Kyogo and Co just won’t have a prayer if thin green line’s too easily breached
Germans brutally expose Ange’s risky tactics
KYOGO FURUHASHI was alert and alive. Quick as a flash onto the loose backpass and around the keeper before being denied.
He had been back on the park after his injury lay-off less than two minutes.
Furuhashi then dazzled the Leverkusen backline with his pace and the shape and timing of his run to spring the offside trap and pick up Liel Abada’s through ball.
The Japanese didn’t score that one-on-one either.
Same again seconds after the restart with a lightning touch, turn and shot.
Furuhasi then slashed a rebound wide with a miss that told you he wasn’t going to score.
On a night where the fans struggled for positives, his instant threat upon comeback was the main one, certainly in terms of the upcoming domestic scene.
They were razor-sharp cameos which offered shards of light on a disappointing night.
So did the sight of Callum McGregor in behind him.
The 28-year-old adds a level of composure to the engine room and has been sadly missed.
Having McGregor as well as the hitman back in the ranks will be a help in the weeks to come.
But there’s only so much two boys can do middle to front and their return was pretty much where the positivity stopped last night.
So long as Ange Postecoglou remains true and solid to his beliefs and system, it demands people are almost foot perfect or it’s going to collapse.
There’s absolutely nothing the manager can do about David Turnbull having a brain freeze and falling over in his own box.
But the Leverkusen second goal shows just how thin the line is. Asked to go into central areas from full-back, Anthony Ralston and Adam Montgomery were placed under the severest of pressure not to slip.
Unfortunately, Ralston did so, lost possession and from there it was a domino effect.
One ball into his area. Centrebacks exposed two-on-two and Montgomery caught advanced and unable to get back to stop a tap-in.
You can’t blame the boys. That’s what they are told to do in a set-up which requires footperfect excellence.
When it fails against a side as outstanding as Leverkusen, it’s going to be exploited and it was. Time and again. Brutally.
Postecoglou needs all of his best players back. Even when they are, this type of approach remains highly dangerous against Europe’s sharpest.
Attacking power might get you away with it domestically but not in this cut-throat environment.
Some fans have called it admirable. Plenty other punters have tagged it naive. The Aussie says he fully understands the demands at Celtic.
He won’t need to be told that perseverance with something that keeps getting ripped apart will bring scrutiny.
This was easily the biggest test of Postecoglou’s team so far. They had to get every aspect bang on and they didn’t, hence the harrowing scoreline.
Eight goals lost in two group games is not good.
Not all of it was down to Celtic failings. Some of their attacking play opened up Leverkusen and brought brilliance from visiting keeper Lukas Hradecky.
Twice he denied Furuhasi superbly in the aforementioned openings and also had granite hands to deny Jota twice.
Rebound misses from Liel Abada and Furuhasi were another example of fine lines and a clinical edge needed at both ends to carve results at this level.
Celtic did get at the Leverkusen backline, which was interesting since, in different circumstances, it might well have made up a chunk of their own rearguard.
Given so much has happened in the interim period, it can be hard to believe it’s only nine months since Jeremie Frimpong left Glasgow to join Bayer. He thought he’d get a good reception. Boos proved him wrong.
The Dutch kid was exciting enough for a spell, yet £11million for his services at the time was a mega-result for Celtic given they paid virtually nothing for him.
The Hoops had Frimpong. They looked at Dutch left-back Mitchel Bakker when he was at PSG and eyed a loan move before he moved to Germany.
They scouted Piero Hincapie extensively before the Ecuadorian also opted for the Bundesliga.
In the end, despite Celtic managing to get a number of sights at goal, those boys got a clean sheet Postecoglou’s were never going to get.
The whole ground knew it was done at 3-0, so Postecoglou got McGregor and Furuhasi off the park before the end to keep them fit for Aberdeen on Sunday.
Giorgos Giakoumakis offered a small lift going forward when he got onto the pitch but Celtic are going to need to tighten up.
Change or find a way to get this set-up working or Europe’s guns will keep shooting holes in them.