Despite having a three goal lead going into tomorrow night’s season defining fixture, I doubt there are many of us who won’t be feeling some anxiety, even if we’re fairly confident. The only thing worse than getting soundly beaten in these fixtures would be gaining a dominant position and then conceding it.

However, despite the defensive frailties that were exposed during the game, I think we’re back in Ange type territory, where we deploy an extremely dangerous front line with support flooding forward, hope we take our chances more effectively than the opposition, and pray we don’t get caught in transition.

I had the good fortune to be at the LASK game, which couldn’t have been more different from last year’s Almatygeddon if Calmac had started trying to throw touchdowns. Although if you were being uncharitable, you could say that last season he did get mighty good at running backwards, pointing and offloading short passes!

Hitting Targets

Not in this team though. Because this version of Celtic presents targets to hit. Last season, when looking for movement up front, we had nothing on more often than a confused emperor sporting his new clothes, and the result was often just as embarrassing.

I think most of the players had outstanding games. I was confident in our attacking prowess, so my main interest was midfield new bhoy Baur. I was mightily impressed by his constant movement, the distance he covered, his determination to make himself available, his ability to retain possession yet still be primarily progressive, and a few of his passes were sublime. I think he could be a very special player for Celtic.

However, it’s clear he’s not an Engels replacement. The greatest strength of Arne Engels was a positional discipline and defensive mindset that saw him blocking passing lanes and providing much-needed cover to an exposed defence. A defence which can find itself terribly exposed, particularly when we play a high line. I think we can all see that Carter Vickers is not the man you want in a foot race with a striker possessing elite speed. That said, I would be very surprised if we play such a high line in Austria, particularly if Auston Trusty is ruled out via injury after missing training today.

Attack Is the Best Defence

So, the clamour on the transfer front is for a defensive midfielder to plug the holes in the midfield. With Nygren high up the pitch doing damage and McGregor conducting play like the mile-weary maestro that he is, then surely we need that defensively minded player offering cover to the back four? It seems that this is accepted as fact.

However, the deal that is apparently closest on the transfer front is for Ermin Mahmic of Slovan Liberec. Another attacking midfielder. Gineitis of Torino is the defensive option so frequently mentioned. Admittedly, Gineitis sounds like an affliction caused by an overindulgence of gin and tonic on a Saturday night, and his potential signing also seems to be causing a headache.

Or is it? The direction of travel will become clear once we know we’ve made it to the Champions’ League group stages. However, if we’re playing an O’Neill/Maloney version of Ange ball, then who do we sacrifice to defensive duties?

In fact, when was the last time we played with a genuine defensive midfielder? Bernardo was deployed as a possession retention machine, and Iwata never got a chance. The fact is that any defensive midfielder at Celtic may only be deployed in Europe. We simply don’t need a defensive mid domestically, when we have the capacity to overwhelm the opposition with a surfeit of attacking excellence. So, is this board really going to drop £8m on a guy who will only play in Europe and maybe in the derbies?

Unblocking The Transfer Funnel

It’s difficult to read where the board are at just now. As I said in my last blog, the information from multiple sources was that Desmond Junior had been deployed by Daddy to circumvent the axis-of-feeble shaped blockage formed by Nicholson and McKay. This came after a cringeworthy performance in front of the AISC, where the CEO dazzled the audience with his tedious regurgitation of lazy tropes and pathetic excuses, so jaded and tired that they have a 1000-yard stare and PTSD.

This led to an event as rare as the recent solar eclipse. The loosening of the purse strings and the identification and procurement of proven quality players in order to improve the team, rather than the customary speculative punt and hoping for the level of luck that an end of the rainbow, treasure guarding leprechaun would find preposterously optimistic.

 In fact, we may have to change formation just to accommodate the quality already there. For instance, are we really going to leave one of Hassan or Duran on the bench? I’m all for having the bench we wish for, rather than a bench bought from Wish, but I would also hate to see genuine potential stars not making the team if there’s a way to accommodate them. However, that’s exactly what happens at big clubs who behave like big clubs.

More Proof Needed

This board still have a long way to go to prove themselves. More is needed in this window, and executives at purportedly elite clubs must be as consistent in their delivery as elite players.

The last number of transfer windows have been as poor as any in the history of the club. Leaving Martin O’Neill high and dry when he was desperately trying to win a league title (almost thrown away by yet another appalling board appointment) will go down as one of the worst leadership decisions imaginable given the context. They were only saved from themselves by a brilliant manager, players returning from injury and an almost entirely implausible run of form from Daizen.

I’m all for giving credit where it’s due, but before we rewrite history, remember it was only a few short weeks ago we were having sincere conversations about the benefits of signing the karate-kicking Cammy Devlin.

No Celtic fan deserves to have been reduced to that hypothetical gutter!