One of the surprising moves of this summer was Celtic bringing in a set-piece coach.
Ross Grant joined Celtic from Hearts in a positive move by the club, and he is already at work in pre-season.
After Celtic’s 1-1 draw against Shelbourne in their pre-season opener, the players are now in Portugal preparing for their next clash against Sporting Lisbon.
Due to World Cup commitments, a few stars are missing, but Grant told Celtic Player that he has started with a ‘basic defensive structure’, including throwing in a few ‘attacking ideas.’
What’s also encouraging to hear from Grant is that the players have ‘challenged’ what he has said, as he plans to add a bit of ‘creativity and innovation’ to Celtic’s set-pieces ahead of the new season.
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Celtic’s new set-piece coach Ross Grant is slowly bringing his ideas to the table
“We started quite well,” shared Grant on introducing his set-piece work into Celtic’s pre-season.
“We started with more of a basic structure around what we wanted our defensive structures to look like, and a couple of attacking ideas to just give us more opportunities to make contact and increase the opportunity to score from an attacking sense.
“The players have been great. They have listened. They have challenged. They have asked questions. They have come up with solutions which they think might work a little bit better or slightly differently.
“It’s not really about me coming in here and trying to make radical changes to lots of things. It’s just about trying to give clarity to roles. A bit of simplicity. Just making sure everybody understands what they are meant to be doing.
“From an attacking point of view, trying to have a bit of creativity and innovation and use the talent that we have here to help with that, whether it be delivery, movements, aerial threats, and just try to bring all that together.”
Music to Celtic fans’ ears…
Finally, a forward-thinking move from this much-criticised Celtic board.
Martin O’Neill is an old-school manager, but he has a pretty young coaching staff around him, led by former player Shaun Maloney.
It’s great to see O’Neill mixing that old-school blend with the modern-day because it is desperately needed at Celtic Park.
Hearts scored 23 goals from set-plays in all competitions last term, and nobody else bettered them in the league.
If Grant can work his magic with the champions of Scotland, then fans will see games won on set-pieces alone.
Either way, Grant came across well in his first proper interview via the club channels, and fans should be really excited by what lies ahead.
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