A lot of people at Celtic have been bumping their gums this week. Don’t get me wrong, none of what they had to say was unwelcome or anything. In fact, you want to know at a time like this that the team is up for the fight, because a fight is what it’s going to be.
The manager will shortly speak and I would imagine that he’ll have plenty to say on top of what the players already have. Maybe there’ll be a surprise or two, an acknowledgement that he has to look in the mirror as well as them. That would be welcome as well.
But really, the fans don’t want to hear talk any longer. We’ve heard plenty of it. Every bad result, every stumble and slip, every bad performance ends with someone coming out and telling us that the lessons have been learned and we’ll not repeat the mistakes. And here we end up, each and every time. It’s nowhere near good enough.
It is high time this team started to put the points on the boards, and to match them up with big performances as well. We need that more than the points. Because if we’re going to restore hope that this title race can be turned around we need to see convincing victories, not just those where we play for ten minutes and then try to scrape over the line.
The online stat I read recently – that we’ve had eighteen full halves of football without seeing a goal in our league games this season – is damning. It’s exactly what’s gone wrong here. Defensively we still look solid, it’s at the other end of the pitch that we’re making a mess of it. If we were better at putting the ball in the net this season not only would we have more points but this team would be generating that critical element; fear. Respect.
Nobody fears or respects us right now. Every team thinks we’re vulnerable and that they can have a go. Every one of them. Once we start putting some convincing wins together we’ll re-establish that fear factor once more and that will help us tremendously.
It will also shut off the gloating from the critics and start, finally, to put pressure on the Ibrox club who have not felt under any for a while in this league. Then we’ll see how they handle it.
It’s amazing what a nice run of convincing wins – big wins – can do for the confidence and belief for the team ? 3 or 4 consecutive drubbings of opposition sides will make a world of difference to attitude and trust . It’s not too far away to turn the corner in the season …or too late !
How many false dawns have we had this season. How many times has there been a result, both good and bad, where we’ve either thought “that’ll give us the kick up the arse we need” or “that’ll give them the confidence to put a great run together” only to be let down again. This is death by a thousand passes at the moment, and I worry there might just too many passengers in our squad to turn this malaise around. We have to live in hope that we can. The alternative just doesn’t bare thinking about!
With The Hoops not playing until Sunday once again – Perhaps the technical team at Celtic could set up a link of the games involving Aberdeen and Hearts on Saturday…
That way the coaching team could say to our misfiring mob –
Watch and learn from Miovski and Shankland how to get the ball in the opposition onion bag !
Sorry to pick nits James, because I doubt any of us would disagree with your sentiment, but you say we look defensively sound? Can’t say I agree with that bit. We look sound enough when the entire opposition is behind the ball and Scales is exchanging passes with the rest of the back four. But any time they’re in our half we look vulnerable in the extreme.
That’s one of the reasons that they feel bold enough to have a go. We’re slow on the counter so there’s limited risk and there’s plenty of evidence this season to support the feeling that you just might get something.