What was apparent was the scintillating and very eye catching performance of Joe Ledley against an underpowered Inverness who never really threatened anything except to win a lot of corners and make the Celtic defence yet more jittery than usual. It was clear that Ledley’s superbly taken goal did a lot to raise the team’s spirits and overall performance as another stunner featuring yet another direct run and finish by James Forrest soon followed.
The real talking point of course this week has been the obvious nervousness and lack of confidence at the heart of the Celtic defence. Like a lot of commentators I used to attribute the at times shambolic play by our defenders as a by-product of the nervousness of the crowd at Celtic Park that would somehow be transmitted to the players on the pitch, and that the crowd and players would add to this nervousness as the intensity rose and games got tight. That however is now very much last season’s theory.
As this nervousness has shown itself in both home and away games this season and clearly had some bearing on the overall poor performance of the team at Ibrox last weekend, there seems to be a lot more to this phenonmenon. Confidence just seems to go out the window especially in the goalkeeper and the central defenders and this in turn seems to infect the entire team at times when flowing moves turn to anxious flails. In golfing terms we seem to get the yips.
Other sporting teams have tried it before, and as major personnel changes are at least a couple of months away, but is it time for Celtic to get a mind coach into Lennoxtown to get to the root of this anxiety before it derails the season? Sure some of our defenders have individual weaknesses and Forster seems to have a psychological problem with commanding his penalty area – as the Kevin Bridges joke goes ‘no fear of anyone sending Fraser Forster a dangerous parcel as he’d never come to collect it.’ So could it be that it’s all in the mind and some positive thinking, followed of course by some positive action on the field, may cure the problem?
Strangely there are times when Celtic seem to be only one intercepted pass away from reaching the blistering form of the end of last season and in fact the 4-0 thrashing of Motherwell only two weeks ago was probably one of the best Celtic performances of the past few years.
For me it’s clear we’re missing that special added ingredient of our best form. That liitle ‘je ne sais quoi’ of past performances. That’s the width, speed and inventiveness of our attacking wing-backs.
Emilio Izaguirre and Mark Wilson were a key element in some of Celtic’s best performances in the last campaign. It’s obvious that with Emilio out through long-term injury and Wilson showing nowhere near the same form as last season Celtic have lost some of their zest and cutting edge. Izzy and Wilson were stand out performers in some key matches last season and their replacements have yet to show the same flair and sheer speed to cut though opposing defences and create more openings.
However with Emilio approaching recovery we have to hope that he will soon be back in the first team and that his contribution can be matched with a return to form by Mark Wilson. But in the meantime those yips need to be cured and with the resources that are available to the manager.
And if the team is being affected by the off field antics of the despicable Scottish press then they will just have to learn to become immune to it and ignore the ongoing attempts to unsettle the players and the management team. Leave it to the citizen journalists to shame the traditional media into action and report the truth and too apparent imbalances that happen on a daily basis in the SPL.
As Neil Lennon said today 'the fans were brilliant'. And we all need to be brilliant both on and off line too.
@the_eriugena chief reporter on Celtic and the media for @SixtySevenLive
