Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes was forced to admit Celtic were very good on Saturday afternoon after watching his side slip to a 3-1 defeat in the Scottish Premiership.
McInnes was bullish in the build-up to his side’s Celtic Park visit after knocking the Bhoys out of the Scottish League Cup, but the Ayrshire outfit were no match for the champions across this weekend’s 90 minutes.
After the match, the Killie boss had a dig at Reo Hatate for the incident where VAR looked at a potential penalty and also bizarrely insisted that Luis Palma’s goal was offside despite his own player intervening to play the ball off Hatate, which Palma capitalised on.
Derek McInnes on Celtic vs Kilmarnock
He said [Daily Record]: “Having seen the pictures, it looks offside in the build-up when it bounces back off the Celtic player. So I’m disappointed with that as offside should be clear. When I saw it on the big screen I thought he was offside and when VAR were checking it I was expecting it to be chalked off. There might be better pictures in the VAR hub so any criticism is contained. I’m just viewing it on the pictures that I’ve seen.
“I showed the ref the pictures but he’s obviously dependent on the people in VAR looking at different angles. I saw an angle on my analyst’s laptop. Whether he’s a computer genius and has played around with the lines or not, I don’t know. But it looked offside.”
On Hatate, he continued: “My first thought was that Hatate went down far too easily. He’s waiting for contact. If I’m wrong then I’ll apologise. But for me it’s trying to buy a penalty and the referee has bought it as I thought he would. My heart sank and then VAR overturned it. But that’s far too easy from Hatate, it’s poor.”
But in the end, McInnes was forced to concede that Celtic were a level above on the day, concluding: “Celtic were very good and difficult to stop. I thought their movement was first class. The first goal was from a quality player in Hatate who I thought was influential. He used a little bit of skill to get beyond David [Watson] but then we have to confront the shot.
“We also lost a poor third goal. David’s going through the motions. “He’s meant to be picking Taylor up at the goal and he’s too far off him. But give me what David gives me every week. Sometimes you have to learn at the toughest places.”
Celtic took their goals very well indeed and undoubtedly deserved the victory on the day. Some of the football was a joy to watch and there are promising signs of progress under Brendan Rodgers.
In direct comparison to the game Kilmarnock beat us in earlier this season, it looks like a different team. Clearly, the Bhoys are still working up to a peak, but everything is moving in the right direction.
In other news, Brendan Rodgers delivers verdict on Luis Palma’s first league start for Celtic.
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