Young Boys versus the Lost Boys.
That’s the nightmare scenario for Brendan Rodgers when Celtic face their crucial Champions League match at home against the Swiss side on Wednesday night. The manager must have experienced painful flashbacks to 10 years ago when he stood on the touchline at Dundee last midweek and saw his defenders concede one unnecessary goal after another in a 3-3 draw. Back to the night in London in May 2014 when the Liverpool side he was then managing were also held to a 3-3 draw by Crystal Palace.
It was the result that forced Rodgers to concede the league title to Manchester City immediately afterwards, blaming “criminal defending” for the fatal loss of points. Rodgers had no need to contemplate the same course of action on Tayside. The Premiership might be bizarre enough to have Aberdeen winless for one third of the season yet strongly in contention for a place in Europe – but it’s not so flaky Celtic will lose four games between now and the end of the season to put their hopes of Four-in-a-Row in jeopardy.
They’ve only lost two league games in the last 13 months so the prospect of losing four of their next 15 matches seems negligible. Even in a Premiership where 12 clubs can give the impression they find it difficult to walk in a straight line. Rodgers has, with regard to the localised rivalry he lives with, written enough chapters in the Tale of Two Teams in One City to know the way everything works.
Subconsciously, therefore, the Celtic boss will admit he needs the turbo-charged stimulus that Europe brings over and above his domestic responsibilities. Avoiding embarrassment against Young Boys, six-time losers and scorers of only three goals in the Champions League so far, is imperative where Celtic’s continued participation in the tournament is concerned.
Which means Rodgers can’t overlook the detection of yet more criminality with regard to his Celtic defence at Dens Park. He prides himself, justifiably, at the way he carries out his duties in a respectful manner befitting an elite manager. So he is probably not best pleased at the social media coverage of himself describing Auston Trusty’s defensive work against Dundee as being “as weak as p***”.
But it’s Trusty, and not Rodgers, who should be embarrassed at that assessment of his performance going viral – because anybody who watched the match knows the manager’s remark was only a statement of fact. Trusty and Cameron Carter Vickers had a night against Dundee that, if repeated against the Swiss, would make them the two most dangerous Americans since Donald J Trump and JD Vance.
The Dundee result meant Celtic had, in the space of a calendar month, lost three goals to Rangers twice and once to Tony Docherty’s side. That’s too often to be dismissed as a coincidence. The analysis of Celtic’s short-comings doesn’t end there.
Kyogo Furuhashi, whether or not his mind is elsewhere, has now attained the status of being irreplaceable up front. One look at Adam Idah tells you that is the case.
It’s one thing for a Celtic striker to go 12 league matches without scoring but it’s another altogether when the same player pulls out of a challenge with a goalkeeper to avoid the possibility of injury. The startling nature of Idah’s non-combative instincts being exposed in that way might cause an opinion to form that Celtic could have a £9million waste of money on their hands.
Yang Hyun-jun? What else is there left to say? Everyone loves a trier but it’s a dangerous business to tell the fans what they’re watching game in, game out is actually an optical illusion and he’s better than he looks.
The Champions League is not the place to conduct an eye test concerning the South Korean winger. Wednesday night is when Rodgers has to pick his strongest team and hope his captain Callum McGregor can re-emerge from a sustained period of anonymity when the manager needs him most.
Celtic have started to get periodic reminders that they’re not as clever as they think they are – and last Wednesday night in Dundee was an exposé of inadequacy on the part of certain individuals. Not to progress to the next phase of the Champions League will introduce an anticlimactic dimension to the rest of the season for all associated with Celtic.
And they can have no excuse if they fail to win at home to Young Boys. Other than personal liability.