There was one especially telling comment from Neil Lennon after last night’s 1-1 draw with Udinese.
“I know what these players can do but possibly the Scottish game might hold them back a little bit,” the Celtic boss suggested.
Watching James Forrest drop deep, pick up the ball, race at defenders and generally cause havoc was in stark contrast to the average SPL match where the teenager is given little protection from referees who like to ‘let the game flow’.
The performance of referee Michael Koukoulakis wasn’t flawless, especially in terms of penalty claims but the Greek official did show a general appreciation for the game, knowing when to let play continue and when to issue yellow cards. He even corrected a case of mistaken identity between Scott Brown and Cha Du-Ri without any dramatics!
In the first half Georgios Samaras joined Forrest in the unplayable stakes as Celtic were given the opportunity to express themselves in an attacking sence. The sort of style that was never an option in the recent trip to Motherwell where Charlie Richmond seemed prepared to let virtually anything go.
Europe is over now for another season with Celtic’s immediate priority to transmit last night’s display into Sunday’s visit to St Johnstone.
The Perth side beat Celtic 1-0 at Celtic Park earlier in the season as Celtic’s early season promise nosedived into a run that left them trailing Rangers by 15 points at one stage.
Three straight wins in the SPL will cut that deficit down to at worst a single point with Lennon already looking forward to a telling domestic spell.
“What we have to do is transmit that from European football into our domestic game,” he said. “I know what these players can do but possibly the Scottish game might hold them back a little bit.
“There were exceptional displays. Samaras, Forrest and Hooper caused them all sorts of problems and Fraser Forster pulled off a wonderful double save.”
Hopefully Saturday’s referee, Euan Norris will give football a chance on Sunday.
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Don’t think SPL sides will simply match up with our midfield, although Udinese did dominate the 2nd period with better quality. We have to prepare for sides putting 5 into midfield against our 4 and get more from central midfield as we are too reliant on our wide players.
as willie points out, it’s more to do with how our usual SPL opposition sets their stall out than referees (though they do play their part).
practically every week we have to face a side with 9 or 10 players behind the ball, sitting very deep and narrow. this is something we barely ever have faced in Europe.
we need to find a way breaking down packed defences better. it’s usually ok if we score first and early, as the opposition then has to open up a bit.
celtic are quite unique in this respect – there must be very few teams faced with this kind of task every week.