Dundee boss James McPake has hailed “excellent” Celtic after they dismantled his side 6-0 in Glasgow this afternoon.
Many would’ve expected a comfortable Hoops win today, but the margin of victory was certainly welcome for the Celtic supporters. The highlight of the day being a hattrick for Kyogo Furuhashi on his Celtic Park debut.
Contrastingly, it was a chastening experience for Dundee. Yet whilst they’ll undoubtedly point to their own deficiencies, it really didn’t matter what Scottish outfit Celtic came up against in that sort of form.
And, speaking after the game, McPake was quick to bring up Celtic’s quality despite the question marks surrounding the team.
As quoted by the Herald, McPake said: “We are up a division. I think we did catch them on a very good day but my focus is on Dundee and they caught us on a poor day. I said before the game, to get anything at a venue like this, you have got to be on top of your game and hope Celtic have an off day.
“We were. nowhere near as good as we could be. To be fair to Celtic I thought they were excellent but my focus is on Dundee and defensively in particular, we were really poor. We had warned them all week about what they can do in and around the box with the combination play and one-twos. They are very good footballers, make no mistake about that.
“People can say what they want about Celtic and how it’s been. That’s for others to say. But in my opinion at the very top end of the pitch, they have still got some really, really good players, and Kyogo was outstanding.”
James McPake provides honest Celtic response
Fair play to Dundee boss McPake. It would’ve been easy to simply dismiss Celtic’s quality and look at his own team’s faults. Whilst he’ll clearly do the latter, he hasn’t allowed the former to go past without praise.
Deep down, when McPake reflects on this one, he’ll know there was nothing he could’ve done. It wouldn’t have mattered if Dundee started with Jason Cummings upfront over Cillian Sheridan. Or if they decided to go with a back five instead of a back four. None of that matters.
Celtic would’ve simply ripped through Dundee regardless of what personnel or system they played. It would’ve been the same had we come up against any team in this country. When we play to the intensity levels that we managed this afternoon, there’s no touching us.
Whilst Furuhashi will grab the headlines for a ridiculously good debut, there were plenty of heroes out there. Ryan Christie, for example, bagged a hattrick of assists and looks back to his best. Not to mention Callum McGregor continuing to thrive in his role as the new club captain.
Today has Celtic supporters buzzing with what we’re going to see from our side next. Jablonec will be next up in the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round second leg on Thursday night. But there’s no drama to be had this week.
Celtic will overcome the Czechs at Parkhead. The question really is by how many we’ll win by. With Jablonec needing a three-goal win to send them through, it’s safe to assume, given our form over the last week, that we aren’t in much danger.
In other news, Anthony Ralston is clearly buying into Postecoglou’s Celtic vision after surprise improvement
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