Celtic are going through a dry run at the moment. They had won every game this season before they lost 3-0 at the hands of Real Madrid in the Champions League. Since then, Ange Postecoglou’s side seems to have lost all momentum though and have only once over the past five games, while losing thrice and drawing the other one.
It goes without saying that the situation is far from ideal and has been made worse by the number of injuries that they are struggling with at the moment, with players like Cameron Carter-Vickers, Callum McGregor, Carl Starfelt and more out of action.
Their biggest problem at the moment though is their finishing up top. A number of players just seem to have lose their shooting boots and simply cannot find the back of the net at the moment. If they could have, then the Hoops should have easily won the game vs Shakhtar Donetsk, and given Real Madrid and RB Leipzig a run for their money.
As reported by 67 Hail Hail, Matt O’Riley told the Scottish Daily Mail :
"“We’ve realised now that if we don’t take those chances, we’re going to get punished at this level. It was similar against Real Madrid and Shakhtar. We had chances in certain periods of the game.“It was the same against Leipzig — and, to be honest, that was the difference. It’s just the reality. We did have chances, so it’s not like we’re not creating them. That’s a positive. But now we’ve got two home games in a row, so hopefully we’ll create more chances and take them.“It needs to change. We know what we need to do to win the games. That’s the main thing — and now we just need to do it. Naturally, we don’t want to let in three goals. That’s probably too many. But at the same time, we created enough chances to score at least three ourselves. So, if we can basically take our chances the next time — we will create them — then hopefully it will be a better outcome.”"
Can Celtic solve their problem up top and get back to form?
Celtic definitely need a few more sources of goals at the moment. When the forwards are off the boil, it just does not seem like anybody other than Reo Hatate can crop up with something in the final third of the pitch.
O’Riley himself is yet to open his account for the season even though his overall play has been very promising at times.
Of course, the biggest part of the blame has to lie on the shoulders of the forwards, who simply have missed way too chances recently and need to be a lot more clinical in front of goal moving forward. Otherwise, it could severely hurt Celtic’s title aspirations.