Predictable Robotic
Miller says the football at Celts has been the same for TWO YEARS and the system has to be changed
JOE MILLER recalls a time when Celtic would switch their game plan after 20 minutes if they recognised it wasn’t working.
But the former Parkhead winger fears the Hoops are now being smothered by a system that hasn’t changed in TWO YEARS.
Livingston parked the bus and plundered a Celtic Park point on Saturday – their fourth from six against Ange Postecoglou’s side this season – with a display that saw the Celtic juggernaut stall just as they caught sight of top spot.
Miller was among a frustrated home support and reckons the Lions’ tactics would get football stopped.
But he was even more concerned by the pedestrian display from Postecoglou’s side who he fears are playing like robots in a possession-based system that’s too slow and too repetitive – two criticisms which were levelled at the side which blew 10 in a row last season.
How damaging the goalless draw with Livi could be this time round won’t be known until the end of the season.
But after Rangers took advantage to motor four points clear with a 6-1 drubbing of Motherwell, there’s no doubt it was a setback. Celtic supporters vented
their frustration over Saturday’s team selection with Kyogo Furuhashi rested on the bench.
But Miller is far more concerned with the system.
They say variety is the spice of life. For Miller mixing it up is what Celtic need to spark them to life when the opposition tactics are threatening to strangle them.
He told Record Sport: “I’ve been at the last two games against St Johnstone and Livingston where both sides parked the bus – and by the way their tactics would get the game stopped – but it’s up to Celtic to break that down.
“It seems to be the same way it has been for the past two years. It’s too predictable.
“Possession football is fine but you can’t set up in the last third of the park to try and break teams down and put balls into the box when there are 10 opponents packing the space there.
“It might look good that they are dominating possession but there’s no space there to exploit. It’s difficult when you have wide players – Jota, Abada,
Ralston all parked in the last third – it’s congested.
“They need to find a different way to play in those situations. It’s too repetitive.
“Sometimes you have to invite a team to come out.
“Other times you need to win a game ugly – if that means launching it up the park quickly, taking the opposition by surprise and allowing a different type of player to battle for things – then so be it.
“Giorgos Giakoumakis is a good target man and was probably needed for Saturday
because of the physicality of Livingston’s defence.
“I probably would have played Kyogo and him together from the start. Giakoumakis could have been that man to win knock downs for Kyogo to run on to when they wanted to mix it up.
“But they just seem to want to have tippy-tappy football round the box. The midfielders just want to play this passing game. But they are playing like robots.” Miller won the title in his first year at Parkhead, the Centenary season of 1987-88 when Billy McNeill’s side romped to a league and Scottish Cup double. That side, which had the goals of Frank McAvennie and Andy Walker, the guile of Paul McStay, Tommy Burns and Billy Stark and the guts of Roy Aitken and Mick McCarthy, knew how to switch their style when the going got tough.
Miller said: “We could play. But, if after 20 minutes it wasn’t working we would try something else. Maybe knock it long, get players running the channels but we don’t seem to have that now as teams are sitting deep.
“We had a cavalier approach. It was done at a pace and the length of the park. Other times we could go long. We mixed it up.”
Giakoumakis’ failure to convert an injury-time penalty only served to heighten fans’ irritation.
Miller said: “The chance was there with the penalty. Giakoumakis has grabbed the ball but Josip Juranovic has scored the last two so should have grabbed it back.
“I don’t buy that the manager put Giakoumakis on penalty duty.”