With probably the most unbalanced and unsettled squad that he has ever known Brendan Rodgers delivered a point for Celtic away to Red Star Belgrade in the Europa League.
Since the 7-1 nightmare away to Borussia Dortmund where it became open season to slaughter everything associated with the Celtic boss in Europe he has defied the critics spectacularly.
The old fool that is Hugh Keevins predicted that Celtic would lose 10 goals a few weeks later away to Atalanta.
Read this carefully but in five European matches away from home Celtic have lost just six goals with four of them coming at Aston Villa after Champions League progress had been secured.
At Atalanta, Dinamo Zagreb, Bayern Munich and Red Star Belgrade, Celtic have picked up four draws.
Quite a turnaround and slap in the face for those that turn to European performances to attack the achievements of the Celtic manager.
SQUAD CHAOS
Currently Rodgers has four left-wingers in his first team squad, barely two options on the right, in Belgrade he started with two players that were promised transfers during the summer only for the club to back-track. Four summer signings aren’t in the Europa League squad.
Since the turn of the year there has been a clear policy of weakening the Starting XI and first team squad, if it isn’t a strategy then it is down to the incompetence of Michael Nicholson, the CEO that insists on world class standards throughout the club.
The imbalance in the Celtic squad has gone beyond critical with differing issues in the three forward positions.
Last night in Belgrade Rodgers had to start with Daizen Maeda and Yang Htun-jun who had both been promised transfers that Nicholson failed to deliver on. It is unusual for the ‘world class’ CEO to fall short at bringing in transfer fees.
WINGER WONDERS
Incredibly Nicholson has constructed a squad with FOUR left sided wingers while the options on the other side consists of a guy that spent Deadline Day waiting on the green light to join Birmingham City only to find out that Nicholson wasn’t answering his phone. Thankfully the other option is James Forrest but a 34 year old winger has to be used very selectively.
It is difficult to know where to start with when it comes to the left wing options, this year Jota, Michel-Ange Balikwisha and Seb Tounekti have all been signed, on the right Nicolas Kuhn has been sold. One flank is up three, the other down one.
A consequence of that is that Maeda is increasingly being used as a striker, the position shared between Kyogo Furuhashi and Adam Idah until January.
There are some circumstances in which Maeda through the centre works well but Rodgers is having to get involved in incredible juggling/rotating to get a turn out of the squad while introducing players signed after the Champions League exit to Kairat Almaty.
The season has barely started, we are getting another breather in three matches time with another international break but from mid November onwards the fixtures will be non-stop with January promising more chaos.
Asked about the half-time substitution that saw Daizen Maeda replaced Rodgers said:
He wasn’t at his best, or nowhere near it. However, he’s a good guy, and sometimes that happens in the game.
I could’ve made a couple of changes at half-time. I wanted to make that one to give us a reference at the top of the pitch. I thought Kels came in and was very good for us.
PRACTICAL RODGERS
Faced with all of those issues and having made it very clear that he will see out his contract Rodgers has no option but to be practical with his players, the football isn’t going to anything like what was produced in the first half of last season.
Peaks were reached in the 6-0 win over Aberdeen in the League Cup semi-final followed up by a 3-1 win over RB Leipzig, those days won’t be returning any time soon.
It will be a case of square pegs getting eased into round holes on the wings, trying to develop Tounekti and Balikwisha while managing Maeda and Yang.
Goalscorer Kelechi Iheanacho is on a contract until May but like the manager everything is short term, what happens next summer is completely up in the air but that is an issue for the CEO who is undermining the manager as his contract runs down.
It’s not a healthy state of affairs but that is what we expect from Nicholson despite his world class claim. There are reasons why he steers well away from the cameras and microphones.
BRAGA AND BEYOND
Braga and Sturm Graz visit Celtic Park on the next two Europa League matchdays, in normal circumstances there should be an expectation to be sitting on seven points after three matches putting progress within sight.
This squad will have to navigate all eight matches even though new signings can come in when the January transfer window opens that date is a long way into the distance, only once in the last decade have Celtic had multiple signings lined up for January 1. Peter Lawwell wasn’t directly involved at that time.
Game by game this season is going to be a challenge, completely unpredictable with so many issues going on around the club with a complete lack of leadership.
Rodgers has no option other than getting on with it, his ability will be tested but with the Celtic support activated the pressure is on the boardroom to support the playing squad rather than dining off the efforts on the pitch as the Balance Sheet bhoys stand around congratulating themselves.
In Belgrade Kieran Tierney, Ben Nygren and Tounekti started the match with Iheanacho, Balikwisha, Marcelo Saracchi and Ross Doohan on the bench.
With Shin Yamada, Hayato Inamura, Callum Osmand and Jahmai Simpson-Pusey left out of the Europa League squad the only certainty is that chaos will surround the club.
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