Celtic reaction: touches tally tells of Giakoumakis's terrorising, like last season never happened, Bitton role for Bodo

Celtic’s 3-2 win over Dundee may have required an 86th minute winner but the outcome revealed some impressive efficiencies.

Celtic's Giorgos Giakoumakis sniffed out his first hat-trick for the club with only 16 touches across the 90 minutes against Dundee. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Touches tally tells of Giakoumakis’s terrorising

Dundee would probably have settled for restricting Celtic’s central striker to 16 touches if offered that before yesterday’s encounter. Yet, that total was all Giorgos Giakoumakis required to plunder his first hat-trick for the club in the perfect fashion: finishing with right-foot, left-foot and head to earn his team victory. The big Greek won’t always look the most convincing or commanding, he will be untidy at times, but there could be no arguing with his efficiency yesterday. Or the fact that he is now firmly producing in netting seven times across a mere 884 minutes of competitive football since his £2.5m summer move from VVV-Venlo.

As he struggled to find any real rhythm in his early Celtic outings there was understandable bemusement as to how the forward had bagged himself 29 goals last season with a side relegated from the Dutch top flight. Now the player is beginning to make sense. Ange Postecoglou elected to leave him on the bench for the Bodo Glimt Conference League play-off first leg that has left his team with a 3-1 deficit to overcome in Norway on Thursday. That football changes rapidly is reflected in the fact it now feels an unlikely turnaround will require an integral role for Giakoumakis.

Like last season never happened

Celtic were in imperious form when the pandemic prematurely ended the 2019-20 season and led to the league being called to bring them a ninth consecutive title. They then proved unrecognisable as the game returned for the subsequent campaign, with a dramatic downturn. Now, with a complete rebuild - as Ange Postecoglou regularly references - they are hitting the very benchmarks produced across some of the more dominant spells of their nine-in-a-row era. In their last 21 top flight games of 2019-20, they claimed 58 points out of a possible 63, with one defeat and a draw in that run. That figure currently stands at 57 points, with 18 wins and three draws over a five-month sequence without loss in the league.

Bitton role in Bodo

Celtic’s midfield triangle hasn’t quite functioned smoothly in recent games. A relentless month of games for their new club, with all the emotion and adrenaline wrapped up in that, has left Reo Hatate and Matt O’Riley looking a little off it. The pair were never going to be able to maintain the impossibly high standards they set in their early appearances. All of which suggests the Bodo return might be an occasion for Ange Postecoglou to turn to the old guard. Nir Bitton produced an assertive cameo in the win over Dundee, picking passes with calm authority. Celtic lacked that sort of presence as Bodo’s hustling left them disjointed last week. Allowing the Israeli to be the central anchor and pushing Callum McGregor up alongside Tom Rogic could provide the central platform to let Celtic exert the control required as they attempt the improbable on Thursday.

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