EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - FEBRUARY 07: Ex-Celtic player Chris Sutton during a cinch Premiership match between Hibernian and Celtic at Easter Road Stadium, on February 07, 2024, in Edinbugrh, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Chris Sutton has joined the chorus of criticism aimed at Celtic’s midfield.
It is the most basic confession but if the midfield fails to perform forwards and starved and defenders left exposed.
At Ibrox on Sunday all that and more was exposed.
Individually Callum McGregor, Maika Baur and Ben Nygren are fine players.
Combined they fail to function as demonstrated in trips to Linz and Ibrox.
Celtic had Arne Engels registered in their Champions League squad but he was sold to West Ham before the capitulation in Austria.
After going out of the Champions League Celtic signed Oliver Sorenson and Joel van den Berg.
Neither are close to the profile of the departed Engels.
Celtic signed a total of 10 players during the transfer window but there remains a huge gap in a midfield that just doesn’t function.
After selling Arne Engles, Celtic had a fundamental problem in the middle of the park.
I get a lot of things wrong, but I’m not wrong on this one. Celtic’s midfield is lightweight, it is a midfield full of five-a-side players, they can’t cover the ground and they were bullied.
I thought Celtic handed Rangers the initiative from the start and this is a Rangers team who, let’s get it right, have struggled this season.
Fair play to Derek McInnes for changing things up. He probably had a fair idea that that Celtic midfield were there for the bullying. Things won’t change.
Don’t take my word. You’ve got the Celtic manager who’s turned round after they sold Engels and said: Well, we need to replace a player with that profile, with the same dynamics. Have Celtic done that?
Celtic were found out in that department. Then you think: Well what’s going to change now from now to the weekend? Do Celtic have a player who can go in there and stiffen that midfield up?
After we’d beaten Rangers 6-2 [in 2000], we went to Ibrox in November, we lost 5-1. A player who was absent, who wasn’t at the club that particular day, was Neil Lennon.
Celtic then went and signed Neil Lennon to stiffen up that midfield. That’s a robust number six player and we went on to win the league comfortably from there. But Celtic should have done that business.
This is once again a case of Celtic playing catch-up when they shouldn’t. And who’s to blame for that?
If you don’t have the personnel and you have the manager saying: Well, we need to replace him and you don’t replace him, that has to be a problem.
It’s an issue, that midfield three for Celtic. That’s why players retire. You need to have robust physicality in the middle of the park. Celtic don’t have that.
SUTTON TAKES ON DIFFERENT ROLE FOR SUNDAY’S DERBY CLASH
Sutton will be a key figure in Sky Sports coverage of Sunday’s Glasgow Derby.
During the 20/21 season he fell foul of Neil Lennon for his criticism of the team and tactics.
Eighteen years earlier both men had been part of the side built by O’Neill that dominated Scottish football.
When O’Neill arrived at Celtic in June 2000 the club had won four trophies in the previous decade. One title, one Scottish Cup and two League Cups.
In his first season as Celtic boss O’Neill led Celtic to their first treble since 1969.
Three SPFL title won against Dave Murray’s Rangers laid the plans for the current domestic domination.
Celtic have won 14 of the last 15 titles, five trebles in the last decade.
European progress has been beyond them but domestic domination has been maintained.
Last season O’Neill came in in October and January to maintain Celtic at the head of the pack.
Two matches over the next five days will go a long way to deciding if the 74-year-old still has the magic to keep Celtic on top in Scotland.
Engels would have made no difference all of a sudden we are reading about his physicality and presence which in my opinion was non existent .
True, guy was a flake and jumping out of tackles seemed to be his main party trick.
Yeah, I agree. I’ve never understood this love-in for Engels all of a sudden. He was in the team when Dortmund whacked us 7-1. Sure, he scored a few penalties in his time but that was his only real contribution other than bloating our bank balance even further. I said before (and Joe rightly corrected me) that we were lucky to get our money back – and then some. Interesting to note that the two serious bidders are probably even more dysfunctional than Celtic. Our issues are systemic and it’s rooted in our recruitment and coaching. I won’t labour that point because it’s been done to death already. I disagree with some comments from Sutton about our midfield being technicians – they blatantly aren’t. They cannot string a few passes together under pressure. All of our 60/70% possession comes across the back four when teams leave us to it. When the press eventually comes we can’t handle it and easily cough up possession. Lose an early goal and we usually crumble with no way back, particularly in Europe. I’m also in disbelief about how many times I’ve heard that we don’t have legs in midfield. Is basic fitness not meant to be a large part of the focus of training every day? These are not professionally trained players. Regardless of what Johnstone’s performance was like on Sunday, he should not even have been selected based purely on the fact that he had cramp after 70 minutes against St Johnstone. That is not acceptable.
Suttons is 100% correct. The midfield we put out on Sunday meant we couldn’t win unless it is changed we lose again on Sunday. O Neil should have left after winning the league after last season. Should have known the board won’t back him properly.
Not much said by him before this defeat. Mr fckn negativity. If he commentates I turn over. Only takes a couple of minutes before he starts. Watch this space if we get a result on Thursday and do them on Sunday.
Shambolic is exactly where we are as a team, in fact scrap that as individuals more appropriate. MON is to blame for that disgrace on Sunday and yes the dinosaur board as usual have failed us all in the recruitment department another groundhog year and it will be the same next year. I wish he would drop the clown act because quite frankly it’s not funny. In fact it’s becoming toe carling. He wanted the players to experience what exactly. The hatred and bigotry ffs we weren’t on a sightseeing trip we supposedly were there to play football but obviously we were the tourist after all. I have stated before that MON is a nodding dog when it comes to DD it’s there in his own comments before anyone goes ballistic that I am shredding his legacy. I think he’s doing a good job of that himself with obviously a helping hand from the dinosaur board. I do believe it is down to him needing the money but I don’t really know the full picture. I have tried to source it on the Web but generally it’s about English footballers who invested through financial advisors and ended up with a tax bill that bankrupted them, a tad like castle greyskull. Do you know anymore on this Joe?
Off topic, but just noticed the below about Lindsell Train – the second largest shareholder after DD.
[Extracted from “CityAM” today.]
“…Over the period, [Lindsell Train’s] net asset value (NAV) – the total value of assets held in the trust’s portfolio – has shed 7.1 per cent every year, with holdings…weighing on the fund’s performance in recent months. The languid performance of Lindsell’s asset management company, Lindsell Train Limited, has also dragged on the trust.
Its shares are also trading at a hefty 17.7 per cent discount to the closed-end fund’s NAV and, despite an impressive long-term track record, are down over 60 per cent in the past half-decade.
…
The company, which is made up of two flagship funds that focus on UK and foreign equities, shot to prominence in the early 2000s after making string of hugely successful bets on so-called quality companies. With the philosophy, which backs cash generative, inexpensive firms with little debt, it returned 1,300 per cent between 2000 and its record high in 2019.
Since then its shares have fallen over 70 per cent…”
The midfield are pure fu**in appalling…
Sevco will win 1-3 on Sunday I’m afraid !