Scott Brown hails Celtic coach Damien Duff’s advice

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Scott Brown has credited first-team coach Damien Duff after scoring just his fifth goal of the season against Clyde yesterday.

Brown’s goals, given the position he plays in, often come from strikes outside the box. One of the traits you don’t link to him is that of a predatory finisher. Yet, it was that exact quality that was on show for his goal at Broadwood.

Brown managed to get on the end of a Patryk Klimala flick on to tuck Celtic 2-0 ahead before the break from a corner. The goal itself came from point-blank range, and may just be the closest he’s ever scored from for the club.

And the captain has stated that it’s two-time Premier League winner Duff who’s always onto the players about getting into goalscoring positions in anticipation. Speaking to Celtic TV post-match, Brown hailed the Irishman’s advice.

“It was the perfect yardage for me. Damien Duff always says to get yourself in there and anticipate the ball. Luckily enough for me, I got myself in there, got a flick on and managed to get on the end of it.”

Not enough clever corner-kick combinations

Brown is, of course, spot on. It’s vital that we always have a player in and around the six-yard box to take advantage of any front-post flick-ons or goalkeeping mistakes.

But in fairness to Celtic, we generally put someone on the goalkeeper in any case. Brown gets himself in there on occasion, but you’ll also see the likes of Leigh Griffiths or even Odsonne Edouard hovering around in that position too.

Where we do struggle is scoring direct from corners. Against Hamilton last Sunday in our 4-1 rout, Celtic managed to rack up 15 corners and failed to score from any of them (BBC). That’s just a taster of how ineffective we’ve been from them at times this season.

Celtic certainly have the height to be causing bother from corners too. Christopher Jullien already has six goals to his name this season, but we could be doing with more of a threat from the likes of Kristoffer Ajer for example.

There aren’t many complaints you can have with Neil Lennon’s Celtic this season – an ineffectiveness from corners, however, is probably one of them.

Brown managed to buck the trend with his fine flick yesterday, and it adds to Jullien’s header against Kilmarnock several weeks ago. Hopefully, this is a sign that we’re finally on the way to getting more from our corners.