Celtic is settling in now for the long grind. The adventures in Europe are over. Between now and the end there is last night, over and over again, playing teams with eleven men behind the ball. There will be days when it fails spectacularly, days when we will blitz teams and score lots of goals. But on weary week nights, with a full calendar, some will be like last night.
Get ready. Make yourselves comfortable. The grind is about to begin.
The grind isn’t a bad thing, but it’s hard to watch. Imagine how it must be to play in it. As fans, football is our leisure time and no-one wants to watch the grind, but in every creative industry and sport – and in most other things – it is something you get used to and learn to endure. We forget sometimes that this is the job for these guys and any job involves a fair bit of putting the backs to the wheel and powering through on days when you might want to chuck it.
Our players have, in recent weeks, shown that they have it in their lockers to grind out results, to battle through. I can’t stress enough how important that is. We know we can play the sexy football when we want to and raise our game on those big days and nights but that other thing is just as important.
In the last two games we’ve learned that this team can handle the honest toil. That they can rise from adversity, and now that they can stay focussed and hard working in those games where it’s just not happening.
That’s the biggest positive we can take from a night like last night, but it’s not the only one. The manager went with two up front, knowing the opposition would put men behind the ball. And that paid off. The two forwards combined for the goal, which was taken by Leigh.
Of course it was.
Leigh Griffiths is Mr Dependable. He is an astonishing player in that regard, and I am pleased that he is such a model professional. If he’s upset or frustrated at not getting games he doesn’t let it affect how he goes about his business. He may express that frustration to the media when asked, but he isn’t demanding games or threatening to leave. He simply waits and when a chance presents itself he does what he has to and dares the manager to drop him.
I love that. I love that about him.
The media narrative in one discredited rag yesterday was that he would have to consider whether he wanted to stay at Celtic “for his own good.” Typical of them to dress this up as something with altruistic intentions. It’s pretty easy to sniff their agenda here; get Leigh to make noises about leaving and poison his relationship with the manager and then turn the volume on the “Dembele to leave Celtic soon!” stories up to the max. Transparent and shameless.
Leigh ignored all of it and is getting on with the job.
It is a hard slog we’re facing towards the treble. As Paul67 has pointed out today, teams are now trying to adapt to playing against us, but Brendan is not Ronny. He never has, and never will, been the kind of manager who believes “one size fits all.” The Record’s article about Leigh yesterday, in all its breathtaking ignorance, said Brendan “won’t change the system” … but he does every game. And he is not wedded, as we can see, to one up front.
But things will be tougher. Last night proves it.
But you know what? Tough is good.
Our ability to get through anyway is inspiring and gives us all real hope for the future.
Things are looking very promising heading into the January window.