Plastic pitch not drastic for Bhoys
Rodgers may adopt Deila doctrine of lone striker to gain edge...and the fans won’t blink an eye
CELTIC will rely on artificial intelligence to try and sniff out a vital away goal against Astana tomorrow afternoon.
The vital first leg of the Hoops second Champions League qualifier will be played out on the Kazakstan club’s plastic pitch.
But Parkhead No.2 Chris Davies is convinced the surface will suit the team’s resurgent attacking style under Brendan Rodgers.
And he said it would be considerably better quality than the pitch they encountered in the shock defeat to Lincoln Red Imps in Gibraltar two weeks ago.
Speaking as the Hoops flew out from Glasgow Airport at the start of a long journey, Davies was braced for a difficult but not insurmountable European test.
He said: “The pitch looks quicker than the Red Imps’ one, which could help our game.
“Having said that, they are a physical team with quality, so we are going to need to be right on our mettle.”
RONNY DEILA’S fondness for a 4-2-3-1 formation infuriated those Celtic supporters who longed to see their team play a more traditional attacking game.
Even against far lesser opposition in domestic fixtures at Parkhead, Deila often insisted on playing just one man up front during his two turbulent years in Scotland.
But if his successor Brendan Rodgers deploys that system in the first leg of the Champions League third qualifying round tie against Astana here in Kazakhstan tomorrow evening it will meet with widespread approval.
At least, it should. Because this encounter with Stanimir Stoilov’s side is a treacherous one for Rodgers. It will be played 3,000 miles away, in a different time zone, in oppressive heat and humidity, in front of a hostile crowd, on an artificial surface, at a time of the season when players are trying to regain fitness and match sharpness.
Drawing the game, even just performing well enough to remain in touch with their adversaries going into the rematch in Glasgow next week, will be perfectly acceptable outcomes for the Scottish champions.
NK Maribor, HJK Helsinki, APOEL, Benfica, Atletico Madrid, Galatasary and Zalgiris Vilnius have all visited the futuristic Astana Arena in European competition in the last two seasons. None of them have triumphed.
So why should Celtic expect to fare any better?
A common public misconception – fuelled to a large degree by the brilliant Sacha Baron Cohen comedy creation Borat Sagdiyev – is that Kazakhstan is an impoverished backwater.
There is certainly evidence of deprivation as you travel around the country and its capital city. But it also has the strongest performing economy in Central Asia due to the flourishing oil industry in the region. Astana are t he beneficiaries of that.
Backed financially by the national bank, the presidential family and several major businesses, they are capable of attracting quality players from abroad with the promise of big wages.
Roger Canas, the Columbian midfielder, and Patrick Twumasi, the Ghanian striker, are two who Celtic will need to be wary of. Tanat Nussebayev, the Astana captain
and their leading scorer with seven strikes to his name this season, will be missing from both legs of the second qualifying round. The home team will, though, still present a considerable threat. A place in the Champions League group stage, which Astana qualified for last year for the first time in their history, is what is expected of Stoilov and his charges given the lavish investment in the squad.
RODGERS’ teams were renowned for playing entertaining football during his time in England in charge of Swansea City and Liverpool. At times, in fact, it was felt by many that his desire to please paying spectators could be counter-productive and bordered on the tactically naive. It will be fascinating to see how he approaches the challengesthis game presents.
Particularly with the limited options available to him at the back. Efe Ambrose has once again been shown to be unreliable in big games, Dedryck Boyata is injured, Jozo Simunovic is continuing his rehabilitation from surgery, Eoghan O’Connell is inexperienced and new signing Kolo Toure is lacking fitness and has remained behind in Scotland.
Rodgers, though, has options. Kieran Tierney, the left-back, and Erik Sviatchenko, the centre half, will both start just in front of Craig Gordon, the goalkeeper. After that, though, his team selection gets interesting.
Does the Irishman persevere with the three-man rearguard which he used in the last round of the Champions League against Lincoln Red Imps last week and in the International Champions Cup game against Leicester City at the weekend and field Mikael Lustig at rightback? It would be a bold move indeed if he did.
Or does he revert to a more orthodox four-man defence, bring Lustig inside alongside Sviatchenko and hand Saidy Janko another run-out?
With Scott Brown and possibly, if he is available, Nir Bitton sitting deep in midfield in front of them, Celtic would be difficult for their hosts, for all their ability, to break down.
RODGERS could then look to Patrick Roberts, the onloan Manchester City winger who has started the new season brightly, James Forrest, who he has clearly taken a shine to since taking over, to use their trickery and pace to hit Astana on the counter attack.
Up front, both Leigh Griffiths and Moussa Dembele are capable of nicking a precious goal. When Celtic played Shakhter Karagandy in Astana in the first leg of the Champions League play-off three years ago they lost 2-0 and were lucky to win their second meeting 3-0 and progress to the group stages. It took a Forrest goal in injury-time for them to edge it.
Rodgers must resist his natural inclination to attack and approach this tie tentatively. He must play a long game and use the two legs if he is to successfully negotiate his biggest test so far as Celtic manager.
A crowd of over 50,000 turned up at Parkhead last Wednesday night – another clear indication of the excitement there is among the support about the arrival of Rodgers – to see the game against the part-time Red Imps.
With that sort of backing behind them at their home ground, Celtic will be hard to beat. But only if they are still in the tie.