Brendan Rodgers rips up Celtic plan that’s indicative of a man still searching for answers to the riddles – Keith Jackson
Our man says there are plenty of questions surrounding the Hoops despite booking their place in the Scottish Cup quarter finals.
Often the best course of action is to pass when there’s no obvious solution to the challenge.
And on Sunday afternoon, right when it appeared Celtic might be out of answers for the myriad problems that have made this campaign such an incomprehensible battle, Callum McGregor took it upon himself to do just that.
While his group was working hard and maybe even considering giving up a second piece of silverware from the trophy cabinet, McGregor stepped forward to assume control and ease some seriously fraying nerves. For a good hour or so of a frantic, tightly balanced fifth round tie, the skipper passed, passed and passed again until he had single handedly worked St Mirren out and spared Brendan Rodgers from disappearing down into a full blown conundrum.
By the time he was done his side had secured a two-goal lead and place in the draw for the Scottish Cup quarter finals. And his boss was benefiting from some badly needed thinking time at the end of what has been an unusually perplexing and chaotic couple of weeks. Of course, over the years McGregor has played in more important matches than this one and most certainly on more pristine playing surfaces.
But, even so, the sheer scale and significance of his intervention should not be underestimated. Because a well organised, highly confident St Mirren had Celtic in all manner of trouble until the moment McGregor decided to take matters into his own hands by seizing control of the middle of a badly rutted and wholly untrustworthy pitch.
By applying some composure and a cool head the captain took the heat out of the occasion just when things were getting sweaty. And if Rodgers and his players do recover from this mid-season wobble to end the Not to be overlooked is McGregor’s leadership during the successful campaign on an otherwise unlucky Sunday afternoon.
In actuality, his composure saved the situation from getting out of hand because Celtic had to make the quick drive up the M8 on Sunday lunchtime and risked going into the center reservation. It was McGregor who made sure they returned home with a victory over Livingston in the bag.
Before kickoff, all it took to see that the holders might have a major issue in Paisley was a quick check at their team sheet.
With the best will in the world, a back four of Anthony Ralston, Stephen Welsh, Liam Scales and Alaxendro Bernabei offered up a distinctly B team feel long before Rodgers had even sent them out for a warm up.
To their credit – and not for the first time this season – Welsh and Scales excelled under considerable fire. But the fact that they are having to man the fort at the heart of Celtic’s defence, when neither player started the season harbouring much hope at all of seeing any regular first team action, sums up an ongoing malaise.
The importance of this pair underlines the flimsy nature of the squad as well as the flaws in the club’s recruitment strategy which has given the manager so many headaches since his return to Glasgow’s east end.
What’s more, that Rodgers chose to rip up his preferred team structure and roll out a new look formation was indicative of a man still searching for answers to the riddles which have been undermining his side’s season.
Idam Idah and Kyogo Furuhashi are two forwards who Rodgers chose, and he sacrificed Paulo Bernardo in midfield to make room for them. This was essentially a needs-must response to the inconsistent, poor quality of recent performances.
Before the transfer market opened for business at the beginning of last month, Rodgers was clamoring for players of the caliber that new kid Nicolas Kuhn had been left off of the bench and excluded from the starting lineup.
