Celtic have been defeated for the second successive Scottish Premiership match after Hearts were victorious with a 2-0 scoreline at Celtic Park on Saturday.
The Celtic defence left Lawrence Shankland completely unmarked at a corner for Hearts’ opener after 15 minutes.
On the half-hour mark, Stephen Kingsley powered home a long-range free-kick to give the Edinburgh side a buffer and a significant lead to hold on to.
Celtic were very poor throughout with manager Brendan Rodgers making three substitutions with little impact at the interval, then two more in the second half.
There was no way past goalkeeper Zander Clark with Kyogo Furuhashi having the best chance of the day shortly after the restart.
Boos rang out around Celtic Park at the half-time and full-time whistles, letting everyone know it was far from an acceptable display.
Former striker Chris Sutton said post-match that, ultimately, the manager should be doing better with the squad available to him.
Brendan Rodgers on Celtic defeat to Hearts
Understandably, Rodgers was not a happy man in his post-match interview. He said [BBC]: “Firstly it’s an apology to the support base. I don’t think I’ve ever had to do that in all my time here, in the first or this time. The performance today was nowhere near the level of what is expected of a Celtic player or a Celtic team.
“We lacked any desire in our defending. We lacked that drive when we had the ball and that intensity. I felt as if we could’ve played all night and not scored.
“Ultimately we’ve got done at a corner where we’ve been naively blocked and then from a free-kick where we were so passive in the build-up to the free-kick.
“I’m surprised at home we produced that level of performance but not so when I’ve seen the St Johnstone first half and then Kilmarnock. It disappoints me greatly because we’ve not shown the necessary determination. The passive nature of it, with and without the ball was a concern.
“It can happen to any group. It’s one of the big pitfalls of success. When you have periods of success you have to keep refreshing the squad and refreshing the quality of it. We have to reflect on it for today. It’s a really sore one for the fans.”
The schedule isn’t getting much easier for Celtic. There are still four matches until the winter break, including a critical derby against Rangers.
That break and the January transfer window will help, but Celtic can’t afford to drop more points before that checkpoint.
The manager has to find a way to get a tune out of these players, and quickly, or the season will quickly unravel.
In other news, £4m Celtic deal now ‘likely’ and it could hasten exit of fringe player.
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