Celtic interim boss John Kennedy has admitted that he wasn’t happy with the lack of width in the first half against Falkirk yesterday.
The Hoops went through the opening 45 minutes without managing to find an opener. Kennedy’s side created a host of opportunities, but once again they were let down by profligacy in the final third.
It wouldn’t matter in the end after three second-half goals ensured Scottish Cup progression against the League One side. And the first two would come from players who changed positions at the break.
Kennedy has discussed what particularly annoyed him about the opening 45 as he also described how he went about changing it.
Speaking to Celtic TV, the interim boss said: “It was good to win and good to get through. But the first half I thought we were not good enough to be honest. We spoke at half-time about it. We had loads of the ball and had real control in terms of keeping them away from our goal. But we didn’t do enough with the ball that we had.
“In terms of the final third, we didn’t keep the ball well enough in the areas to create bigger chances. We made some poorer decisions, we were a bit slack so we spoke about that at half-time. We made a tweak to the shape just before half-time for the final 10 minutes for a bit more width.
“So we stuck Jamesy on the left and Ryan off the right. It just helped the full-backs get an extra body out there to go and try and open Falkirk up a little bit. In the second half you could see that, the pitch was too big for them. You tire them out, create more spaces, and our quality came through in the end.
Just one of those halves for Celtic; there was no danger in the end
After watching the game last night, I can’t pretend I was disappointed at half-time. At least not with the overall performance. Celtic had created chance after chance and only sheer profligacy cost us from running up a cricket score.
Leigh Griffiths had several glorious opportunities to net. David Turnbull also forced the goalkeeper into a fine stop whilst he also came close with a free-kick. That’s not even mentioning the Ryan Christie efforts from outside the penalty area. It was anything but a poor opening 45, with plenty of chances on show.
Granted, there’s no denying Kennedy’s change eventually overwhelmed Falkirk. With Diego Laxalt and Jonjoe Kenny pushing forward constantly, they just couldn’t get out. Not to mention the fact Kris Ajer became more assertive in the opposition half the longer the game went on.
The move from the interim boss allowed Forrest to often cut in on his stronger right side. That’s effectively how the opener came about. It was the same for Christie down the other flank as he finally decided to keep one of his efforts low.
The main concern coming out of the game was the amount of opportunities spurned once again. Celtic created a truckload of chances that simply weren’t taken. It’s something that’s sure to give Kennedy a bit of a headache considering it follows a similar pattern to games against Dundee United and Rangers in recent times.
Regardless, the win was secured this time at least. Hopefully, it won’t be long before someone is on the end of a real going over.
In other news, it was a difficult return to action for the Celtic Women’s team this afternoon.
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