Naivety- Sutton on Celtic’s costly Ibrox flaw

Naivety- Sutton on Celtic’s Ibrox flaw

Having restored their lead in the 88th minute Chris Sutton believes that naivety was partly to blame for Celtic leaving Ibrox with one point rather than three.

After an incredible display from John Beaton in which everything went in favour of the home team there was always going to be a significant period of stoppage time.

There was still 10 minutes to be played after Adam Idah scored, unfortunately that allowed Rabbi Matondo to equalise with Cyriel Dessers sending a shot a yard wide of the post with the final act of the game.

Brendan Rodgers probably deserves an 8 or 9 out of 10 for the tactics that he deployed and use of substitutes but there were a couple of areas of criticism to make from Ibrox.

While Kris Boyd simply parrots the last message he has received from inside Ibrox Sutton is very capable of independent thought and constructive criticism as he offered in the Daily Record:

Celtic can’t afford a repeat of the naivety shown for the injury time equaliser. Listen, it was a sensational strike from Rabbi Matondo. But does Yang not watch Scottish football on the television?

The winger did exactly the same thing against Hibs last week, yet Yang showed him inside to his stronger foot. It was an incredible hit but it was asking for trouble. It was the same the other side. Nicolas Kuhn kept cutting inside but he was up against a right-footed left back in Dujon Sterling.

The one time he got down the outside his cross resulted in the penalty. These are things they should have been aware off beforehand.

You could nip pick with that second period and maybe James Forrest could have been a better option than Yang. But the other changes Rodgers made had a positive impact with Adam Idah and Paulo Bernardo doing well when they came on.

With just two matches outside of Glasgow, at Kilmarnock and St Mirren, and just one midweek match before the end of the season there is plenty of time to be spent working on fitness to ensure optimum performances at Lennoxtown.

By the time of the Scottish Cup semi-final against Aberdeen on April 20 Hatate and McGregor should be close to full fitness and ready for the vital post-split fixtures.