Celtic were taking a big step forward in the Champions League. Then their legs turned to jelly and their lungs gave out. Even Daizen Maeda was shattered.
It’s at that point where it became evident to me just exactly where improvement and an adjustment is needed to get them to the next level and start winning some of these games. Celtic gave an excellent account of themselves against Atletico Madrid, but forgive me for not dancing around the living room. They didn’t win and they still haven’t won a home game for 10 years.
If you are going to improve and change that, it’s crucially important to see what’s not so good as well as what was and is being done well. Don’t be blinded by only the positives. That’s not easy because some of them were glaringly obvious. The first-half performance, for example, was absolutely brilliant. At times, the football was exhilarating with the magnificent link-up play and cutting edge to execute the goal for Kyogo Furuhashi was fabulous.
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That just set the tone for the rest of the play in the opening period. Celtic were decisive, they played with intensity and speed and worked it like a really top-class European team in the way they moved the ball out from the back and didn’t panic. Against better opposition, which Atletico clearly are, it takes a remarkable expense of energy to glide through them as Celtic did.
Brendan Rodgers’ team was absolutely on their limit to do it and it was too much for the Spaniards to handle.
My old pundit colleague James Horncastle said on the TV that first-half was the best football of this season’s Champions League so far and I’m not going to disagree with him, but here’s the facts. You simply cannot maintain that tempo for 90 minutes. It’s just not possible and that was visible to us all in the second half.
Celtic ran out of gas. Maeda is a phenomenon in terms of running and energy, but even he was sapped and, with the vibrancy disappearing, so did the home team’s grip on the game. At that point, you need a change of tact.
If you can’t play through a team anymore because the legs have gone and you don’t have the back-up of the bench to boost the energy again without losing the quality in your play, you need a different way to relieve some pressure and get yourself up the pitch.
Someone you can clip a ball 40 yards up the pitch and he’ll win you a free-kick or hold the ball up. Drag the opposition back and let your unit move forward and get a breath. Right now, Celtic patently don’t have that. Giorgos Giakoumakis could do it, but he left and Oh Hyeon-gyu might have been the one.
But the fact he’s not playing much tells me he’s either being poor in training or the manager doesn’t fancy him because it was crying out for that type of striker. It’s not old fashioned, it’s not old school, it’s not route-one dinosaur stuff. It’s a valuable alternative.
If you can’t pass your way out, you need another option because, no matter the game at Champions League level, you are going to face a spell when you are under big pressure. Celtic could not get out of their own half for much of that second half against Atletico and, when that happens, chances are you will concede at some point.
Given the changes Rodgers made when Diego Simeone made alterations of his own, Kyogo and Maeda were up top after the hour mark, but they couldn’t do it. Playing with their back to the goal is not their game.
The manager can’t buy anyone to play in the last three group games, so either Oh needs to get up to speed or this may keep happening. That’s a tweak and an adjustment I feel they have to make.
It’s strange. Even when Atletico went down to 10 men in the final 10 minutes, I still felt they were more likely to score than Celtic.
The dynamic at that stage was fascinating and I’d say down to scar tissue from previous wounds. That was a game I think Celtic had to win to have any chance of qualifying, yet, even though Simeone was clearly signalling for his team to hold what they had, the home side looked fearful of pushing.
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Even the fans weren’t really roaring them forward and there’s no question that it was down to the sickening way they were picked off in the 95th minute of the previous match against Lazio. Having played so well for so long, I can understand the players not chancing a repeat and being more cautious because it would have been horrible to get nothing.
The point doesn’t do much for them given the state of the group, but it did give them something tangible from the evening. However, if Celtic want to go to the next level, that’s a mindset to work on because when the best sense any weakness or an opportunity, they ruthlessly go to exploit it.
Better teams than Celtic have toiled against Atletico. But it’s just being honest and considering what it may need to go to the next stage because that is what Rodgers wants and he doesn’t have £200 million in the transfer market to solve it.
Celtic took a step. If they want to keep taking more, they’ll need more than one way to play.
