Celtic fans are waking up from disappointment the day before for the second successive week and it’s not the place many of us envisioned we’d be in from such a position of strength last season.
A defeat in the Scottish League Cup, dropped points in the Premiership, slow transfer dealings and a genuine injury crisis have left plenty feeling down in the dumps.
But there were a couple of positives coming out of Saturday that hopefully set Celtic up for some better days ahead.
I’d considered highlighting these even before I spotted Brendan Rodgers’ comments, but the manager concurs – having Hyunjun Yang starting and Alistair Johnston available are big boosts to Celtic’s options.
He said [Sunday Post, 27/08 print edition]: “The positives for us were that I thought Hyunjun Yang was excellent for the period he was on. He started to tire a little bit.
“And Ali Johnston being back is great news, even though there’s a long way to go in terms of getting him up to speed. It was good for him to get game time into his legs.”
Rodgers also cited the clean sheet as something to build on in a defensive sense, but clearly there were big deficiencies in Celtic’s overall performance so it’s hard to get too excited about that.
On Yang, he was bright and endeavoured to create chances. However as Rodgers alludes to he fell out of the game a bit, so there is a way to go with him being a reliable presence for the Bhoys.
The manager clearly likes him, however, and it would be little surprise to see him feature at Ibrox next week.
Johnston starting that derby is an absolute must. Anthony Ralston is really struggling right now and if he starts against Rangers, it’d be a serious concern despite Johnston’s fitness.
Hopefully, the Canadian doesn’t suffer a setback next week so we can call upon him in Govan.
In other news, “I spoke to the club”; Brendan Rodgers puts transfer ball in Celtic board’s court.
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