With the League Cup and Premiership already in the bag, and the Scottish Cup final still to play, there is nothing to panic about when it comes to Celtic fans. The 3-0 defeat at the hands of the Rangers away at Ibrox was a major disappointment without doubt, but in the grand scheme of things, that result did not matter much. Not only did the Hoops have nothing to play for but they were missing several key starters as well.
Thus, there is nothing to be really worried about when it comes to that particular result. But some of the things that we saw at Ibrox might have raised question marks in the minds of the fans.
One of them was the complete underperformance of what was pretty much a second-string defence. Yuki Kobayashi, Alexandro Bernabei and Anthony Ralston all started.
They had a chance to make an impression and open the door to more opportunities in the future. But their performance, individually and as an unit, did leave quite a bit to be desired.
Celtic hero left worried about the club’s problem area
Thus, cover in defence might be an area that the club need to have a look at in the summer. And as reported by the Daily Record, Kris Commons wrote in the Daily Mail:
"“If Celtic want to progress in Europe, I still think there’s a slight weakness in one of the centre-backs that could be improved and upgraded. But let’s not pretend Starfelt was alone in that regard on Saturday. There were several players in the Celtic team who did themselves no favours at all.“Alexandro Bernabei has been a disappointing signing thus far. He was supposed to be the new first-choice left-back ahead of Greg Taylor. Celtic paid £3.75million to sign him from Argentina last summer, but it’s Taylor who has ended up having an outstanding season and has rightly kept Bernabei out the team.“Yuki Kobayashi is neat and tidy on the ball. However, the pace and physicality of the game looked too much for him at times on Saturday. He certainly didn’t offer the same level of authority and assurance as Carter-Vickers does when he plays.“I reckon Carter-Vickers is actually the most dominant defender we’ve seen in Scottish football since Van Dijk. So it’s no surprise Celtic should look so vulnerable when he doesn’t play. He’s a massive loss.“That doesn’t excuse the display overall. Having set such high standards for themselves all season, they were off the pace at Ibrox. Postecoglou must have been really disappointed. His mantra is all about how Celtic never stop.”"
With Cameron Carter-Vickers out for the rest of the season after having undergone surgery, Postecoglou will have to rely on the duo of Carl Starfelt and Kobayashi. It remains to be seen when Alistair Johnston returns to action as well, but there is hope that he could be fit to feature in the Scottish Cup final.
Overall, it will be interesting to see if the club try to strengthen at the back in the summer transfer window. They also must be careful that they don’t end up bloating the squad.