Even as a fan i could do with being rotated just now, or maybe subbed off early. The amount of football played in the last month to 6 weeks, is remarkable and unfortunately is has brought with it, a perfunctory, often laborious feeling to games.
Celtic are not in flux, or performing terribly but the vigour and purpose of earlier in the season, have been misplaced for a while now. This has been caused and exasperated by the fixture list. Even as an obsessive, compulsive guzzler of content, it has become hard to distinguish between games or define one performance, not relative to the last. Since Rangers on the 2nd, St.Johnstone, Dundee Utd, Ross County and Dundee games have flown by, in a bit of a blur. One game snapping at the heels of another. While those, not inclined to schedule life around the football calendar, comment on how January is “flying by”, the rest of us ask, when will it end?
Saturday was more like it and a break from the unrelenting league campaign. Kilmarnock at home in the 3rd round of the Scottish Cup. The 5:30pm kick-off is a strange one but even the slightest touch of novelty, is much appreciated just now. A fully fit lineup – both Maeda and Kuhn returned – brought with it; pace, penetration and ultimately a 2-1 victory. Not a glut of goals but this does not do justice to the creativity displayed on the day. As in Dundee, Celtic should have been out of sight but missed glaring chances. Not chances that naturally accumulate from having 75% possession or good set-pieces but chances conjured by darting runs, clean rotations, and precise final balls. Synchronicity but maybe a bit of spontaneity found. It might be a lazy observation but Kuhn makes a world of difference. Taking Celtic from functional to fabulous when at his best.
The return to full strength and the proximity of the Young Boys game, relegated this fixture to dress rehearsal status. If we are being honest, the Champion’s League has been dangling there ominously since the Zagreb game. Unfinished business awaits, and so does massive opportunity.
Left- Backs.
Kieran Tierney is another episode that is about to be concluded. For weeks now, it’s been fairly obvious that he is returning and it’s now a question of when? Wrapped up under the tree, ready to be unveiled, the anticipation grows daily. We very literally, know what we are getting. I keep picturing the running power on the left-hand side, if he and Maeda become the sum of their parts, it should be formidable. The narrative of the boy coming home seems to have overshadowed the quality of player that Celtic are getting. If fit – and on form – Tierney will be one of, if not the most accomplished players in Scotland.
So long to Bernabei, our first-ever Argentinian, who officially left the club yesterday for £5million. A great price, for someone as close to getting a game as myself.
One out, one in.