Former Celtic star Joe Miller has given his verdict on Celtic’s style of play under Ange Postecoglou and the need to branch out when they come up against extreme anti-football.
The club have only taken one point from six against Livingston so far this season, finding no answer to their all out defence.
The Hoops have all the possession and dictate the play but the whole final third area is condensed and very difficult to break down.
The team have found a way in some games this season, but it’s no surprise we’ve got more joy against teams like Hibernian and who want to have a go.
This is SPFL club’s way of trying to level the playing field and it’s likely to see more frustrating days like the Livingston tie.
Speaking to RecordSport, Miller believes Celtic need to find a new way to break down teams like Livingston.
Miller said : “I’ve been at the last two games against St Johnstone and Livingston where both sides parked the bus – and by the way their tactics would get the game stopped – but it’s up to Celtic to break that down.
“It seems to be the same way it’s been for the last two years.
“It’s too predictable.
“Possession football is fine but you can’t set up in the last third of the park to try and break teams down and put balls into the box when there’s 10 opponents in there.
“It might look good that they are dominating possession but there’s no space there to exploit. It’s difficult when you have wide players – Jota, Abada, Ralston all parked in the last third – it’s congested.
“They need to find a different way to play in those situations. It’s too repetitive.
“Some times you have to invite a team to come out. Other times you need to win a game ugly – if that means launching it up the park quickly, taking the opposition by surprise and allowing a different type of player to battle for things – then so be it.
“Giakoumakis is a good target man and was probably needed for Saturday because of the physicality of Livingston’s defence.
“I probably would have played Kyogo and him together from the start. Giakoumakis could have been that man to win knock downs for Kyogo to run onto when they wanted to mix it up.
“But they just seem to want to have tippy-tappy football round the box.
“The midfielders just want to play this passing game. But they are playing like robots.
“A team like Livingston taking four points off you in two games just isn’t good enough.”
Celtic have a tough away day in the Europa League on Thursday evening against Ferencvaros. They will face a side who will attack them during the 90 minutes. Hopefully the team can produce a victory.
