If not for injuries in defence Celtic might be flying, insists Mowbray

ONE OF Tony Mowbray's most used phrases during media conferences this season has been 'it is what it is'. Usually delivered with a shrug of his shoulders, the maxim indicates the Celtic manager's instinctive reluctance to engage in hypotheses or speculation.

But at Lennoxtown this week, Mowbray changed tack briefly when he volunteered a 'what if' scenario in which he suggested Celtic would presently be an irresistible force rather than the stumbling side who will try to cling onto their fading SPL title hopes this afternoon.

Only three clean sheets in their last 11 league matches has been the major factor in Celtic falling 10 points behind champions Rangers. It is a gap they simply cannot afford to lengthen any further before next weekend's Old Firm showdown at Ibrox.

Ahead of Dundee United's visit to Celtic Park today, Mowbray is again wrestling with a central defensive crisis which sees Glenn Loovens, Jos Hooiveld and Darren O'Dea all ruled out by injury or suspension. It leaves teenagers Josh Thompson and Thomas Rogne as the manager's only available central defenders as he tries to address the frailties which saw Celtic draw 4-4 at Aberdeen last Saturday after leading three times.

Although Mowbray insists he would never complain about injuries, he does believe his team could currently be sweeping all before them if their rearguard resources had not been so severely diminished.

"At this moment, if we had all of our experienced defenders, we might be winning games 4-0, not drawing 4-4," said Mowbray. "We've scored 10 goals in our last three games. We might be untouchable.

"Let's wait and see when we get everybody up and running. But right now we have suffered a little bit through unforeseen injuries to some key players."

Conjecture over the security of Mowbray's tenure remains intense, despite public declarations of support for him from Celtic chairman John Reid and chief executive Peter Lawwell earlier this week. While he claimed not to have been aware of the votes of confidence from the men at the top until they were relayed to him by reporters, Mowbray insisted it was no more than he expected.

"The board of directors at our football club are pretty intelligent guys," he said. "They ... understand that to build anything successful, you have to put a base in first of all. So it doesn't come as a surprise to me what has been said this week.

"I think the board understand what is going on, they can see the bigger picture. They understand the kind of guy I am and how I work football teams. I had to come here and assess what I had first of all."

Mowbray also addressed the issue of his own contentment at Celtic, which has been a simmering topic of the Glasgow rumour mill for some time, by dismissing suggestions he is unsettled in his job.

"Where's the foundation to that?" he asked. "I'm fine. I talk to you every week, you would pick up a vibe if I wasn't.

"I build football teams, I put pieces of (a] jigsaw together. I understand that sometimes there's a hardship to go through. My mood is no different from last week. I just get on with it really. Part of being a football manager is that you have to be aware of the good things and bad things. You analyse your team. I'm not as black and white as you might be. It's why I constantly say you have to look at the performance of the team.

"At the moment, we are doing okay at one end of the pitch and, because of the reasons we've discussed, we've got to improve at the other. But we will. We've got very young players at the moment and it's a steep learning curve for them.

"Yes, we should have won the game at Aberdeen. If we had, and then beat Dundee United this week, then we would have gone into the game at Ibrox next week in pretty confident mood. So a potential positive turned into a negative last week. But the players are fine. If we beat Dundee United, we will still go into the Rangers game in confident mood. The players know we can score goals, enjoy lots of possession and get into goalscoring areas. We can give other teams problems. As I say, in an ideal world we would have more experienced players in the defensive areas, but we'll keep going the way we are at the moment."

Mowbray, who is considering the option of deploying full-back Mark Wilson in central defence today, is also without the suspended Aiden McGeady as Celtic look to make amends for the 2-1 defeat they suffered against United at Tannadice back in November.

"Every game is a challenge," added Mowbray, "but again I will go into this match believing we have got better players. If things conspire to go our way, we will create the opportunities to win."