Celtic man Simon Donnelly has claimed that the club need to show some togetherness ahead of Sunday’s Glasgow Derby.
If you needed reminded, the last trip to Ibrox was a grim one [Sky Sports]. Rangers won 2-0 and from the initial stages, it looked like a game that was beyond Kennedy’s men. The passing was sloppy, the movement was slow and predictable. At the back, meanwhile, silly mistakes and bad positioning were to blame.
Donnelly, who helped Celtic stop the 10 in 97-98, spoke to the Sun ahead of Sunday’s crucial match. If the Bhoys can’t beat their rivals, it’d be a league and cup clean sweep against us for Gerrard’s side.
Donnelly said [Sun]:
“I thought there was a real lack of belief.
“Celtic had a good number of chances, but Odsonne Edouard and Mohamed Elyounoussi were poor with their finishing.
“They didn’t look like they believed they would score. A year or two ago the chances Celtic had would have been in the back of the net.
“But it’s all turned and that’s why we’re now looking at a 20-point gap in the league.
“Rangers are more solid than Celtic. I look at the Celtic defence and it appears to me they are just playing on their own, not as a unit.”
Celtic need to get back to doing the basics well
The Scottish Cup exit was against the run of form under John Kennedy. While results had been patchy in general, there was genuine optimism going into the game. However, the absence of James Forrest meant that Kennedy made a pragmatic move. Returning to the diamond, which had yielded some joy in the prior meeting, Celtic looked toothless and overrun in midfield.
Equally, a defence that had only conceded 1 in 5 games looked uncoordinated and unbalanced. Welsh and Ajer seemed confused by how easily our full-backs were beaten, and tried to cover ground but left holes in the defence for Rangers to exploit.
It’s straight-forward stuff, and it’s something Kennedy desperately needs to fix. He might not ever have another go at Rangers as a Celtic boss.
Time to make it count.
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