Celtic player criticised by former Manchester City teammate

If you take out the result against Borussia Dortmund away at Signal Iduna Park in the Champions League, which was a 7-1 defeat, Celtic have been pretty much perfect so far this season, winning every other game. But you learn more from your defeats than your victories and at the end of the day, the Hoops' progress will be judged on their performances in Europe.

It is too early to come to any conclusions in that respect. They won 5-1 against Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League opener after all.

But then, the Borussia Dortmund defeat gave rise to a new set of doubts around this team. Kasper Schmeichel did not have a memorable evening, seeing the ball find the back of his net seven times.

There is not much he could have done but the display has drawn the criticism of one of his former Manchester City teammates. As reported by The Celtic Way, Richard Dunne said to Virgin Media Sport while on punditry duties for the Spain vs Denmark game:

"I think at 37 you need to be very careful. You need to keep that mobility and that agility and what Kasper has always done when he’s been in goal, he’s been reactive to saves.

“He’s really sharp on his line. And just going back to the Dortmund game that we watched a few weeks ago he wasn’t the sort of Kasper Schmeichel that we’ve been we’ve seen in previous years.

“He looked a little bit sluggish. Wasn’t as quick getting down to certain things and I think in the moment you look at it and you think are they huge mistakes or not? Probably not.

“But then the more you analyse it, and you get closer into it and look at it deeper, sometimes his position is not right. He’s not reading the shot correctly. He’s not reacting.

“Obviously when you get older, you’re not as conditioned as you used to be. You can’t train as hard as you used to.

"And Kasper’s had a really good season. He’s done really well in the league. When you go and play in the Champions League it’s a level up, obviously, playing against Spain is a level up, and you’re playing against against better strikers and that.

“And he just looked a little bit sluggish, a little bit rusty. He didn’t look as sharp as he should be. He’s normally a player who, when he has the ball at his feet, you can trust but he was taking chances as were the whole Celtic team. "

Celtic player criticised by former Manchester City teammate

It would be safe to say that most Celtic fans are happy with what Schmeichel has brought to the table so far. He has conceded only one league goal so far. But that is not to say that he could not have done better against Borussia Dortmund.

Not many Celtic players would have gotten passing grades on that night though. So, it is a performance that you almost have to overlook.

Of course, Schmeichel did not help himself by making an error that led to Martin Zubimendi scoring for Spain in the game against Denmark. That proved to be the winner, as the game ended 1-0. Hopefully, the Danish goalkeeper will bounceback from this and we will see him back at his best.