TOP CLASS TO ANONYMOUSS Sinclair and Dembele fail to live up to lofty heights
AMIDST the recriminations and a sense of grievance, justified or otherwise, one thing was certain about yesterday afternoon at Celtic Park – this was as poor as it has been from Brendan Rodgers’ side this season.
Scott Sinclair and Moussa Dembele will vie for the Player of the Year award over the coming weeks but for the bulk of this 90 minutes both played as though their thoughts had drifted to other matters.
The former was uncharacteristically anonymous, unusual for a player whose 18 goals this season have underlined the influence he has held during the bigger games.
Having scored in the 5-1 win earlier this season and scored the winner at Ibrox, Sinclair was never liable to be overwhelmed by the fixture.
Yet he couldn’t get a footing in this game. The 27-year-old’s pace and pressing have been pivotal to the way Celtic have coasted towards the title this season, but he was not alone in having an off day.
Dembele, who had scored in every outing against the Ibrox side prior to yesterday, drifted in and out and with the two chances he had – one was timid and straight into the arms of Rangers keeper Wes Foderingham, the other whipped across the face of the goal.
Foderingham had a couple of decent saves but there was not the relentless aggression that Celtic have come to expect from their team since the arrival of Rodgers. In the opening period particularly they were insipid and lacked the penetration and energy that has been the hallmark of this side.
The passing was off. Too many couldn’t find their own man and when they did, they couldn’t make it count.
There was an unease at the back, too, a whisper of the Celtic defence of old. Erik Sviatchenko and Dedryck Boyata looked edgy and nervous and it was only a decent save from Craig Gordon in the opening period that kept Martyn Waghorn from opening the scoring.
A slip from Boyata had let the striker through one-on-one, but a foot out from Gordon denied him the opening goal.
James Forrest and goalscorer lscorer Stuart Armstrong stood out for chunks of the game, while e Scott Brown did what he could d in the middle of the park to exert xert an influence that would bring ng forth the vim and vigour that seemed so conspicuous by its absence. ence.
ARMSTRONG’Sgoal l came at a point in the game where Celtic’s authority had grown – the midfielder had seen a free-kick k palmed onto the post shortly beforehand – andd the clever exchange of passassing between Armstrong and Forrest was one of the most fluent in a game where e the Parkhead side never managedaged to seize overall control.
It was no coincidence that when Armstrong went off Celtic seemed to lose theirheir hold in the middle of the park. Tig Tight calves were the reason, but it says much about t the movement of his caree career in recent months tha that Celtic missed him. That the big talki ing point at the end o of this game was a p penalty call that Bobby Madden did not give perhap perhaps told a story in itself – a team currently lording it over their ri rivals with a 33-point lead should shouldn’t need a penalty to secure th the points. Whistler B Bobby Madden was nothing if n not consistent in irking the Celti Celtic support from first whistle to last. The tone was set in the opening minutes when Kenny Miller was allowed to escape without sanction for a twofooted lunge on Armstrong, while Clint Hill, who would go on to score the leveller after Gordon parried Emerson Hyndman’s shot, was allowed to get away with a number of fouls, most notably on Mikael Lustig, before going into the book for the weakest of them all.
The referee was in the eye of the storm at full-time as he denied the Parkhead side a penalty, with his positioning – significantly behind play – not affording him a decent
look at Hill getting the flimsiest of touches on the ball but knocking second-half substitute Leigh Griffiths off balance in the process.
HOWEVER, honest reflections this morning from the Celtic camp will draw the conclusion that they failed to win because too many of the players who have stood head and shoulders above the rest this season failed to show up.
If there is a consolation to be drawn for the Parkhead side, who were watched by majority shareholder Dermot Desmond, it will be that come next month and the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final, you could fancy a safe bet that Celtic will be a different prospect at the National Stadium.
Under Rodgers, this is not a Parkhead team who have been used to losing – and yesterday’s draw will have felt a bit like that given how accustomed they have come to winning.
A run of 22 consecutive victories came unstuck against Rangers, something that will stick in the craw as much as the performance level.
“I’m proud of the team today,” said Rodgers afterwards. “It was a tough game. I didn’t think we were so good inn the first half. There was lots of effort and commit- ment but we lacked posi- tion in our possession.
“We made a change at half-time to give us a bit of superiority in the central area and we took control of the game.
“I felt it was only a matter of time before we got the second goal. But, of course, when it’s at 1-0 there’s always a chance a moment can happen. That’s the way it goes. We wanted three points but we’ll take a point.”