Celtic Players
Sometimes an international break tells you more about your team than the matches they play for Celtic.
Camilo Durán has now made his senior debut for Colombia, coming off the bench against Paraguay less than three months after arriving in Glasgow.
Think about that for a second.
The boy joined Celtic talking about his dream of representing his country. He has come here, made an immediate impression and already played his way into the Colombian national team.
Mika Baur has just made his debut for Germany. Not only that, he became the 1,000th player in the history of German football to represent their senior national side when Jürgen Klopp brought him on during the 2-0 victory over Serbia.
Benjamin Nygren scored for Sweden in their 3-1 win over Poland, taking his international record to four goals in only 17 appearances.
Four goals in 17 international appearances is a very decent return for a midfielder.
These are all fantastic personal achievements, but they also leave Celtic with a fairly obvious question to answer.
If this squad contains players trusted by international managers to represent Germany, Sweden, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Tunisia and Scotland, why do they sometimes look like complete strangers when they pull on the Hoops?
Because this Celtic squad clearly has quality.
Quality was needed and there was SOME added during the summer. Internationals are littered throughout the team.
Baur has now been trusted by Jürgen Klopp to step onto the pitch for Germany. Nygren is scoring goals for Sweden. Durán’s performances in Glasgow have already pushed him into the Colombia set-up.
Kasper Høgh represents Denmark. Viljami Sinisalo plays for Finland. Liam Scales is a regular with the Republic of Ireland. Sebastian Tounekti is involved with Tunisia, while Colby Donovan has received recognition from Scotland.
These are not bad players.
They cannot be highly rated by experienced international managers, considered capable of representing their countries and then suddenly become unable to deliver for Celtic.
I’m not having that.
That means we have to look beyond the individual quality when trying to explain what we have witnessed recently.
Yes, Celtic are still top of the league.
That matters, and we should remember it.
The season has not collapsed, the league title has not been lost and there is plenty of football still to be played. Nobody needs to pretend everything is finished because Celtic have hit a rotten spell.
However, being top of the league cannot be used to wave away what happened before the international break.
Three consecutive defeats were bad enough. The manner of them was worse.
They were tame.
All three lacked punch and quality.
Those results left us looking at a Celtic team that did not appear to have any clear idea of how to change the direction of a match once the original plan stopped working.
The two defeats against Rangers were especially concerning because of how similar they felt.
Celtic lacked aggression, imagination and authority. There was no real response when the games began moving away from us.
Players capable of performing on the international stage suddenly looked hesitant. They appeared unsure of where the next pass was going, who was making the next run or how Celtic were actually supposed to break the opposition down.
That is not just a quality problem.
It is a structure problem.
Now it’s down to the management team to find a shape, style and tactical identity that suits these players.
You cannot fill a squad with talented internationals and then just send them onto the pitch hoping they will eventually figure it out amongst themselves.
The system needs to connect them.
Baur is technically gifted, intelligent on the ball and capable of linking the play. Martin O’Neill spoke about those qualities when Celtic signed him.
Use them.
Nygren has shown that he can score goals from midfield. Get him into the areas where he can actually hurt opponents instead of leaving him isolated or receiving the ball in positions where he is far less dangerous.
Durán has pace, energy and the versatility to play through the middle or from a wider position. Celtic need an attacking structure that allows him to combine with the players around him rather than constantly waiting for somebody to produce something out of nothing.
There is plenty to work with here.
The problem is that Celtic currently look like a collection of footballers rather than a properly functioning football team.
The Motherwell game now becomes hugely important.
That does not mean simply scraping out a victory, taking the three points and pretending everything has been fixed.
Winning is obviously essential after three consecutive defeats, but we also need to see signs of a genuine response.
We need to see patterns of play, players who understand their roles within a system built around the strengths of this squad.
Baur should return to Glasgow feeling ten feet tall after making German football history. Durán has fulfilled the childhood dream he spoke about when he joined Celtic. Nygren, once he recovers from illness, comes back having added another international goal to his record.
The confidence should be there.
Celtic’s job is to harness it.
The quality is there. The international recognition proves it.
Now the management team needs to give these players a system that allows them to show it.
It is time for Celtic’s talented internationals to stop looking like strangers and finally start playing like a team.
I think everything is wrong apart from the players. The team selection and positions, tactics, fitness, substitutions, motivation and encouragement are all lacking something.
Mon and SM had a week to change things between the Sevco games and that tells you everything. Nothing will have changed when we return because the management don’t know how to change things.
What kills the spirit at a club is not rewarding effort and ability. We know what happened to Hatton and McArdle after successful debuts and being lauded by MON. Hogh played as a lone striker which is not his thing and given no decent service then blamed for being a waste of money. It happened to Kuhn who was given no service and then blamed. Add Oh and the rest who were happy to leave.
This doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Other players see this incompetence and their heads go down lose belief in the manager.
I believe we have wasted 3 weeks preparation time a new manager would have had to settle in.
It’s all about the coaching and the manager. The LASK team was put together for pennies. Their most expensive signing cost less than we sold johnny kenny for and most Celtic fans consider him a reject.
Can you imagine LASK saying Kasper Hogh doesn’t fit in to their system ffs???
The 2nd game against the Huns proved that Martin O’Neill and his coaching team haven’t a clue as to how to get the best out of these players. A lone striker with no wingers, at home against an ordinary SPFL team tells it all, no wonder the team looked short on confidence and ability. The coaches had shown fear with the team they had selected, and this fear moved on to the field of play. Cowardice and negativity carried on from the previous week and our manager and coaches should be ashamed.
It looks like Martin and his coaches are remaining in place, all I can say is, let’s hope they up their game, that horror week cannot be repeated. Seven games in three weeks coming up, I hope that at the end of that spell we’re not wishing that Martin had walked away with a bit of pride.
Ffs ditch the loan striker role, or at least get attacking midfielders bursting a gut to get into the box and support the striker when attacking, and how about encouraging shooting on sight. Back to the basics can sometimes be the best way.