It’s something many Celtic fans have seen coming over the last few months, and those early season worries and frustrations were proven to be prophetic as Rangers leapfrogged Celtic at the summit of the cinch Premiership.
An eight point lead at the top of the league has been wiped out, with Celtic dropping points on a number of occasions in games that really should have been winnable.
The team suffered back-to-back defeats in the league for the first time since 2013 as Celtic lost 2-1 at Rugby Park against Kilmarnock and then went out with a whimper in a 2-0 home defeat to Heart of Midlothian the following week.
However, many felt that the victory over Rangers at Parkhead just before the turn of the year would have been the turning point in the season to help revitalise this Celtic team, but the squad have returned from the winter break even worse, with the only real good performances coming in the Scottish Cup victories over Highland League Buckie Thistle and St Mirren.
Celtic are a long way away from the Ange Postecoglou side the swept all 3 trophies in dominant and entertaining fashion last year, but what are the problems that have led to such an underwhelming Celtic team this season?
No consistency
A key component of a title-winning team is consistency, something that Brendan Rodgers sides epitomised in years gone by. Winning when not at their best was something that Rodgers’ team always found a way to do in his first tenure at the club, and in the games following those poor performances they would usually always bounce back to high performance levels in the next game.
That is something that this Celtic team lacks, with the squad struggling to string together two good halves in a game never mind two good performances in a row.
Revolving door of injuries
Every team gets injuries in football, it’s something that is unavoidable, but you could count on one hand the amount of times that Brendan Rodgers has been able to deploy a full strength Celtic team this season.
Reo Hatate and Cameron Carter-Vickers, two of Celtic’s best players and staples of the uber successful Ange Postecoglou team, have both been injured for the majority of this season.
Greg Taylor, Daizen Maeda, Liel Abada and most recently Alistair Johnston have all had lengthy spells on the sidelines, and the constant chopping and changing of the team has been a contributing factor the aforementioned lack of consistency in the team
Tactics
Brendan Rodgers hasn’t been able to get this Celtic team playing as high-quality and free-flowing football as Ange Postecoglou did last season. Postecoglou built a team tailor-made for playing fast-paced, rock-and-roll football and Brendan Rodgers’ slower style of play just isn’t suited to this Celtic team, with the main player suffering from his style of play being Kyogo Furuhashi.
Rodgers has changed things up over the last few weeks with Kyogo deploying from a deeper role and it has produced some promising sings, but reverting back to his old style of play in the second-half has led to Celtic falling away in the alter stages of games.
Rodgers has to change things up and take a few risks with the way he deploys his team for the final 12 games of the season, before it’s too late.
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