Analysis Corner: OK, Now it's a slump
By Dougie Wright (@dougie_wright)
Ok, now it’s a slump
On a crisp February afternoon, Celtic walked out at Kilmarnock confident of a victory that would put them 17 points clear in the Scottish Premiership table.
After a 4-0 blip at Tynecastle in December, the Hoops had since managed six wins and a draw from their following seven games. Everything appeared to be back on track.
When Youssouf Mulumbu gave the home side the lead after 70 minutes, it compounded a frustrating day at the office for Celtic. In addition to leaving Rugby Park empty handed, the visitors had also seen injuries to centre backs Dedryck Boyata and Kristoffer Ajer. Yet, little did Brendan Rodgers know that this game would mark the beginning of some turgid league form for his side.
If we look at the league table from that day in February to right now, we can see that Celtic have been the fifth best team in the country.
That’s over a period of nineteen games – the equivalent of half a season.
Nineteen games with just nine wins. Nineteen games without scoring in eight of them. Nineteen games without managing more than two wins in a row.
Shooting blanks
Looking at Celtic’ forward options, it’s pretty farcical how they have got into this situation.
Leigh Griffiths is a popular figure at Parkhead, and rightly so. The 28-year-old recently became the first Celtic player to hit 100 league goals for the club since John Hartson. However, the evidence suggests that Griffiths’ body might be catching up with him.
The hitman has missed no fewer than thirty-five games through injury since Rodgers took charge back in 2016.
The only other striker at the club in Odsonne Edouard.
In 252 minutes of Premiership football this season, the Frenchman has only managed to take three shots. To contextualise that, right back Mikael Lustig has taken five.
Whether it’s the midfield to blame for not servicing him, or Edouard’s fault for not making the right runs, it is clear that Celtic are not succeeding in making their record signing a threat in front of goal.
If Moussa Dembele was still at the club, this would be far less of an issue. However, Celtic made themselves vulnerable in the transfer market by failing to secure a fourth striker before Lyon whisked the Frenchman away on deadline day.
Now, Celtic are in a situation where an injury to injury prone Leigh Griffiths leaves them totally dependent on a shot shy 20-year-old who is yet to manage more than three league starts in a row as a professional footballer.
Defensive Ills
Filip Benkovic has only been at Celtic for a matter of weeks, but he’s quickly adopted the shared habit of Celtic’s centre halves so far this season and got himself injured.
It’s only September and every single senior Celtic centre back has missed at least one game due to injury.
Jack Hendry, Marvin Compper and Jozo Simunovic have all suffered mysterious knee injuries this season, Kristoffer Ajer has had a viral infection and Dedryck Boyata suffered a mildly suspicious issue with his back after Celtic refused to sell him to Fulham.
Rodgers quite likes to play with three at the back where possible. These injuries have made that notion quite fanciful indeed.
Injury problems notwithstanding, there also appears to be a quality issue at the heart of the Celtic defence.
Jack Hendry is yet to start a game where Celtic have won. Marvin Compper has had more minutes in the German Bundesliga than the Scottish Premiership over the past 10 months, despite being a Celtic player for 9 of them. As for Jozo Simunovic, Celtic have shipped 10 goals in the last 8 games he’s played.
While immediate form is probably most pressing, it’s worth considering that Dedryck Boyata is still out of contract next June. Filip Benkovic will return to Leicester at around the same time.
Good luck to Kristoffer Ajer for when that happens.
How do Celtic fix this?
The trouble with Celtic’s problems right now is that they’re largely structural.
It’s difficult to find a sustainable winning tactic when you have a bare front line and an injury prone set of defenders.
The saving grace in their hunt for a triple treble is the strength of the league this season. Look at the table posted earlier in the article – Kilmarnock, Hibs, Hearts, Rangers and Aberdeen are all teams who will consistently take points off each other. With that in mind, it’s unlikely that any will be able to maintain a seriously comfortable lead at the top of the table for too long.
However, Brendan Rodgers was absolutely correct to be concerned by his side’s start to the season. This is not a slump borne of poor luck, but of poor quality.
St Johnstone will provide the immediate threat to the triple treble on Wednesday night. The result at McDiarmid Park may well be the litmus test by which Celtic will gauge the rest of their season.
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