One of Martin O'Neill's comments has pointed to a major weakness in his starting XI. The Bhoys produced a very good performance on Wednesday night to defeat LASK 3-0 in the first leg of their Champions League playoff.
There were encouraging performances aplenty, with Camilo Duran and Colby Donovan the standout players. But Celtic have a problem they are going to have to address.
At many moments during the game, the Bhoys were caught open, with LASK having a goal disallowed within a minute, and they later had another disallowed. The Austrian champions also had a clear one-on-one after nine minutes, which was a mistake from Cameron Carter-Vickers, while Viljami Sinisalo had to make a couple of big saves. O'Neill pinpointed it when he admitted that Celtic 'rode their luck' early on, and that the game was 'like a basketball game'.
But it's nothing new. While Celtic have been very good so far this season, it's easy to forget that Dundee could easily have grabbed an equaliser later in the opening game, while Dundee United hit the woodwork five times last weekend.
Celtic are conceding chances, and it is largely coming from the midfield. Even with Arne Engels early in the season, the Bhoys are not managing to protect their back line, and we are seeing the two centre-backs exposed too often.
Callum McGregor is doing what he can, and because of Celtic's overall quality compared to their opponents, they are likely to get away with it more often than not. But if they are to succeed, or at least give a good account of themselves in the Champions League, they are going to need a dominant pivot midfielder who can sit deep, dominate on and off the ball and properly protect the back line.
Without that kind of midfielder, Celtic are going to find their defence exposed in major ways against top opponents in the Champions League, with the majority of teams having dangerous wingers and dominant midfielders.
O'Neill's thoughts on the game as a whole
“I’m delighted that we've won and I thought we played some really fine stuff, but I think that this tie is far from over," O'Neill told CelticTV after the game.
“It was a fantastic shot (first LASK ‘goal’), but he was just offside, marginally offside as well too. Then we had a scare a couple of minutes later and they could have been 2-0 up and out of sight.
“So it’s great credit to the team. We settled down, got a grip, took a deep breath and tried to get into the game, which we did. Nygren’s goal was fantastic and got us going, and then Duran's two goals were simply magnificent, culminating in a performance like you wouldn't believe. He was absolutely fantastic.
“But we've seen enough from LASK to know that we really are only at half-time here. We've got a lot to work on, there's no question about it, but take nothing away. We scored three great goals and I'm delighted.”
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