In last weekend’s Glasgow derby, Celtic made it three wins in a row for the first time this season and the win at St Mirren made it four right before the winter break. Until now multiple wins in a row evaded the hoops this season.
Particularly between the beginning and middle of December, Brendan Rodgers’ men weren’t up to the usual standard of a Celtic side, losing back-to-back games in the league for the first time in ten years. Their colossal home unbeaten domestic run was also shattered.
The players’ performances seemed to match the team’s, and one man whose form was particularly concerning at the time was Kyogo. He has turned it back around recently, but the Japanese striker went on a noteworthy run without scoring.
Recently, he has spoken out about this season’s inconsistent form and given the reasoning behind it: “At the beginning of the season, our attacking play was working well as a team, but now the opposing teams have taken better measures”, he said (Football Scotland). “We were forced to try and break down teams in front of their goal, but from there we conceded a lot of goals through counter-attacks and also set-plays. This has always been an issue at Celtic, but now it has emerged as an even bigger problem this season.”
The 28-year-old clearly feels as though the other teams in the Scottish Premiership employ a negative, defensive style of play when they come up against Celtic, and it is difficult to argue against his point. For example, when Livingston came to Parkhead two days before Christmas, they failed to register a single shot on goal throughout the match.
If the Hoops are constantly up against teams who simply sit in, it can be dull, repetitive and, if the issue is worse this season like Kyogo says, hard to put in eye-catching footballing performances and results.
For Brendan Rodgers and his team, though, it is about working out strategies to break the mould and ensure results are crucially secured. They improved against Livi and Dundee which ultimately put them in a positive mood going into the Glasgow derby.
With time to reflect during the winter break, Celtic and Brendan Rodgers can address such issues ahead of the second half of the season.
