Pat Bonnar has become an increasing irritation to large numbers of Celtic fans.
I had Radio Scotland on at the weekend before our game kicked off and honestly, it was a pleasure to switch it off as the praise he was lavishing on the club across town, whilst at the same time picking holes in our team, was becoming nauseating.
In the aftermath of the game, he claimed that we missed Kyogo to the extent that we were in trouble for the next handful of matches without him.
He said that we couldn’t afford to be, but that we had allowed ourselves to rely on him too much.
It’s not true. In fact, it’s a pretty stupid observation.
Here’s what else; Kyogo wouldn’t have made a difference yesterday, because as the manager has pointed out the decision making of our front line was suspect.
He would have, like Ajeti, been one man stranded alone surrounded by Livingston players.
Does he look like the kind of guy who will get in the end of a high cross in front of six-foot defenders?
Edouard, who is half a foot taller at least, struggled in the same system last season.
Those dumb crosses are self-defeating. We needed to be smarter yesterday and if we had been we’d have got the win.
Why didn’t we play like we’re capable?
A lot of people are blaming the manager, but he made it clear that the team didn’t play the way he set them out to.
When he’s talking about bad decision making in the top half of the pitch that has nothing to do with tactics, that’s individuals not doing what they are told, and this was all the front men, including those whose job would have been to feet Kyogo the ball.
The one time a player did something right – Soro’s threaded pass to Ajeti where the forward turned the defender with his quick thinking response – we cut them open.
A straight ball through the middle, on the deck, to the feet of a player who exploited that moment beautifully and got his shot away; this is how we should have played the whole game, with players running at their defence, with the wide men cutting inside with the ball instead of smacking across the face of goal.
In a system like that a natural finisher will get chances. Space will open up.
In that system, a player like Kyogo can run riot.
But a player like Ajeti could have thrived as well.
We don’t know yet what we’ve got in the big Greek striker; it may well be that he’s a physical player who would have challenged for those crosses, but too many players took the lazy option yesterday instead of playing more direct stuff.
I love Kyogo; you can tell this guy is head and shoulders above most other players in this league.
But we’re kidding ourselves if we think he could single-handedly have turned that around by somehow making that style more effective.
I’m sick of the slow, sideways passing to and fro to each other, four or five passes and we’re stuck in the same place, it’s almost as if our players are scared to take the ball past the opposing player. Come on Bhoys, show a bit more adventure.
The previous comments are pretty much spot on but is it as simple as our players lacking bottle. We seemed to lack the tactical nouse, pace, energy and the talent to break teams like Livi down on the smaller pitches when we might well do so on larger pitches.
I would argue that Kyogo would have made a difference whether it would have been enough to change the outcome, well that’s another thing. Maybe its as simple as we need several players of Kyogo’s pace, energy and talent unfortunately the money we spend on players mainly in the European market, doesn’t buy that. So if its not working change it. If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting whay you always got.
That’s where I think, sorry I hope, that Ange’s knowledge of the Asian market might help provide a few more gems like Kyogo in January. Cleary with Kyogo that change has worked. HH