Celtic’s defence is killing their title bid
Just not good enough at the back
Why do Celtic keep losing Hoopy the huddle hound?
Because they can’t hold onto a lead.
Well Celtic fans, if you can’t lie, you’d cry. Sorry the joke wasn’t funny enough to make anyone chuckle but fans of all the other clubs in Scotland won’t need any assistance to find the funny things in life at the moment.
Yes, Tony Mowbray is experiencing terrible luck when it comes to having fit defenders.
Yes, some of the decisions made by his backline are beyond comprehension.
However, regardless of who features for Celtic, the defence looks in a very shaky state and if it was not for Artur Boruc, more than the 4 goals would have been shipped.
The Polish stopper has looked sluggish of late but he made a number of excellent saves when Aberdeen exerted pressure on the Glasgow team.
Darren O’Dea has a cult following amongst the Celtic fans but that is no indication of being a reliable defender.
It is more to do with being Irish, being involved in an altercation with a Rangers fan after a night out in Glasgow and much like Thomas Gravesen and Derek Riordan, not playing made fans remember him as a better player than he actually is.
O’Dea had to step up and be a leader for Celtic today but he was poor yet again and at the end, he let the club and the fans down by earning a red card, which will see him ruled out at a time when he should be pushing hard to be in the first team.
His first booking came in the aftermath of Aiden McGeady’s goal which meant that his second booking was a very stupid challenge to make. No doubt there would have been an element of frustration in the defenders challenge but that is not the way to help the team.
As for the full-backs, dear oh dear.
Paul Caddis is not a full back and has been badly exposed in all of his recent games in that position. It is a definite shame for the player who has waited patiently for a run of starts but it is increasingly clear that Caddis’ role is further up the right hand side of the park and not as a full back.
On the other side, Edson Braafheid showed that any defender with the Heid moniker is likely to do something bizarre and his handball was the turning point of the game. Yes, the Celtic defence was shaky but at 4-2 up, Celtic should have been playing with confidence.
The bizarre introduction of Samaras for Keane when a more defensive minded player coming on would have been of more use didn’t help the hoops but when your full back decides to handle the ball when there is no need, how much can the manager do?
These sort of decisions have plagued Celtic defenders for a while and it is a big difference between themselves and Rangers. Everyone can have a laugh at Kirk Broadfoot and the fact that he is never going to win any Brain of Britain award but when have you ever seen him make a mistake like that?
Never, he knows his limitations and does his job. He also has a league winners medal at home and it is looking increasingly likely that he will have another by the end of this season.
Josh Thompson didn’t have his best game for Celtic but he was the only player in the back four to emerge with any credit and the youngster needs a lot more support to help his development.
Never mind “taking it on the chin and moving on”, Tony Mowbray needs to start chinning his defenders before they make his position untenable.
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Been saying it for a while now Ed, the biggest mistake Mowbray made was allowing the signing of Keane as opposed to the Spanish defender Ramis. We can only assume that Lawell needed the Keane signing more for the commercial and bums on seats policy than Mowbray needed a strong centre half. Even Russel Anderson, Concalves and dare I say it, self confessed hoops fans, Zander Diamond could come in and do a job for that Celtic defence. Question is, who is going to improve it? Hoiveld made a high profile mistake in his first game and looks desperately unfit, Loovens is always an accident waiting to happen and Hinkel is a better attacker than defender.
I honestly think for all his talents, Keane has upset what Mowbray was looking to do with his first choice 11.
Huge game for Rangers tomorrow and hopefully a hard won three points will see Rangers now cement their 10 point lead at the top again.
There is the argument that Rob Jones would have improved the Celtic defence.
Which says more about the lack of quality in the Celtic defence as opposed to a thumbs up for Jones.
Still not sure about the Ramis deal, a few sources indicated that the players agent wanted an additional amount of money – but there is no doubt that another first choice centre half should have been brought in.
And surely the Spaniard could have helped Celtic sell shirts in that lucrative Spanish market….*rolls eyes* – maybe thats why Mr Lawell wasn’t keen to secure the player at a higher cost.
Hooiveld will probably be able to do a job…he hadn’t played first team football in a while and he was then shoved into a dodgy Celtic backline, that was probably asking for an injury.
There is a huge incentive for Hibs to go to Ibrox and take something, surely they must be thinking they can overtake Celtic? Think Hibs play their game in hand this midweek versus St Johnstone.
Still, Rangers have been given another big boost today and it should give the players a lift and will certainly get the fans behind them from the start.
It’ll be interesting to see how the pre-match protest goes because the fans will probably be in quite a positive mood regarding football.
ramis deal was scupperd by the ceptic board as they have no confidence in squidward, loan deals only