Celtic returned to winning ways with a 2-0 victory at home to Livingston with the Green Brigade back again after a 13 match suspension.
After losing to Kilmarnock and Hearts it was essential that full points were collected but beyond scoring twice early in the second half there wasn’t much to take away from the game.
After two seasons of intensive wing play that aspect appears to have deserted Brendan Rodgers’ side, on the left Luis Palma cuts inside at every opportunity while Saturday’s Daizen Maeda was a pale shadow of last season, looking sort on fitness and conviction.
Without wingers hitting the by-line the supply to Kyogo Furuhashi has virtually dried up, against Livi he redirected a shot from Palma into the net to end a nine match run without scoring. His reaction to seeing the ball hit the net appeared to be more of relief than joy.
🍀 Celtic recovered from their two consecutive league defeats with a 2-0 win over Livingston – who now sit five-points behind 11th in the #cinchPrem ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ZwUaudpDNj
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) December 23, 2023
Palma was also the creator of Celtic’s second goal with a corner into the six yard box met impressively by Liam Scales who flicked a header across goal to provide a little comfort across the support.
After that double blow Livingston became even more defensive with damage limitation their only aim with the bulk of the second half played in the 35 yards from Jack Hamilton’s goal.
The Livi keeper pulled off a few impressive, instinctive saves to keep the scoreline respectable while Rodgers used the lead to introduce Yang Hyun-jun, David Turnbull, Oh Hyeon-gyu and James Forrest getting game time.
After beating Livingston facing Dundee away to Tuesday will be a much tougher test with the newly promoted side pushing for a place in the top six of the Premiership.
Tony Docherty’s side won’t be as defensively minded as Livingston but over the last month the Celtic defence has looked vulnerable, especially from set-pieces.
Reo Hatate could be back in the squad for the match at Dens Park but after suffering three muscle injuries over the course of 2023 it would be a huge risk to play the Japanese midfielder in any of the three matches before the winter break begins after facing St Mirren on January 2.
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