Ally McCoist has paid a surprise tribute to league leaders Celtic, acknowledging that their attacking play is on a different level to anything else in the SPFL.
Despite an alleged recent stutter the hoops are two points clear at the top of the table and have a goal difference advantage of plus 12 having scored nine more goals than Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side while conceding three fewer.
Key to Celtic’s success is the wing play delivered by Jota, Daizen Maeda, Liel Abada and Daizen Maeda who have provided a regular supply of goals and assists.
That sort of supply and delivery isn’t matched anywhere else although McCoist believes that there is one player at Ibrox that can be deliver as regularly as Ange Postecoglou’s wide bhoys.
The Daily Record reports McCoist saying:
There’s an energy level that Celtic posses which Rangers haven’t been matching, particularly in wide areas of the pitch. Celtic are really direct and positive and you can see that the other players in the squad are really benefiting from the directness of Celtic in the wide areas.
I don’t think Rangers have that same positivity about them and I really think they’re missing Tom Lawrence. I’ll hold my hands up and say I didn’t think I’d be saying that about him at the start of the season. I knew Tom was a good player but I didn’t think he’d become such a key part of the team so quickly. Rangers are missing his energy and drive and that’s the difference between Celtic and Rangers at the moment.
Most of McCoist’s media comments about Celtic tend to be gags, jokes and quips through his multiple broadcasting appearance.
Just two years ago Celtic’s threat from wide areas was almost all down to Moi Elyounoussi. Postecoglou decided that strengthening those areas was a priority, in his first SPFL start of the season James Forrest stepped in to score a hat-trick in the 6-1 win over Hibs.
McCoist isn’t so different from you or I. He supports his team, albeit a new club since the extinction of his old one.
Sure, he is biased and normally wears his blue tinted glasses, but he’s also realistic.
This is in such contrast to Kris Boyd who to be perfectly frank with you is about as intelligent as the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz!
His comments are neither knowledgeable nor eloquent.
To be honest, he is quite embarrassing to himself and his employer.