Celtic captain Callum McGregor believes that teams are “completely changing their tactics” when they come up against the Hoops.
The Hoops again came up against a negatively set-up opposition in Hibs yesterday as we failed to break through their low defensive block. The 0-0 draw follows similar stalemates against the likes of St Mirren and Livingston in recent months.
Hibs manager Shaun Maloney has vowed to give the Hibs supporters the most attacking and exciting team possible [The Times]. However, yesterday he set up deep and looked to contain Celtic with Joe Hart not having a single save of note to make.
And McGregor believes that’s just the latest example of sides changing their game to try and combat the threats posed by Ange Postecoglou’s team.
As quoted by the Scotsman, Callum said: “I don’t think we need to come too far away from the structure the manager is asking us to do. There is, obviously, some fine-tuning in that. Can you move slightly differently? Pass it a bit quicker? But the reason teams are changing is that we have been so effective. We are now dominating games to the point where teams are completely changing their tactics against us. That’s a positive in itself. We just need to fine-tune the little bits and be clinical when we get in there.
“All we can do is focus on what we are doing. It wasn’t so long ago we were six points behind and you have to win and win and the pressure takes over. You can’t affect what goes on outside of your own building. All you can affect is what you are trying to do. Do the right things, try and get better, and have a calmness and an assurance.
“That what we are doing is working. We didn’t get what we deserved out of this game. There will be to and fro between now and the end of the season, I’m sure of it. There are still 10 games to go, so there’s three-quarters of the season done and the boys have been fantastic until now. So stay calm and be focused. Keep doing what we are doing and I think we’ll get there.”
Teams know the best way to stop Celtic – we need to find the answers
McGregor isn’t actually wrong here. It’s been proven that teams move to change their tactics when they face us as they try to sit deep and protect the 0-0 draw they start off with. But it isn’t helped by the fact we have a track record of failing to deal with those situations.
Hibernian won’t use the same approach against Dundee on Wednesday night for example. Livingston, who are constantly taking points off of us, went to Dens Park at the weekend and won 4-0. You’ll be lucky if they have as many as 4 shots against us in a game.
The fact is that teams think they’ve spotted a weakness in our game. That for all of the pretty, attacking football, we can be easily frustrated with low blocks.
The issue is that they would be right to think that. It’s a major weakness in this team that’s still to be ironed out. Something that’s already cost us crucial points this season and in games where we should’ve easily taken maximum.
It’s all well and good saying teams are coming out and changing their approach against Celtic. But we can’t use it as some sort of excuse as to why we’re failing to perform at the levels we previously were earlier in 2022.
We need to find the answers immediately. We got away with things yesterday, but we can’t keep having these lackadaisical performances at this stage of the campaign. Hopefully, an immediate improvement is on the cards.
In other news, “Did they create a chance?”; Celtic boss doesn’t sound too impressed with Hibs approach
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