Having suffered a second slip up in our last three games, Celtic have now totally blown the advantage we had at the top of the Scottish Premiership table, and the pressure is massively mounting on manager Brendan Rodgers and there are plenty of questions being asked about how his second time in charge at Parkhead will actually go.
Having stumbled to a draw with Aberdeen at the beginning of the month, we again came a cropper at we hosted Kilmarnock last Saturday and the 1-1 score in the game means that we are now two points shy of the top of the table and if you like a flutter you will see how that has changed the odds on The Punters Page. We are no longer the favourites.
It is not all doom and gloom though, as plenty in the Hoops fan base will remain optimistic given the games we would naturally expect to take full points in that remain on the calendar, but even with that optimism there is no denying that those winnable games for us right now, are also potential banana skins given our form so far.
We may have only suffered two defeats in the domestic league campaign so far (the least of anyone, with Rangers coming in at four) but the five draws have cost us massively as they should have been full three pointers really – at least three or four of the matches even if I am being a bit conservative.
Then there is also the small fact that football statisticians have crunched the numbers on Rodgers‘ years in charge, and he has failed to meet his points per game average of 2.79 back in 2016/17, and not only were the next two season’s lower…upon his return whilst there has been a slight improvement on 2018/19 (2.33) we are currently batting 2.38, and if we are to close the gap that now exists, we clearly need big improvement on that front.
Ironically, whilst it will not be an ‘invincible’ level of points that he once attained, he is actually on track for a better points haul than his last two seasons – the biggest question right now is will that be enough before we hit the final game of the campaign.
The additional problem we now have is Rodgers himself is slowly beginning to sound like he is resigned to the fact that these slip ups will continue to occur. In fact, responding to the Kilmarnock draw he basically admitted that their very late equaliser did not even really come as a surprise to him because the side have ‘had enough mishaps throughout the season’ as it is.
Now there are some mitigating circumstances, partially down to injury, and Rodgers has made no real secret of the fact that he expected a far busier and more productive January transfer window and our action was minimal in reality. But something is still off, and with 12 games remaining we need to find the solve to it.
Callum McGregor admitted as much himself when he spoke following the latest draw, stating that there was ‘something missing’ in the mentality of the group as we should not have allowed ourselves to largely sleep walk into the position we are now in – chasing for the title, given we had such a good advantage to begin with.
“We’ve been in this position too many times this year. We have a good run of games and then everything looks good. Then, all of a sudden, you turn up and something happens out of the blue where you think, ‘Where did that come from?’ That’s telling me there’s something missing.”
Whether what is missing is fresh blood, a few new faces, and a new mental perspective to totally help off set any potential complacency given our more recent and long held success is thoroughly open to debate, but it is clearly a problem, and to his credit, McGregor is not shying away from it – and nor is he absolving himself from sharing in the blame for that – as he went on to guarantee fans that ‘I’ll find the answer to that’ and he would not rest until he got to the bottom of it, both on a team perspective but then also any role he is playing in our daft inconsistency right now.
He also knew that with 12 games left, even with the two point difference, it is completely in our hands to turn this around and end the season on a high, we just needed to find that little one thing that would click and boost everyone’s confidence and change our approach to games when we are not winning as comfortably as we would originally imagine.
Sustained success is difficult for a reason in football, we are at the point where it has again become difficult. But Celtic have been here before, and we will no doubt be here again in the years that are yet to pass.
But it is now in our hands in terms of what we do – time for a bit more faith?
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