Another Sunday, another game, but will it be another domestic disaster for Celtic or will the team find their winning ways again? Recent weeks have shown that there are two sides to this Celtic camp. The attacking team that destroyed AC Milan and Lille’s defence in Europe? Or the bumbling/stumbling defence that has leaked a multitude of goals across all competitions.
Watching Celtic this season has been surreal. It’s like watching two different teams but the same line up in the same game with two different results! Makes your head ache but it is true.
We had the attacking team that turned up in the first 20 minutes against Lille. Calm. Assured on the ball. Slick passing and great finishing but it all turned sour pretty quickly as the team seemed to forget how to defend, too many misplaced passes and tackles and overall collapse of confidence, throwing away that two goal lead and were lucky to get a draw.
Against AC Milan, we saw more of the same. It was like groundhog day. Same attacking intent in the first fifteen minutes. Confidence on the ball, great passing and finishing but as soon as Milan stepped up a gear and pressed the team, more calamitous defending, panicked tackling and general overall loss of control of the match quickly saw that two goal lead dissipate into another embarrassing four goal loss that has become all too familiar this season in Europe.
There has been clear signs of the Celtic of old returning on the attacking front and if the team can keep that up and reduce the defensive errors then this season can be turned around. The only problem we have is although we are seeing the improvements in attack, there is not a single bit of evidence of improvement in the defence.