Winning in style a thing of Celtic's past

Published on Sunday 22 April 2007 01:26

THERE is ample good reason the defence presents its case once the prosecution has rested in any trial. The most recent evidence can skew the impression of the whole. Which is why, despite Celtic being on the verge of clinching the title, finding in their favour has become more problematic.

Never mind that a second successive championship has been a virtual walkover for Gordon Strachan's side. What is lingering is that a team who not so long ago didn't seem to know how to lose a league game, don't now appear to have the wherewithal to win one with any polish.

It shouldn't make one iota of difference how Celtic rustle up the victory at Kilmarnock today that would haul them across a finishing line they have dawdled towards these past six weeks. But it does. As much, indeed, to those within the club as their supporters. They have become increasingly antsy over the pedestrian play produced during a, pointedly, pressure-free period.

"It does matter whether we win it in style," says Celtic winger Aiden McGeady. "We want to get back to playing the way we can play. A convincing win would go down well. We haven't been scoring that many goals or even creating that many chances recently. It is down to us. We know what we have to do and what we have to put right. When the manager has sat us down after every game recently, we have known what he will say. We don't need told. It is very frustrating going in to the last few weeks of the season this way. We want to kick on in style and we haven't been doing that."

In the absence of any outside challenge, Celtic's battle over the closing straight of the campaign has become with themselves. It has been a struggle they have been losing. But if they have been bruised by recent league skirmishing, then it might only be a natural consequence of having long ago won the war. The club's first-time progress to the last 16 of the Champions League kept them focused. It was the impetus for a seven-month unbeaten run in the SPL that, at 27 games, has been bettered only once in the history of the current format. In the sequence, they five times won games in which they lost the first goal and twice scraped draws after finding themselves 2-0 down.

"That does show we have a lot of character and that there is a lot of fighting spirit in the team," McGeady says. Such qualities have been practically set to one side. Identifying flaws in the current Celtic set-up has become the preoccupation because there has been nothing else to pick over when the pursuit of the Premierleague crown has been a non-issue. It is in complete contrast to the photo-finishes in 2003 and 2005, although the football then may have had a sheen applied to it. Yet, it is human nature that teams only find their very best when driven on to make that a must.

"It is strange at the moment," Strachan says. "All the teams in the top six would probably say they could do better with their squads. But I remember watching games in those two seasons and the football wasn't beautiful. Because of the points situation now, you have time to study the form. You are not caught up in the excitement of just wanting the win, with the place buzzing and punters listening to the radio to see how other games are going. Sometimes when it is neck-and-neck, as with Manchester United and Chelsea, teams push themselves to different levels in terms of ability and mental strength. In that excitement, you talk about the results. It is different for us in putting ourselves well in front over the season."

Celtic supporters have been as guilty of navel-gazing as any in media circles they mump about. It is why a section of them could boo Strachan's substitution of their striking cause clbre Derek Riordan during the Scottish Cup semi-final victory over St Johnstone that kept their club on course for a double. Even if it is a paucity of goals that has made Celtic largely uninspiring and workmanlike side this season, they jeered in a manner that would have had you believe their manager was mocking their very footballing sensibilities.

"That is what we do in football," Strachan says of anything that might be construed as nit-picking. "We all do it. There have to be talking points. I understand that and have no problem with it. I think in years to come no-one remembers how you won a championship unless it is done in real, real style. What we are talking about with Manchester United and Chelsea is a fantastic battle in which they are pushing each other to new limits. Lyon have won the league in France but Gerard Houllier says they have not played well since the start of the season."

None of this changes the fact that, the scintillating 3-0 success over Benfica apart, this season Celtic have been exposed as a team limited in imagination and incisiveness. Albeit a side with shedloads more going for them than any Scottish rival.

In being 29 goals shy of their total with five league games to play last season, the single biggest factor in them not claiming the championship with the same class as in Strachan's first season isn't difficult to pinpoint. "We don't have enough goals and can't argue or debate that one," the Celtic manager says. "The strikers have missed 65 games between them and that is a lot. I don't think I have ever had a pairing that has got together for more than six games. It is not an excuse - there are no excuses - but I think that is the reason why it has been different to last season."

McGeady accepts that the football "has not been as pleasing on the eye" as the previous two Celtic sides that he has played in because there have been fewer natural goal sources. "It is not just down to the strikers, but down to the whole team not scoring or creating as many chances," says the 21-year-old, now Celtic's third longest-serving player. "Look at last season. Stephen McManus scored eight on his own and Stan Petrov and Shaun Maloney brought a lot of goals from midfield, with John Hartson and Maciej Zurawski scoring 20 each."

The failings of Kenny Miller, Craig Beattie and Zurawski this season will ensure Strachan recruits another striker in addition to Scott McDonald. Yet, if Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink hadn't been lost to injury for almost half the season, Celtic's problems in attack would seem far less pronounced. With 15 goals in 25 appearances, the Dutchman has a better strike-rate over a season than any Celtic forward in the past decade with the obvious exception of Henrik Larsson.

Such nuances are lost on many Celtic supporters. Especially those quick to grumble about Strachan. Essentially they do so over the financial imperatives that have forced him to tartanise the squad, and therefore work with inferior quality than Martin O'Neill. It doesn't help that he does not possess his predecessor's charisma or previous leaning for the club. Strachan's pre-match and post-match prickliness don't engender much warmth either.

He has now reached much the same point in his Old Firm life that friend and former Aberdeen colleague Alex McLeish found himself when he hiked up his two-season haul at Rangers to five trophies following the treble success in 2002-03. Like Strachan at Celtic, McLeish was too unglamorously Scottish and had too much playing baggage to be appreciated in more than the good times. The Scotland manager has often reflected that he maybe should have left in the summer of 2003.

The longer Strachan stays, the more he will leave himself open to criticism. Equally, he is also one of the few British managers with the resources to make a decent stab at the Champions League. That said, the dramatic Manchester United win and the beauty of the Benfica beating notwithstanding, the competition has yet to provide him with games he will "always remember".

"One day that will happen," he says of opinions turning against him. "But I enjoy working at the club, enjoy the people I work with and enjoy the challenge around me. I have never had a plan in life. It is far better that way than obsessing about being somewhere then feeling a failure if you don't make it."

Strachan has one plan: to finally get his hip done in the summer. "It has to be done now, it is too annoying," he says. By then, his team's hirpling will have ceased to annoy. Or matter.