CELTIC MUST FIND SOME SWAGGER IN SARAJEVO

THERE’S a place in Sarajevo known as Sniper Alley, a notoriously dangerous area of the city during the conflict of the 1990s. It’s only a short distance from the stadium where Celtic will play their Europa League qualifier on Thursday night. Yet they’ll be heading to the Bosnian capital feeling like they’ve dodged a bullet after their outing in Latvia last week. They got the job done in the end. But, goodness me, it wasn’t half a struggle. They were never in any real danger of going out, but it was just such a laboured performance. This experiment with playing Ryan Christie up front is doing no one any favours. His best position is playing just off the front as a No10. The system is basically a way of trying to fit Scott Brown, Callum McGregor, Olivier Ntcham and Christie into the same team. But it doesn’t work. The only way you’d be able to achieve that is if you played them in a diamond behind a front two, but then you’d have to sacrifice the wide players. I find it such a struggle watching Celtic at the moment. The fans aren’t enjoying watching them, so it can only be hoped the win over Hibs yesterday proves a turning point. Celtic ran out 3-1 winners in Sarajevo in the Champions League qualifiers last year. They need something similar this time. Yes, the bottom line is all about going through. But they also need to start generating some momentum with their performances. There’s no point in one step forward against Hibs then two steps back if they scrape through by the skin of their teeth on Thursday. They need to win — and win well. They should have far too much for the Bosnians. Neil Lennon will hope his players can rediscover a bit of swagger in Sarajevo.