What we learned from the Scottish Premiership

RONNY DEILA’S Celtic suffer from bad European hangovers, Dundee United aren’t yet comfortable in their own skin and Hamilton Accies continue to defy all expectations.
Celtic's John Guidetti celebrates after scoring the opening goal against Ross County. Picture: PACeltic's John Guidetti celebrates after scoring the opening goal against Ross County. Picture: PA
Celtic's John Guidetti celebrates after scoring the opening goal against Ross County. Picture: PA

1) There’s a massive difference in Celtic’s play pre and post European nights

A 5-0 victory against the worst team in the league will not change the mind of too many Ronny Deila critics. However, what it should do is stop the fanciful talk of a realistic title race existing in the 2014/15 season. County are, undoubtedly, a poor side, but they still managed to take a point off Inverness prior to the international break and defeated Dundee in their last home game. And yet Celtic ripped them limb from limb in a frenzied first half. The scoring finished at five, but had Deila not instructed his side to take it down a few gears in the second half they could have scored into double figures. Celtic are far away the league’s strongest team, as they should be, and any other side will do well to finish within 15 points of them come the season’s end.

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Part of the reason for the patchy league form has been a European come-down. Celtic have played nine games this season. Four of those have come on a weekend following adventures in Europe, and in these matches Deila’s team have picked up a measly two points. In the other five matches they have been completely dominant: winning five from five and scoring an incredible 18 goals in the process. A similar scenario played itself out during the 2012-13 season, where Celtic battled in the Champions League group stages as well as fighting on the home front. Hibs and Aberdeen enjoyed brief autumn stays on top of the table before European competition went on hiatus and Celtic went back to dominating the top flight. The same will happen here.

Deila will be pleased that they finally managed to look convincing without Kris Commons. Of course, County’s defence didn’t offer up much of a resistance, but you can only beat who is in front of you and the movement of John Guidetti, Anthony Stokes and Callum McGregor was excellent throughout a blitzing first half. The tempo with which they played and the amount of hard running they did off the ball provided a glimpse into what Deila envisions for his team in the future. Commons doesn’t fit into that picture, but for the meantime his movement and finishing is still on a level above all of his teammates and he’s too good to be omitted even if it will help provide some continuity with this system for the future.

2) Dundee United are a different team from last season – though that doesn’t necessarily make them a bad one.

Jackie McNamara’s side remained second in the table after surviving a frustrating home encounter with Partick Thistle on Saturday. Nadir Ciftci was the hero of the piece, winning and scoring a late penalty which saw the visitors leave Dundee with nothing for their efforts. Thistle upset United’s rhythm with their industry in midfield and eventually drew jeers from the home support who have not watched their side offer up such a disjointed attacking display in McNamara’s time in charge.

Andrew Robertson and Ryan Gauld have, as expected, been a great miss. The former provided United with an x-factor that opposing teams never really looked comfortable with dealing with. He was a marauding full-back who’d attack the centre, never afraid to test the goalkeeper with a shot if nothing else was on and causing enough of a distraction to open up space for the other players in United’s attack. As for Gauld, he may have endured a quiet finish to his breakout season, but he still retained the ability to pick the lock when opposing teams brought everyone behind the ball and shut themselves in. Throw in the poor form of Stuart Armstrong and Ryan Dow and inconsistency of Gary Mackay-Steven and Chris Erskine and it’s no surprise United have looked nothing like the free-flowing, enthralling to watch team of last season.

So how come they’re second in the table? Simple, their defence is much better. Robertson is an underrated defender, but it’s obvious that his absence could be troublesome when he joined in the attack. Sean Dillon has been stationed in the role for the last few weeks and has really solidified the defence as a unit. In the centre Jaroslaw Fojut and Callum Morris have looked a better duo than any pair McNamara threw together last campaign. All in all it’s a much stronger unit, who also have the added protection of John Rankin and Paul Paton roaming the area in front of them. It means that Thistle can come to town, enjoy more of the ball and attacking territory in the second half and still lose the match, simply because it’s still difficult to create chances against United when they are struggling. We saw similar when Kilmarnock defeated them Friday before last. The hosts battered McNamara’s side from the start but couldn’t break through until after the hour mark.

United are now a side built to play on the counter attack. It’s a difficult tactic to implement at home when many visitors want to sit-in, and for the meantime it doesn’t look a new identity they are entirely comfortable with, but if they can embrace the changing face of their team then don’t be too surprised to see them still sitting in second place come the end of the season.

3) The Hamilton Accies bubble is not going to burst

The bubble will still deflate a little. Alex Neil’s side are not going to win the league. 124 years of history in Scottish league football has taught us that, and specifically the duopoly (now monopoly) we’ve endured over the last 29 years. However, any notion that this great start was nothing more than a statistical anomaly was conclusively proved false in front of BT Sport’s cameras on Friday night football. Hamilton are good enough to be a top six side and that’s where we should expect them to remain.

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They’ve been noted for their pressing since the opening weeks of the season, but they’re actually working that little bit harder now. The players are tapping into the positivity throughout the club to pump their legs faster, chase down opponents with more vigour and counter-attack with breathtaking speed. Aberdeen went with a gameplan to spoil the match on Friday, starting Ryan Jack on the right of midfield with the hope of clogging the area, reducing the game’s tempo and hoping David Goodwillie or Adam Rooney could clinically finish any chance that came their way. None of this plan came to fruition. Aberdeen underestimated just how intense Hamilton’s pressing would be, and the strike-force both missed excellent first half chances to really ask questions of their hosts.

There’s no doubting the team are greater than the sum of their parts. Not too many Morton fans were fussed about Dougie Imrie departing the club this summer after they’d witnessed several indifferent performances as the team slumped to relegation. Mikael Antonie-Curier has never been a regular top six Scottish top flight striker. Martin Canning was well out of his depth at Hibs. Darian MacKinnon played junior football just three years ago, the same goes for Louis Longridge. The list goes on. What they have is an unmatched understanding of each other and their game plan. Football is a team game, and there is no better example out there than this Accies side. Long may that continue.

4) David Clarkson is far from finished at the top level

The former Motherwell striker returned to his own ground, netted an excellent opening goal and turned in a man of the match performance which helped Dundee get back to winning ways. While Clarkson appeared rather sheepish on the outside, on the inside he must have been delighted to have proven wrong the manager who turned down the chance to sign him this summer.

In fairness to Stuart McCall, he wasn’t the only top flight boss to do so. Kilmarnock had the once £800,000 player on trial and declined to make an offer, the same goes for St Johnstone prior to Stevie May leaving town. Passed over by three clubs was the nadir of a career that has been going downhill ever since he left Motherwell for Bristol City back in 2009. There appeared no discernible reason as to why he tailed off quite so dramatically, and those questions only become more puzzling since his blistering start to life in a dark blue shirt.

In the match against Motherwell he didn’t do anything special. Clarkson just provided the same hard work he’s always done. His runs pulled Motherwell’s back four all over the place, while the hosts also struggled to deal with his physicality throughout the 90 minutes, finally topping off the performance with an assist for Dundee’s third goal.

Paul Hartley’s side started this campaign so brightly, but it was in real danger of being derailed after a poor run of form. A major problem coming into this campaign was their lack of a striker who could cut it at this level. Clarkson has proven himself at this level before, but this time he’s proven the doubters wrong. Will he repeat the type of form which once won him a pair of international caps? Probably not. But if he can continue to produce such performances then Dundee’s top six dream may become a reality once more.

• Get insight into the other SPFL Leagues by reading Tell Him He’s Pele’s Five Things We Learned...