Are Celtic struggling from corners once again?

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Celtic’s corner threat looks as though it’s back to being non-existent once again.

There was a period towards the end of last season where it looked like it was changing for the better. Jozo Simunovic towered a header home at Pittodrie in the 3-0 rout that secured us the title. In the same match, a sweet Callum McGregor cross was headed home by Mikael Lustig.

It seemed, for a brief spell, as though Celtic were becoming dangerous when it came to the cross ball. But one look at our corner stats this season and a troubling picture is painted once again.

On Saturday against Dunfermline Athletic, we had a total of 23 corners. And, in typical fashion, we scored from zero of them. And that’s yet again been a running theme this season.

Over the course of our nine competitive games so far this term, we’ve managed 74 corners. How many of those have led directly to a goal? Absolutely none.

Granted, we’ve lost some real height over the summer. Lustig has joined the likes of Filip Benkovic and Dedryck Boyata in departing the club. The former two scored direct from corners last season.

But that’s not to say that there isn’t plenty of height in the team as it stands. Against Dunfermline, for example, we had the likes of Christopher Jullien and Kristoffer Ajer attacking the corner-kicks. We also have the likes of Nir Bitton, Odsonne Edouard, and Hatem Abd Elhamed who should all be using their physical presence to get at the cross-balls.

Celtic’s corner threat appears to be leaving them once again

And perhaps the most frustrating thing is that the deliveries into the penalty area have been nice and varied. The likes of Ryan Christie, Leigh Griffiths, and Callum McGregor have all been on corner-kick duty this season alone. All three have put some terrific balls into the box too.

But our attackers just can’t seem to connect cleanly in the opposition penalty box from them.

Even at this early stage of the season, it looks as though the old concern of failing to score from corners is coming back to haunt us once again. Celtic are seriously struggling in that department.

Sure, Neil Lennon could perhaps try and mix-up our approach. But the truth is, we should be a lot more clinical with the quality of delivery going into the box.

For example, against Cluj at Celtic Park, the likes of Scott Brown and Ajer both came close directly from corners. But for some reason the accuracy in our heading in the opposition’s box is severely lacking.

Dunfermline was almost a bad joke with the number of dangerous crosses that went into their penalty box. Hopefully, we can get one as soon as possible to rid ourselves of the same concerns we had last season.