It was a great win throughout the week, but your Record Sport Celtic voice thinks they now need to make it count.
Celtic did something vitally important for their own status and belief in the Champions League.
Now they simply have to translate it onto domestic form to guarantee an opportunity to build upon it. First thing’s first, let’s get the European stuff out of the way. Defeating Feyenoord was a huge deal. It’s not been a good campaign in terms of results and Celtic were getting all sorts fired at them about no wins in 15 games and no home success for 10 years in the group stages.
That HAD to be put to bed. It couldn’t linger and fester any longer and you have to give the team credit for the way they dug out a result against the Dutch. Let’s not go nuts. It was a meaningless game in terms of qualification and final group position. But let’s also not be churlish and be sure to dish out credit where it is due.
Too many times Celtic looked weak and even a bit frightened during the previous five games and unable to take advantage of good spells in games. I’d actually argue that the least-effective of their three home performances, yet the way they lifted themselves after losing a late equaliser said a lot about their development
In the final stages of the games against Lazio and Atletico Madrid at home, I felt they weren’t decisive enough with the games locked at all square. Not so this week. Celtic took the hammer blow of the late Feyenoord leveller, regrouped, went again and won it.
That’s about mentality and that type of thing stays with players. You remember that next time you are faced with such a scenario. Celtic ended the group with four points and it’s all about context.
Manchester United also got four points and went out. Newcastle finished bottom of their section and went out, although it has to be said they had a horror group. Seville and Union Berlin finished bottom of their groups with less points than Celtic. These clubs, especially the English pair, have spent absolute fortunes and it’s still not enough.
That’s not to say, as FC Copenhagen proved with their progression to the next stage, that it can’t be done, but it’s very tough. We know Celtic weren’t ready for this campaign, I’ve said it often enough and Brendan Rodgers has left no-one at the club in any doubt about what needs to happen next.
Players need to be bought. Good quality players with experience. Not development players. The club already has those. They need help from senior faces who have been around a bit. If they are not sourced and signed in January or at the start of the summer, Celtic will just tumble back into the same cycle again next season as they have been in during this one and that is not a situation that I feel Rodgers would have signed up for.
The club needs to deliver the right additions. Then he needs to deliver when he gets them. It’s the only way Celtic will go forward in Europe. Of course, right now, there is no guarantee the club will be in the group stages next season because the title race is well-and-truly on.
Celtic needed that win over Feyenoord because their display at Kilmarnock six days ago was abject. As poor as I’ve seen in a while. I said in this column a fortnight ago that teams were losing the fear factor at the thought of playing Celtic and Killie just backed up my theory.
Derek McInnes’ men went after Rodgers’ team in the second half and the simple truth is that my old team didn’t handle it. They stopped playing to their strengths, were outfought, outrun and undone. It was hugely worrying for them and it simply has to be a one-off.
Celtic have a crucial spell of five games coming before the mid-season shutdown and they have to try and be flawless. If they do that, with a game in there against Rangers on their own patch in the sequence, they’ll be odds-on again to return to Europe’s elite competition.
The squad has been down to the bones in recent weeks and it’s going to be crucial to get some of they ken back. Cameron Carter-Vickers and Daizen Maeda seem ready to go for today’s game against Hearts and the likes of Liel Abada and Reo Hatate have still to return.
Rodgers is going to need them all because Celtic have to up the gears. Perhaps without the demands of Europe in the second half of the season, that will happen, anyway. But nothing is a given and the champions certainly do not want to be handing any more encouragement to Rangers.
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