Can Brendan Rodgers rediscover Celtic winning instincts?

Bojan Miovski opens the scoring against Celtic (Image: SNS)

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At this time, there were three in our brood. When I got home from my run, as the throbbing in my temple subsided and I wiped the stinging sweat out of my eyes, I was greeted with a familiar brace of faint blue lines on a stick, and I immediately wondered whether the universe had tried to give me the heads-up (I have since questioned whether being on the run was the integral part of the message).

In moments of desperation, we attempt to attach meaning to our desperate lives. Celtic fans lately have certainly been searching for a sign that their team can mount a more robust defence of the title. Since a desperate 2-0 home defeat to Hearts in mid-December, Celtic have gone 10 matches undefeated in all competitions. Along the way, they’ve scored 22 goals and conceded just four, they’ve seen off a resurgent Rangers side under new manager Philippe Clement in the New Year Premiership derby and progressed to the fifth round in their defence of the Scottish Cup.

But while on paper it looks like the warning from that blip against Hearts has been heeded, that would be to overlook how Rodgers’ perfect copy book was blotted already in the first half of the season, and the 1-0 Viaplay Cup second-round defeat to Kilmarnock way back in August had already set the tone for a worrying malaise amongst his team this season.

Marley Watkins reacts after putting Kilmarnock ahead against Celtic (Image: SNS)

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On that occasion on Ayrshire’s premier plastic pitch, Celtic dominated possession against Derek McInnes’s side as anyone would expect – controlling 70 per cent of the ball, completing nearly 500 passes – and had their opportunities in the match with eight corners, eight efforts at goal and three on target. But perhaps the universe was trying to tell Rodgers something about the state of his squad. After Marley Watkins’ 59th-minute goal, with over half an hour to find a response, Rodgers looked at the bevy of options on his bench and brought on attacking trio Sead Haksabanovic, Yang Hyun-jun and David Turnbull.

Celtic huffed and puffed like a hyper-ventilating wolf trying in vain to gobble up little pigs but, if anything, it looked more likely that Kilmarnock, especially after McInnes brought on hulking centre-forward Kyle Vassell with 15 minutes to go, would snatch a clincher. The Scottish champions appeared to lack fight, a killer instinct, and were practically bullied by their opponents.

Immediately after the match, Rodgers laid the blame for the defeat squarely at the playing surface. Later, he admitted that they had come out second best in the physical battle, and judging by what has happened since that early-season claxon, the Celtic manager saw much to worry him about his own side in that performance.

Of the trio brought on to try and salvage their defence of the first silverware of the season, only Yang remains at Parkhead for the second half of the season – and as a peripheral figure at that. Odin Thiago Holm, the Norwegian youngster who made his debut in the cup clash, has hardly had a look in since, and the central-defensive pairing which started the match at Rugby Park, summer signings Gustaf Lagerbielke and Maik Nawrocki, are behind first-choice Cameron Carter-Vickers and Liam Scales in the pecking order despite close to £10m being spent on securing their services.

Second-half substitute Yang has an effort at goal against Kilmarnock in the Viaplay Cup defeat (Image: SNS)

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Killie have been a thorn in Celtic’s side this season, with two defeats, a draw and only a solitary victory over McInnes’s team recorded thus far. And draws have also been a jarring feature of Celtic’s league season overall. As well as last weekend’s draw at home to, you guessed it, Kilmarnock which allowed title rivals Rangers to leapfrog them into top spot in the Premiership table, Celtic spilled points during their current 10-match undefeated run at Pittodrie in a 1-1 stalemate against Aberdeen.

It was in the north east, with his side trailing thanks to Miovski’s opener shortly after half-time, that signs that Rodgers has been attuned to the synchronic messages bombarding him became apparent. On this occasion, he did manage to make a telling double substitution when he brought on his recent recruits Adam Idah and Nicolas Kuhn with half an hour to play. The German winger, making only his second appearance in the hoops, scored the equaliser after being teed up by the big on-loan Norwich City striker. But there was to be no winner, and another substitution in the latter part of the game also spoke volumes.

Despite finding that crucial equaliser and now chasing a winner, Rodgers decided to take off Nawrocki, the Polish centre-half signed from Legia Warsaw last summer, in the 77th-minute for Stephen Welsh – a like-for-like change that hardly sent out a signal of attacking intent, but the move was understandable all the same.

For in the lead-up to Miovski’s opener, Nawrocki summed up Celtic’s season in his attempts to halt the offensive. The defender looks the part: big, strong and athletic. At 1.85m, he has the same physical attributes as Carter-Vickers. But when Miovski picked up the ball 30 yards from goal with just the Pole to beat, the defender looked more like one of those frightened fawns as he attempted to jockey his man, showing him outside as any textbook for defending would instruct a player to do. But Celtic, a squad on paper which looks a cut above the rest, are a team who have failed to tune in to their natural instincts all season.

Bojan Miovski scores against Celtic at Kilmarnock (Image: SNS)

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As the striker advanced on the Celtic penalty area, pure instinct should have taken over. Where was the desire simply not to be beaten? Where was the killer instinct to make a challenge, put body on the line, impose himself on the striker? Instead, the tricky forward flummoxed his opponent with a simple step-over which left the Pole stretching as Scales attempted to provide cover on the exposed side. Miovski’s reactions were too sharp, however, and he unleashed a precise curled shot to give Joe Hart no chance in goal.

Nawrocki looked like a player who does not believe he deserves to be trusted in the heart of defence at the top team in the country. Rodgers recognised this frailty and hooked the centre-half for the final thrusts.

If you believe in synchronicity, then rather than simply speaking to Rodgers and the Celtic board, you probably think the universe has been trying to grip them by the neck and scream bloody murder in their faces: throw out the textbook – rediscover the relentless will to win which has delivered five trebles and a double in the previous seven seasons. The second half of this campaign will provide the ultimate test of Rodgers’ instincts in responding to such clear signs.