Serious danger lurks if there’s no alternative to Angeball
IT is time for some home truths about Angeball. Handy, then, that Bayer Leverkusen are about to hit town with a squad well capable of underlining in the harshest terms that the gung-ho tactics which saw off Dundee and ten-man St Mirren before reality bit are not really going to get Celtic anywhere in the longer term.
It is easy to think otherwise given the events of recent years, but UEFA competition has to be a central part of what the Parkhead club are about as they regenerate and modernise. That’s if modernisation is still on the cards now that short-lived CEO Dom McKay is off elsewhere with his ‘benchmarking’ and his ‘pieces of connectivity’.
It all goes back to what major shareholder Dermot Desmond said in September 2020 when stating — against all available evidence, it has to be said — that ‘Europe is so important as a yardstick in our football progression’.
When the toxic residue from last term’s weapons-grade meltdown has been cleared and Celtic are back capable of putting up some kind of show in their own domestic championship, that platform has to become about more than just banking group-stage pay cheques in return for offering the likes of Sparta Prague some shooting practice the way they did under former manager Neil Lennon.
It has to become a key part of what rebuilding the club as an entity is all about. Just like it has been at Rangers under Steven Gerrard.
Let’s say, first and foremost, that there is no reason to expect Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou to get a result on Thursday night against a side sitting in the upper reaches of the Bundesliga.
Injuries to Kyogo Furuhashi, clearly the focus of everything he is trying to do at the club, Callum McGregor, Greg Taylor, James Forrest and new boy Giorgos Giakoumakis have left the Aussie shorn of options. As time goes on, more and more doubts begin to swirl about just how involved he was in the signing of some of the other guys he is having to push out there on the pitch as well.
Leverkusen, of course, are also finding their feet under a new boss in Gerardo Seoane, but they have made a strong start this season, scoring 21 goals in eight outings.
In 18-year-old attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz, scorer of the only goal in a 1-0 defeat of Mainz yesterday, they have a special and dangerous talent. Scots football fans need no introduction to the dangers of centre-forward Patrik Schick either. Particularly when it comes to beating the goalie from the halfway line at Hampden.
Seoane’s style has always been about putting pressure on the opposition high up the pitch, winning possession in dangerous areas. It seems unthinkable he will bring his side to Glasgow with any intention other than to go for the jugular. Anyone who witnessed the problems they caused Borussia Dortmund recently in a thrilling 4-3 home defeat — their only loss so far — will have a flavour of what lies in wait for a Celtic side looking desperately fragile in defence.
Yet, facing such a forceful opponent with a threadbare squad should be an opportunity to see what else Postecoglou has in his own locker.
Whether there is, as Hoops fans keep discussing, a Plan B. Whether he can change his strategy to cope with conditions and find a different way to make a challenging fixture competitive. Or whether he is going to end up being Celtic’s answer to Mark Warburton.
Going out all guns blazing against a side of Leverkusen’s quality, particularly when so many of your best players are out, would be footballing hara-kiri. Postecoglou has been adamant since he walked through the door at Celtic Park that hell will freeze over before he gives up his all-in commitment to attacking football, but there can come a time when that starts to look damagingly pig-headed. It might well be this Thursday.
He is hardly the first idealist to fill the manager’s office at Lennoxtown. Brendan Rodgers came from that mould, too. Often forgotten amid the double Trebles and domestic dominance was that Europe under the Brodge descended into an absolute disaster area.
Being spanked 7-0 by Barcelona in his first season was explained away as a learning curve. When they lost seven to Paris SaintGermain, conceding 12 in two games to the French champions, it all began to wear a little thin.
In his third and final season, after going out of the Champions League qualifiers to AEK Athens, even Rodgers accepted the temperature had changed. Ahead of a Europa League group trip to Red Bull Salzburg, he, no doubt reluctantly, conceded there is no future in trying to go toe-to-toe with sides boasting far greater resources and far better players.
‘I always feel the confidence you can gain from going against these teams and still looking to play your game can work to your advantage, but maybe I have to look at it and quell a little bit of that, just to ensure the players aren’t exposed,’ he said.
‘It’s not that you sit back and defend and not attack. It is really about your possession being dangerous and not always thinking that you have to dominate the ball.
‘I am a very attack-minded coach, but the last thing I ever want to do is expose my players.’
Somewhere down the line, if he wants to make a fist of this job, Postecoglou is going to have to face the same moment of reckoning.
There is a big danger of the likes of Carl Starfelt, struggling badly despite his hefty price tag, Tony Ralston and Adam Montgomery being exposed on Thursday. Postecoglou has to find a way to stop Celtic being so open.
They were absolutely battered away from home against AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League qualifiers, their concession of only two goals a miracle to rival that of the Blind Man of Bethsaida.
Away to Real Betis, Angeball, if we are still permitted to call it that, failed in spectacular fashion. Celtic were brilliant for the first 20 minutes, and closed the game well too, but they fell apart like a cheap pair of trainers in the middle.
Even at domestic level, warning signs have been there. Defeat at Livingston last week was an allround shambles, but, even when beating Ross County 3-0 at home, the defence was repeatedly exposed, with Dominic Samuel missing a point-blank header for the Staggies to make it 1-1.
This Celtic are not good enough to wage all-out war on Leverkusen. In truth, they will never be good enough to go out against bigger, richer clubs from better leagues and just pour forward relentlessly in the hope they can somehow score more than they concede.
In the end, Rodgers pretty much gave up on Europe. He fielded what was effectively a shadow side away to RB Leipzig in that last campaign, presumably to concentrate on games at home.
Big as the temptation may be as he bids to guide Celtic out of their seemingly constant state of chaos, Postecoglou can’t do that. A big part of his longer-term remit is dragging them back from their current, embarrassing role as cannon fodder in Europe.
Angeball is going to have to change and adapt and become more pragmatic to succeed. If ever there is a game for the 56-year-old to show he is willing to try and put the end result above the entertainment factor, it is this one coming up in four days’ time.