Cameron Carter-Vickers is convinced that there won’t be many repeats of Saturday’s frustrations against Livingston.
The on-loan Spurs man had very little defending to do as Celtic enjoyed 85% possession against opponents that dug in for a stalemate virtually from the kick-off.
Giorgos Giakoumakis, Liel Abada and Nir Bitton returned to Ange Postecoglou’s starting XI but the style of play is well established with Celtic enjoying saturation of the midfield and trying to feed their wingers to get the ball into the penalty box.
The guile of Tom Rogic was highlighted in the win over Hibs but with the Australian out injured there was no-one prepared to drive into the penalty box from the centre of the park.
Angeball won’t be as effective when players are off form but there needs to be some variety within it to outsmart teams like Livi who have kept Celtic at bay for three hours this season at the cost of five points.
Explaining the trust of Postecoglou’s players, Carter-Vickers told the Daily Record:
The way we play is the way we believe will bring us the most success and the players are all right behind that. That’s what we want to do, that’s what we try to do and that’s what we’ll keep doing.
It was a chance to go top of the league and that’s obviously where we want to be, but it’s only the end of October and leagues aren’t won at this time of the season. There’s plenty of time and I believe if we stick to our principles we’ll get there.
Leagues can’t be won in October but 12 months ago Celtic entered a swift decline that ended up with an 18 point deficit after the first match in January 2021.
A repeat of that sorry situation is highly unlikely but with Livi establishing a way to thwart the hoops other coaches will be watching closely putting the onus is on Postecoglou to find a way through well-drilled defences.
