Celtic 0-0 Kilmarnock: SOS!!

By: JT | August 6th, 2007

We’re not at the Save Our Ship stage by any means, but what we saw from Celtic in yesterday’s 0-0 draw with Kilmarnock was the Same Old Shit. The strikers have no cohesion whatsoever, and can’t finish to save their lives. I’m tired of seeing Maciej Zurawski put his hand in the air as a way of apologizing to his teammates after he selfishly went for goal and nothing came of it. Numerous cheap giveaways, and an absurd, looping 35-yard backpass from the top of the box to the center circle capped off a truly clueless 63 minute performance from the Pole.

Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink had his moments, but it seems to me that he spends way too much time with his back to goal. I admit, that facet of his game is a strength, but that’s all he ever seems to be doing. I don’t envision Jan the Man gently flicking the ball up in the air and whipping a bicycle kick into the top corner any time soon, so he needs to face the goal more.

But the haplessness in front of goal was not relegated to the strikers alone. Scott Brown and Massimo Donati fluffed early chances, but to be fair, Donati’s had to be considered a wee bit more difficult. John Kennedy missed a couple as well, including a super late chance that could have wrapped up the points.

All credit to Alan Combe, who made some very good saves, and the Killie defense. The back line lost two of its four starters within the first 50 minutes of the season, and performed heroically the rest of the way. Collectively, they were Man of the Match.

Now to the gaffer. Wee Gordon Strachan made some questionable moves. First, with Scott McDonald suspended for the first two matches of the season, he elected to sit Derek Riordan in the stands. That left Kenny Miller and Chris Killen as the possible subs at striker. The match was crying out for pace up front, and the only person WGS could turn to was Killen when Riordan was the obvious choice for the situation.

Paul Hartley must have some incriminating photos of manager, because only that can explain why he got a full 90 minutes yesterday. Along with Mark Wilson, Donati was the Celts’ best player on the day until he was inexplicably substituted for Shunsuke Nakamura at the 63 minute mark. Scott Brown is able on the right flank, but he’s the kind of guy that needs free reign and confining his space to roam by putting him out there is a bad idea.

So Naka comes on, Brown goes into the middle with Hartley, and Donati goes off to everyone that was watching the game’s amazement. I know I advocated in this very space last week that Naka should be in the squad in case his late introduction to the game was required. It was painfully obvious that he was not at his best, and I can recall one instance where he looked like he was running with all his might, and was moving about as fast as I did the day after my Achilles tendon surgery. Not the swiftest of characters on most days, Naka looked wasted.

Here’s the most exciting part of the match for Celtic supporters, the raising of the Championship flag for the 2006/07 SPL season: