Motherwell review: V for Vata (and van Veen)

Celtic’s 100% home league record came to an end yesterday as Motherwell became the first side to leave Celtic Park with a point.  The visitors set their stall out to defend from the beginning and frustrated Celtic for large spells, limiting the space to play in and denying many clear goal scoring opportunities.

The draw, while disappointing, does see Celtic extend their lead at the top of the table to 13 points for the time being, however big improvements will be needed for next week’s Scottish Cup semi-final.

Strength in depth

In the pre-match show, John Hughes spoke about his concerns over the quality of the Celtic bench going into the game, and queried where the game changers were.

A feature of Celtic’s season up to now has been the ability to draw on the quality available on the bench to turn games in our favour.  The likes of Haksabanovic, Abada, O’Riley, and Oh have all played their parts coming off the bench to break the resistance of weary opponents.

Yesterday, however, due to Jota, Abada, Forrest, and Hatate all missing out through injury, the bench lacked an outright go-to game changer; something that worried John when also looking ahead to next week.

The introduction of Iwata, Haksabanovic, and O’Riley to the line up in recent weeks may not have weakened the starting team.  However, it has severely hampered Ange’s options off the bench should the game not be going Celtic’s way.

All said and done, the team that started yesterday should have been good enough to break Motherwell’s resistance.  A begrudging nod is afforded to Motherwell for their stubborn defensive display, but a large amount of frustration remains that Celtic could not find a way to get in behind or break ‘Well down.

Iwata and O’Riley were strong in midfield, especially in the first half, but neither Maeda or Haksabanovic were able to impact the game out wide.  Due to the lack of space in the middle, Kyogo was also often crowded out and lacked service as Celtic struggled creatively.

Unfortunately, John’s pre-match concerns proved prophetic and Celtic were unable to find the spark to maintain the 100% home league run.  Looking to the semi-final, we will all be hoping that at least Jota is back to fitness to terrorise the Rangers defence.

Angry Old Man

Despite Motherwell resolutely parking the bus, as they are fully entitled to do, – although much to the ire of one Angry Old ACSOM contributor – Celtic did go into the break with a 1-0 advantage.  Callum McGregor taking the game by the scruff of the neck and smashing a 25 yarder beyond Kelly midway through the half.

After an early scare from a Motherwell corner, Celtic dominated the half and condensed the play into a 35-yard area from the Motherwell goal.  Space was at a premium as Motherwell defended deep and in numbers as Celtic struggled for inventiveness to get in behind.

It’s the same picture. Kevin McCluskie and Grampa Simpson yelling at clouds

Haksabanovic delivered a couple of teasing crosses from deep but made little headway against Furlong and Casey on the wing.  The Montenegrin was clearly keen to impress in a rare starting role but his limitations on the right were highlighted time and again.

A player of clear ability, Haksabanovic has found it difficult to make an impression from the start despite making several impressive appearances off the bench.   The consensus appears to be that Haksabanovic is more suited to a role on the left or as 10; whilst hard working, his overall performance against Motherwell did little to change that perception.

But Haksabanovic was not the only player unable to break Motherwell down.  Maeda was very quiet on the left, and while there was a lot of huffing and puffing from the midfield, the final pass that would blow the Motherwell house down was often missing.

V for Vata (and van Veen)

The second 45 followed a similar pattern to the first for the most part with two notable exceptions.  The first, Motherwell scored an excellent goal on the brake as Kevin van Veen turned Greg Taylor inside out before clipping past Joe Hart to level the scores.

Offensively, Motherwell did not deserve the goal on balance of play, not that they cared.  It was van Veen’s 20^th goal of the season as the 31-year-old is enjoying the most prolific campaign of his career.

Defensively, Motherwell maintained their ‘thou shalt not pass’ stance and stifled Celtic at every opportunity.  With limited options on the bench, Rocco Vata was introduced with 10 minutes to play and almost made the difference that his more experienced counterparts had failed to achieve.

The young Irishman showed a directness on the wing that had been missing in the previous 80 minutes.  With 2 minutes to go Vata whipped a cross onto the head of Oh who somehow missed the target completely, and with it went Celtic’s hopes of all three points.

In isolation, the result and performance yesterday mean very little. Celtic will still win the title, the official date now only postponed unless Aberdeen gets a result against Rangers.

In the grander scheme, we may be learning more about our squad players and where we need to strengthen for next season.  As John also said, we need another striker as Kyogo and Oh alone will not cut it for another full season.

With next week in mind, Ange will have a full week to prepare the players for the semi-final and will be drilling into them the importance of the fixture.  And with Ange being the ruthless man that he is, next Sunday could be a make or break game for some in the squad.

Kevin McCluskie