John Hartson passionately voices his big Celtic concerns after Jablonec win

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John Hartson has called out the Celtic defence in Jablonec despite the Hoops racking up a 4-2 victory.

Celtic were 2-0 ahead inside 16 minutes after goals from Liel Abada and Kyogo Furuhashi. However, dreadfully slow reactions from Nir Bitton and Carl Starfelt led to Jablonec immediately hauling themselves back into the game.

Celtic would manage to go 3-1 ahead midway through the second half, but again poor defending from Carl Starfelt allowed Jablonec to get a one-v-one against Joe Hart.

Thankfully, Celtic’s forward players showed up on the night and secured a priceless four goals. But Hartson didn’t allow the backline off for a poor overall performance. Speaking on BBC Scotland tonight [05/08, 18:38], Hartson said the following:

“Celtic had an opportunity to go and win tonight by four or five. All they had to do was defend properly. It’s like Sunday League stuff. The goals that they’re giving away, Celtic won’t win anything, they won’t win anything defending like that.

“Starfelt for the second goal, I know he’s only just at the club, but I’ve got to call it as I see it. You can’t just dive in and let Malinsky cut back inside like that and just get done. He lobs Joe Hart – should he really be that far off his line?

“Normally when I do punditry I’m not overly critical, but I can’t sit here and accept that type of defending. It’s going to cost Celtic unless they improve.”

John Hartson not wrong; Celtic defence needs to sharpen up after Jablonec tie

Celtic are far too good going forward for this Jablonec. Which is just as well given the teething problems we’re having at the back.

Starfelt deserves time to both understand his role in Ange Postecoglou’s system as well as getting to know his teammates. However, time is something we just don’t have.

It won’t be long until Celtic are up against AZ Alkmaar. If we’re serious about progressing beyond the playoff and into the group stages, we need quicker reactions at the back. Hopefully, sharpness will come with time.

Thankfully, however, it’s all coming together in the final third. On Furuhashi’s debut, he managed to strike up a superb partnership with Abada on the right flank. It’s that combination that has effectively helped Celtic through this tie. Their energy swung this two-legged affair on our favour very early on.

Celtic now have several matches before the playoff round. Any idea that Jablonec will turn this one around is nonsensical. So it’s imperative the next few games are used to improve the relationship between our centre-backs.

In addition to that, Postecoglou will need to find himself a centre-back partnership he’s happy with. Whilst the addition of Starfelt was necessary, question marks will arise over the dropping of Stephen Welsh for Bitton.

If we’re to be in a good place for the Alkmaar clash, the manager will need to stick with a consistent partnership immediately.

In other news, John Hartson passionately voices his big Celtic concerns after Jablonec win