CRITICISM WILL NEVER STOP IF GIO CONTINUES TO IGNORE THE WARNING SIGNS AT PARKHEAD
ANGE POSTECOGLOU has talked about it at length. The marketing department stuck it on a range of T-shirts last season. Even yesterday, an advertising hoarding slap-bang in the centre of the field flashed a reminder throughout the entire 90 minutes in the most garish, unmissable fashion.
Celtic never stop. Yet, Rangers didn’t start. And when Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side fail to heed all the painfully evident warning signs sitting right in front of their noses — as well as the pre-match instructions from their own manager, by the sounds of things — it is only ever going to end in annihilation.
You have to take your hat off to Celtic boss Postecoglou on days like this. His team were absolutely relentless from the get-go. Just brilliant. An advert for hard graft, determination, talent and all those other things we forever hear coaches banging on about but don’t always see.
Their talisman, Kyogo Furuhashi, injures his shoulder before we’ve even completed the first minute. Doesn’t matter. The players know the drill by now. Giorgos Giakoumakis comes on and no one misses a beat. The tsunami of attacks is delivered regardless.
Of course, some of us still wince at the dangers inherent in starting matches at such breakneck speed. What happens if the goals don’t come and they run out of gas? What happens against better opposition such as Real Madrid, who turn up on Champions League duty in midweek?
Going three goals up in 40 minutes tends to render those concerns meaningless. Half the team could see a leg fall off over the remainder of the game and they’d still win.
Sure, you need to be fit to play at the tempo Postecoglou demands of his players in these opening whirlwinds that reduce so many teams to rubble, but it is about way, way more than that. This game, in particular, was about way, way more.
Above all, it was about the physical capabilities. The levels of concentration that are required to be on top of things throughout, always looking for openings and weaknesses in the other team and ready to pounce at the slightest invitation. About being alert enough to spot loose balls and be that quarter-of-a-yard ahead. About, well, never stopping.
Even the ballboys and the ballgirls are down with the programme. No sooner has the ball gone out of play than another one is being fed to a green-and-white jersey and we’re back at the grindstone. No one gets a breather out there. It is designed, structured chaos.
Home team or away team, you need to be on it. Always.
Celtic had the fire in eyes and the blood in the nostrils from the moment they walked out of the tunnel at Parkhead. As for Rangers? Well, they were nothing short of a disgrace. Seriously. It is difficult to even begin with how badly attuned they were to the occasion and the challenges everyone and their auntie knew it would possess.
Everyone can have an off-day, for sure. It happens. There is no excuse, though, for the lack of focus, the lack of professionalism that marked their team and made for their downfall.
Plenty can be said about the personnel available to Van Bronckhorst. They signed seven players to much acclaim in the summer. Only two of them — in Malik Tillman and Antonio Colak — were able to start at Celtic Park. Tom Lawrence did pick up an injury against Ross County and John Souttar has been out for a while, but Ridvan Yilmaz and Ben Davies just don’t seem fit enough to play.
Rabbi Matondo wasn’t even on the bench. For a guy who cost £2.8million, that doesn’t look good. You don’t want to be going down the road of becoming the next Eros Grezda this early in your Ibrox career.
By full-time, there wasn’t one of the new signings left on the field. Just the same team from last season minus arguably their two best players in Joe Aribo and Calvin Bassey.
That wasn’t the primary issue yesterday, though. It was the failure of those who were picked and were fit enough to switch on at all. The inability to concentrate. Basics, really.
Celtic deserved their win. They should have won by more. But Rangers didn’t make it difficult for them in the slightest and that is inexcusable.
The first goal was a shocker. Ryan Kent, rotten for most of this season so far, loses the ball in a stupid position inside his own half and is too busy moaning at referee Nick Walsh to clock that Jota has taken a quick throw-in.
Captain James Tavernier got embroiled in moaning at Walsh too. He realised what was happening faster than Kent did, but it was still too late. Matt O’Riley had advanced into space and was about to stretch out a leg and set up Liel Abada for the opener.
The second came from a quick free-kick from Callum McGregor. Taken while Kent, Glen Kamara and John Lundstram, who started the game by launching the ball out of the park from the kick-off and never really improved, were looking the other way.
O’Riley’s diagonal pass to Jota was exquisite. Jota’s control and finish impeccable. Yet, shouldn’t Tavernier have done more to track the Portuguese?
Goal No 3 was notable for more slackness from a throw-in and James Sands just failing to deal with Abada’s anticipation, while it is hard to know what to say about No4. Jon McLaughlin suffered a meltdown and his team-mates froze and watched it happen, the way you might stand, silent and open-mouthed, as someone with his pants round his head and smothered in apricot jam decides today is the day to stand in the middle of Sauchiehall Street shouting at buses.
Of course, plenty will be said about Allan McGregor now replacing McLaughlin. That’s fine. If bringing back a guy who turns 41 in January and looked like he was saying cheerio during his one-minute cameo at the cup final is the long-term answer, though, Rangers are in an even bigger state than it appears.
Van Bronckhorst is back under the cosh after this. No doubt. Just like the early days of Steven Gerrard’s reign, there is a Jekyll and Hyde quality about the Dutchman’s side.
They seem built for UEFA competitions and continental opposition. Yet, what was likely to unfold at Parkhead yesterday was never going to be like that. Playing Celtic is never going to be like that.
Celtic get forward quickly and make chances from nothing. Rangers want to pass the ball about and keep possession, but, this season, they aren’t doing anywhere near enough with it.
Look at the midfields. For Celtic, McGregor pulled the strings, but had the creativity and work rate of the excellent O’Riley and Reo Hatate beside him. Rangers had Steven Davis, Kamara and Lundstram. Too defensive. Not mobile enough. Not at the races.
There was no secret over what Rangers were going to be hit with yesterday. With those T-shirts and those pitchside adverts, it was, literally, staring them in the face. Yet, they didn’t seem to recognise it and definitely didn’t cope.
They need to start paying attention to the clear signs in front of them now, though. On the basis of what happened at Parkhead yesterday, this season could quickly become a nightmare on legs.