What has gone wrong and how on earth can it be fixed?
Last night’s 0-0 draw with St Mirren made for brutal viewing, there was so much wrong with the performance and nothing to excuse it, not even being down to ten men.
Andrew Dallas had a shocker, another refereeing performance straight out of the ‘Stop The Ten’ guidebook but more alarmingly this seemed to be a display from a Celtic side that has lost it’s appetite for the game. That is a terrifying thought.
Scott Brown buzzed about as he usually does, taking on the young upstarts from Paisley desperate to make a name for themselves but unable to unseat the hoops skipper.
Worryingly it seems that the skipper is unable to stir his team-mates into life.
Players really should be able to motivate themselves, self pride ought to ensure that they go out and put on a performance in front of the telly cameras against a side having a nightmare start to the new season. During the summer Celtic took St Mirren’s best player who was sitting watching on the sidelines.
After five or ten minutes Celtic supporters were worried and it was all down to attitude which must be one of the most worrying problems in the game.
During his first season Brendan Rodgers would have sussed things out, made two subtle changes and transformed the game. There wasn’t the slightest hint of that in Paisley last night.
Many of last season’s home bore-draws were excused as we looked at a bigger picture and made allowances.
That ended in the summer, there are no excuses for last night, players aren’t tired in September, they showed against Sevco that they still have it but if they think that they can pick and choose their matches they are in for a terrible shock.
Lots of worrying stats surfaced last night.
It took Celtic until match 70 under Rodgers to fail to score in a domestic match, it seems that permanent damage was inflicted at Tynecastle. In 2018 Celtic have failed to score in 10 out of 38 matches.
Since the 3-1 win over Livingston on the opening day of the season the hoops have scored twice in four SPFL matches.
The matches against Hearts, Hamilton and Livingston have been grim viewing, goalkeepers can now expect a quiet time of it against Celtic.
What is causing this is anyone’s guess although there are plenty of options.
The Boyata and Dembele situations weren’t healthy, what other unrest is there behind the scenes?
The bond between dug-out and boardroom is at best fractured, it might even be broken.
Those problems may have cost the club a place in the Champions League but on this season’s form that looks like a bullet dodged. What damage would PSG or Barcelona inflict on this Celtic team?
There is no obvious solution, no quick turnaround.
Will a home defeat from Rosenborg bring things to a head or will a League Cup exit at St Johnstone prompt some action?
Those questions would have been laughed at in September 2016 or 2017. Today nothing can be ruled out with this stumbling Celtic side but is there anyone capable of turning this slump around?