goes down
The draw at Kilmarnock opened a conversation about the worst defensive record in the league. The panel's verdict on Kilmarnock was blunt: "I'd be worried if I was a Kilmarnock fan", with the figure of "28 goals they've lost in 12 games" cited.
Looking at the bottom end, St Mirren and Kilmarnock "are going to be in the mix", while "St Johnstone are picking up points". The show also went over the penalty in Motherwell's 1-0 win against St Mirren.
The handball and VAR
A handball by the Kilmarnock goalkeeper outside his area raised the question of why a video review was needed at all. As the panel put it, "His hands are outside the box".
Despite that, VAR still had support. One panellist said: "I would take VAR in a minute, because some of the decisions that are going on down at our level is incredible."
The panel also discussed Neil McCann's frustration at being down to 10 men.
O'Neill's Celtic
The final section asked whether Celtic are playing O'Neill's way. The point was made that "Martin O'Neill has always been a direct manager with two big strikers", but that this Celtic team has "got Shaun Maloney's fingerprints all over it".
Peter Martin pointed to the run of results as damning for O'Neill: "it's three wins in 10".