Nicolas Kuhn

Dundee 1—2 Celtic

A James Forrest double gets us over the line. With four games remaining, Celtic, with a win over Hearts, can effectively win the league by beating Rangers at home in the penultimate match. This was a twitchy match. Like many others we could have been out of sight or left reeling in injury time when Mellon missed a free header at the back post.

The Dundee plan was exactly what we’ve come to expect. Sit in, hit longish balls towards the forwards, focus on Taylor and Liam Scales side of things were Celtic are vulnerable to cross balls and corners in particular.

Celtic do what we always do. Started well with seventy or eighty-percent possession, with a few half-chances. Nicholas Kuhn and Reo Hatate threatened. The latter hitting the post with a wonderful drop of the shoulder, in the second half, but his shot hit the inside of the post. With Celtic two ahead that would have settled the match. Hatate is not back to his best, but he always tries to make a forward pass. He was the best midfielder in Scotland last year. Kuhn has had teething problems with his teeth and weight loss. I’ve yet to see him play a good game. To me, he is an empty jersey as he was again today.

James Forrest—yes I used to slag him off, but even a blind Rangers supporter would recognise him as our best winger in a poor bunch—match winner. Brendan Rodgers said something along the lines of he was the best winger at the club. Play him, many of us have been saying so for weeks. Palma looks good enough for backup. Yang may prove a good buy next season or the season after, but it doesn’t look good. Kuhn (sigh) I don’t understand why he keeps starting. I’m waiting for him to prove me wrong.

Forrest has nothing left to prove. But he’s only 32. His first goal on the half-hour mark was a belter. Kyogo teed him up from the edge of the box. A ball fired into the Japanese striker. He spun away with the outside of his boot. Forrest took it first time on the volley and fired it in the net.

Around the hour mark, after Dundee had started the second half strongly and corner after corner created goal scoring opportunities for the Den’s men, Forrest robbed a defender on the edge of their box. He played a give-and-go with Hatate and got on the end of it. Ricki Lamie and Portales played like Laurel and Hardy and Forest nipped in and nutmegged the keeper. That looked like job done.

Forrest, of course, comes off for Palma. Kyogo off for Idah. But it was the loanee Norwich striker that brought Dundee roaring back and looking for an equaliser. Mo Sylla and Jordan McGhee headed past the post and straight at Joe Hart. The Celtic defence looked to have cleared—yet another—free kick. Portaless’s downward volley was nothing like Forrest’s, but it hit Idah and wrong-footed Joe Hart.

Hart found time to get a late booking for time wasting. He deserved it. But it would be interesting to see if the same rule was applied when we play home and away and keepers take an eternity and opposition players fall down.

Man of the match by a mile, James Forrest. I gave him the man of the match for his contribution against Aberdeen. Let’s hope he’s a certain starter for the remaining fixtures. We still lose too many goals. McGregor still looks off the pace, but he’s still far superior to Iwata. If we can get Maeda back and Forrest on the other side, we’d be full strength for the remaining four league fixtures and the cup final. We’ll win the league, not the cup. I’ve been saying that for a while. I hope I’m wrong and we win both. Maybe Kuhn will get a hat-trick in the Cup final. Let’s just get over the line. Hearts at home. Home win.

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Win or bust, Rangers at Ibrox, Sunday.

We all know the story. Win at Ibrox and we’re clear favourites. Lose and it’s for Rangers to lose. I’ve not even considered the draw. Win or bust.

We pretty much know what the team will be. It’s much the same team that started against Livingston. Callum McGregor, if fit, will come in for Tomoki Iwata. Quite simply, he’s a better player. He’s been the best player on the pitch in the last couple of derbies. I’ve no evidence to say that he’ll start, other than wish fulfilment.

Brendan Rodgers may take the longer-term view. But there is no longer-term view.  

I’m with Chris Sutton in emphasising the importance of Reo Hatate. His stand-ins, and there’s been a long line that includes Paulo Bernardo, aren’t as good. Hatate, to me, is one of the best midfielders in Britain. Rangers have nobody that would get near him, or indeed our midfield. That’s why I think, if we overcome the usual up and at them, and settle into our passing game, Celtic are much better. But even under the sainted Postecolglou, we had games in which were bullied. I hope this is not one of them.

Up front Daizen Maeda and Kygo strike terror into the Rangers’s backline again and again. Feed them and we’ll win.

It seems that we have options on the other wing. Luis Palma may be available. I don’t really care. He doesn’t do enough for me. (Obviously, I hope he proves me wrong.) Yang looks to be second-pick to Nicolas Kuhn. Kuhn had a terrible start to his Celtic career and looked a dud. He’s played himself back into contention. I know it’ll never happen. Maeda starts for a number of reasons, but I’d play James Forrest ahead of all three would-be wingers.

We need Carter-Vickers to be on his game. Simple. He’s not playing against world-class opposition, but he makes us stronger because he can pass and move. He won’t get bullied.

Liam Scales is back from injury. He’s been a first pick for a while. He’ll need to help Taylor deal with a lot of high balls fired in his direction. He’ll need to make sure he wins his headers at Rangers’ free-kicks and corners. They’re bigger than us and win more headers. We need to have a plan for dealing with that.

Rangers really fancy themselves for this one. They have hauled us back in the league, which is a major disappointment. But let’s be blunt, there’s nothing especially good about this Rangers team. The frustrating thing for us is we’ve not been much better. There’s lots of way we can lose this game. But if we play our football we win. That sound a bit Ange Postecolouish (remember him?) but it stays true.

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Celtic 3—1 St Johnstone

Pre-match, We’d Never Work Alone was song by different-abled kids in sign language. Celtic in any language is our team. We’ve stuttered. Looked off the pace. Not today. Kyogo Furuhashi, Nicolas Kuhn and James Forrest scored, but there was something extraordinary that we were only three goal to the good.

Joe Hart was angry when Connor Smith netted Saints’ consolation goal. Substitute Stevie May heading across goal, Hart making the save and Smith netting the rebound, in which was the away team’s only effort on goal.

There was still time added on for an Idah effort to be saved. Alistair Johnston to have a goal disallowed, even though he was onside and for Iwatta to miss a sitter, heading over by two yards.

 Brendan Rodgers made two changes to the team that won against Livingston. Carter-Vickers comes in and so does Kyogo. Both improve the team. The difference was this was Kyogo of old. He could have hit four or five. He’d two goals disallowed for offside. Scored with a fabulous header with a dinked pass from Kuhn (also checked for offside). And set up the goal the effectively finished the game, with a minute gone in the second half, playing a ball across the goal for Kuhn to tap in.

We await the return of Hatate and McGregor then we’ll be back to full strength. Idah drops to the bench, because, quite simply, he looked like a Norwich reserve last weekend.

First twenty minutes, as we expected, total possession. Kuhn half-chance the only threat. Craig Levein is predictable. His sides sit in. Open and expansive isn’t going to happen. Sidibeh lands a quick long ball forward and took on Carter-Vickers. One-on-one. That’s what St Johnnstone were playing for. But there was only one winner. We were far enough ahead after seventy minutes to rest the American. Odin Holm coming on for him.

But it was the new-old boy, James Forrest that made the difference. O’Riley hunted down the ball in the last third. His ball across the box played in Forrest. He took his time and picked the corner of the net. He almost made it a double in the last few minutes. His shot blocked. 

O’Riley, like his midfield partners, looked back to his best. He’d a late free kick tipped onto the bar.

Kyogo earlier had also lashed a shot off the bar. He’d an early one on one saved. In retrospect he should have played in Maeda for a tap in. He chested in one and scored another both offside. His run in behind from Greg Taylor’s pass was something he did all afternoon. The difference today was his teammates found him.  

A chance missed as the ball bobbled about the box. Bernardo had a chance cleared from a first-half corner. Iwata had a shot cleared off the line. Kyogo just off target as he chips one over Mitov but also the bar.

Celtic denied what looked like a stone-wall penalty after thirty minutes. Matt O’Riley whipped in lots of corners and we looked like scoring from most of them. Carter-Vickers had a shot on goal from ten yards, which was blocked. Maeda (as usual) got to it and whipped in the rebound. As expected, lots of players were on the goal-line and in the six-yard box. Kucheriavyi kept the ball out of the next with his hand. I don’t care if it’s natural of unnatural. If his hand isn’t there, it’s a goal. If his hand is there, it’s a penalty. No penalty.

Great to see Kyogo hitting top gear again. Maeda did what he does every week. Kuhn got man of the match. I’d written him off as a dud. I wanted to be wrong. Maybe Lagerbielke will also prove me wrong. The international break gives us breathing space to get our top men fit for Livingston and then Ibrox. If we can win those games—and I’m sure we can—then we should win the league. Today was high-tempo football was some great cameos. It was like old times. Disappointing to lose that goal and not score more. For those of us that remember Helicopter Sunday, we know goals for and against can decide who wins the league. We always need a wee bit of luck.  

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Aberdeen 1—1 Celtic

A draw is a disaster. Defeat is catastrophic. We don’t need any reminding of that. We live it. Substitute Nicolas Kuhn’s second-half equaliser, after coming off Nicky Devlin, was fortuitous. Results like this are music to the ears of Rangers fans. Managerless Aberdeen hasn’t beaten Celtic in eight years. It’s been over three years since they managed a draw like today’s disaster, which could easily have been a catastrophe.  

A VAR check even before the game started. When the game got underway, a passback to the Aberdeen keeper, and the ball hoisted up in the air towards the left. We’ve watched enough matches to know how this works. Try and get free kicks and corners around the box. Devlin can take a long throw and hit the big men coming up from the back.

Taylor is tiny and he hasn’t been great this season, while still comfortably holding onto the left-back slot. Alexandro Bernarbei is so small his name is bigger than him. Taylor’s injury has opened the way for the young Argentinian to play his way into the first team. And he’s fine, as he was here, when teams like Aberdeen hardly get a kick of the ball in the first half.

An early goal always helps. We’ve scored in the first minute of our last two matches. Palma had a goal chopped off in the first ten minutes, after an Abada shot had been palmed out by the keeper. But young Israeli should really have scored. The Honduran also clipped the bar and had two other significant chances to finish. But after his double penalty misses last week, he’s no longer scoring. And I wonder now who will take our penalties.

Liel Abada isn’t scoring either and Kyogo is going on one of those goalless runs. Norwich loanee striker, Adam Idah, coming on, made more room for Kyogo. But we go back to that debate of whether he’s better playing the number ten role, where he looked more effective today. His strike rate through the middle, of course, would suggest otherwise.

Other players need to chip in. Bernardo hit the bar in the first half, in which he dinked the ball over Roos. O’Riley had a couple of efforts. He hit the post in the second half, but on another day he would have scored. McGregor had a quiet game and barely a shot on goal.

The first half went much as many of us thought. Celtic dominated between seventy to eighty percent possession. Aberdeen, in contrat, a solitary touch in the Celtic box.

The second half went much as Aberdeen supporters could only have dreamed. Celtic were linked with Bojan Miovski. Chris Sutton came out with the usual cliché’s of a thankless task in the first-half as Mivoski had few touches and no chances. When his chance did come, Sutton predicted his track record suggests he would take it.

 Maik Nawrocki, like many of the other Celtic players, strolled the first half. He played in Kyogo with a beautiful ball over the top which nearly created a goal. He was also booked for a needless foul on Miovski and probably should have been sent off for another mistimed tackle near the touchline on the same player in the second-half. No great surprise he was substituted.

Cameron Carter-Vickers was missing today. And we missed him. Nawrocki isn’t as good on the ball, which is so important when building from the back when teams sit in (as every team in the Scottish League does). More importantly, I doubt whether Miovski would have scored today had the American been on the field.

Aberdeen pressed higher at the start of the second-half. Celtic lost composure and fifty-fifty battles. The Dons were dominating. Dante Polvara played a curled pass, and it was fifty-fifty between Nawrocki and Miovski. Carter Vickers would have got there first and he would have defended better. Miovski’s took Nawrocki into the box and his finish into the corner. This encapsulated one of the reasons we were looking to sign him. But it was only as good as Nawrocki allowed it to be. I’d have fancied Carter-Vickers in this one on one.

Celtic’s substitute did bring us back into the game. But the introduction of Tony Ralston at left back tells you all you need to know about where we are. I don’t think he’s good enough for right back. And he looked as if he’d been brought off the terracing to play left back. I do like his commitment and he’s fan, but he’s just not good enough.

Obviously, we miss Hatate. Where O’Riley is this season (well, perhaps not in the last two matches) Hatate was last season. The Japanese international is out for five to six weeks. I can’t believe I’m saying we lost the midfield battle in the second half. And we’ll certainly lose the league if this slide continues. You don’t need to be an ultra to know we had to strengthen in the Window. We’ve went back the way. Regressed.

Graham Shinnie is finished. Yet he could have hit the equaliser at the close of the match after Mivoski’s earlier finish had been called offside. Imagine if he had scored. Catastrophe. We’d be calling for the manager’s head. It saddens me greatly to say Rangers are back. And if they win the league (50/50 as we now stand) then they’ll have financial parity with Champions League cash. Over and over we are Celtic supporters and faithful forever, but we’re not mugs. Whether we win the league or lose it, I think this transfer window has shown Rodgers enough to know that he’ll be away in the summer.  

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