Celtic earn some breathing space
There will be no-one at Celtic fooled into thinking a, relatively, straightforward 4-1 victory at Motherwell is a panacea for all the Scottish champions’ ills.
Crucially, though, a victory underpinned by a Mohamed El you no us si hat-trick, affords Neil Lennon what he and his team need most: some breathing space.
It buys him time to remedy the maladies that have afflicted his team for so much of this season without dealing with an ever-more deafening chorus calling him out.
Going into the international break, had Lennon’s team failed to claim only a second win in seven games, there would have been fears about the impact of the decibel levels from the increasing rank soft he discont en ted.Ul timat ely, Celtic did so wit habit to spare, even allowing for once again displaying jitter in es sin a defence that did not feature Shane Duffy from the first whistle.
There was the drive, aggression and attacking elan that put the display in a different stratosphere from the shambolic and soul less performance that resulted in a 4-1 thumping from Sparta Prague on Thursday.
Lennon maintained he got the basics of hunger, humility and application that were posted missing in the horrendous Europa League encounter.
It is hard to argue with the assess - ment, even if there were dip sand dodgy moments. Some among the Celtic faithful have hardened their hearts against Lennon, though, that they will still find plenty to fault.
Celtc cyberspace was pinging with quips that El you no us si couldn’ t be accused of phoning it in at Fir Park, after being embroiled in mobile gate this week.
It wasn’t a good look for him to be pictured on his device in the stand following his substitution on Thursday, but the reaction to it was hugely over the top.
The on-loan Southampton attacker’s triple takes his tally for this campaign to 11 goals and places him firmly out in front as the club’s top scorer.
The movement and impetus he provides in the final third, allied to the vision and weaving of Tom Rogic, certainly supplied Celtic with oil to fire up the final-third fluency that has proved elusive too often of late.
The Norwegian said he was deter - mined to show following his phone error that his attitude and commitment did not warrant being questioned.
He certainly made good on that aim in demonstrating his appetite for the fray within eight minute minutes, when he pounced in lethal fashion to drill the ball in after a shot on the turn from Al b ian Aje ti and rebounded off the inside of the post.
His second, to make it 2-0 on the half hour mark, was all about Rogic’s lovely foot work with r he Australian skipping round three men on the right hand byline and delivering a perfectly-weighted cutback that Elyounoussi stroked into the far corner.
The 76th-minute response to Motherwell pulling a goal back four minutes earlier that allowed El you no us si to walk away with the matchball, showed the forward’s versatility.
A slight figure, there was force and finesse in his snapping neck muscles to head in a Hatem Abd Elhamed delivered from the right.
It ensured there would be no comeback from the home side, Late replacement Oliver Ntcham picking his spot for an 84 th-minute fourth goal after El you no us si and fellow substitute Od son ne Edoua rd opened the home side up down the left.
It would be easy to overstate et he impact of Duffy’ s omission from th hestarting line-up at Fir Park. With K Ajer partnering Nir Bitton at thhe heart of defence before a recurrencce of the Norwegian’ s recent groin Problem forced Duffy to replace him late on ml Celtic still betrayed avulnerability er from balls into the box.
As Motherwell applied presssure in the second period, some of theiir penalty area defending was harem-sscarum
And it was no surprise when Gallagher drifted in a header free-kick to make it 2-1 in 72 m which crept past S cot tB a in right-hand post.
No trust can bepl ac
C el tic’ s defensive unit, and that will remain a worry for Lennon.
Celtic captain Scott Brown, like his manager, has been scapegoat ed to a ridiculous degree for the Park head side’s shortcomings in the past three months.
He has even been accused of dragging down his deep-lying midfielder partner Callum Mcgregor.
The strong showing from Brown at Fir Park, where he was forceful and snap ping into challenges, could be perceived as riposte to his detractors.
The 35- year-old has not hit the heights of previous seasons, but that could be said of practically all around him in Celtic colours. Indeed, that McGregor once more didn’ t get a grip on proceedings that would have previously been ag iven for a performer of hi sun doubted talents, could be construed as significant.
The Scotland international looks like a man who has struggling to peak regularly on the back of three seasons where he has played so much football.
He just looks as if he might be overplayed right now, but with huge fixtures coming up for Steve Clarke’ s side in the coming week, the likelihood of further mental and physical fatigue may prove unavoidable.