Willie Miller has delivered a brutal assessment on Celtic’s defending- picking out Hatem Abd Elhamed for particular criticism.
The defender was badly at fault for the second goal scored by Ferencvaros on Wednesday night that ended Celtic’s interest in the Champions League.
During the eighties Miller turned defending into an artform. Other than set pieces he rarely crossed the half-way line with the penalty box his personal space guarded with passion and pride.
Celtic’s exit from the Champions League has sparked a massive post mortem but the basics of guarding your own goal seems to have been lost as defenders are encouraged to develop a more expansive game.
Picking up on his comments on Radio Scotland, the Daily Record reports Miller saying:
Do teams actually work at defending? Do they really work at defending?
Do they get a back four in there, do they put six put against them, do they make it difficult, do they throw balls into the box, do they ask their defenders to put their head on that ball when it’s pouring of rain?
I don’t know if they do. Every time you watched Celtic under Brendan Rodgers it was the same shape. He goes down to England it’s the same shape as well. The two centre-backs are there and the full-backs, their first thought is to get up the park, they’re like auxiliary midfield players.
You then ask the goalkeeper to be like an outfield player. Elhamed was away with the fairies. I don’t know what was in his mind.
But I bet you he was thinking about getting forward. He had to adjust and he didn’t know how to adjust. The vast majority of defenders don’t have that pride … when you’re asked that question, you fail miserably.
Until Wednesday Elhamed was viewed as a traditional defender whose priority was delivering at the back to ensure a clean sheet.
This season he has started both European ties with Jeremie Frimpong first pick in domestic fixtures with that trend expected to continue when Celtic host Motherwell on Sunday.