Celtic couldn’t find a way to victory over Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday, drawing 1-1 at Celtic Park.
After a long period of frustration and missed chances, David Turnbull scored the opener for Celtic from the penalty spot after 86 minutes following a foul on fellow substitute Mikey Johnston. The goal looked to have won the match.
However, there was late heartbreak when Jonathan Obika converted a corner to rescue a point for the away side. Celtic pushed again in the closing stages of a lengthy stoppage-time period but the celebrations never came.
What are the big talking points coming out of the match? Here are three of ours…
Celtic miss chance to pressure Rangers
With the Ibrox side not playing until Sunday, away to Aberdeen at Pittodrie, today was an excellent opportunity to surge 11 points clear having played two games more. The advantage is only nine now and Rangers have the chance to cut that to three over time. That’d be a slim cushion.
There are no guarantees Philippe Clement’s side find a way to victory tomorrow, but that’s the point. Today’s win should have been a banker for the Bhoys. It’s a bad start to a difficult schedule of fixtures that is only going to get tougher for Brendan Rodgers’ side.
Annoyingly, having found the opener, it was incredibly slack play to allow the Steelmen to score from a corner.
It’s only the third time points have been dropped this season and the champions remain undefeated but there’s lots of work to be done over the next few weeks. Celtic need to be far more creative and potent to break down defences that will be set up to frustrate.
Celtic’s penalty roller-coaster
After Luis Palma’s confident strike from the spot in the 6-0 win over Aberdeen, Celtic looked to have found a new penalty-taker after some struggles in recent seasons.
However, the Honduran was given the chance to net again today and failed to beat Liam Kelly. The Motherwell man made a fine stop low to his right-hand side to frustrate Celtic and leave them searching for a breakthrough at 0-0.
Then, another player who has missed one this season – David Turnbull – kept a cool head to capitalise on a foul won by Mikey Johnston in the box. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to secure the points.
Celtic have been awarded eight penalties in all competitions this season and have missed three of them. It’s something Brendan Rodgers has admitted is a problem, declaring that his squad needs to start practising them more.
Odin Thiago Holm struggles to make an impact
Odin Holm started his second consecutive match for Celtic and, like in the win over Aberdeen, was hooked at half-time by the manager.
Rodgers brought the Norwegian off at the interval to be replaced by Hyeongyu Oh after an ineffective 45 minutes for the summer signing.
He doesn’t look confident enough on the ball right now. Still just 20, the midfielder is a bit passive in that central area and needs to find ways to assert himself on the opposition more. His distribution isn’t exactly efficient either. Out of possession, he isn’t busy enough to be considered a strong defensive option.
Although other midfield options may be flawed in the absence of Reo Hatate, there are more impactful players ready to take his place during this busy period if he can’t step up and find a bit of form. Should today have been a day for David Turnbull from the start?
In other news, Brendan Rodgers changes up Celtic January plans for “more beneficial” alternative.
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