As Celtic gears up for a critical league showdown against Rangers on Sunday, Sportscene pundit Michael Stewart has pinpointed the need for improved attacking efficiency as key to securing victory.
Despite a comfortable 3-0 win against Livingston, Celtic nearly went the full first half without registering an attempt on target, with their first shot on target coming after 45 minutes through Kyogo.
Stewart, however, sees a silver lining in the return of crucial players Cameron Carter-Vickers and Reo Hatate, who have both recently made their return from injury.
Carter-Vickers’ presence offers stability and confidence to the defence, while Hatate’s reintegration into the midfield has been seamless, despite a lengthy injury layoff.
The challenge for Brendan Rodgers and his squad will be to refine their approach in the final third. Stewart points out that while Celtic managed to create promising situations against Livingston, especially from wide areas, the lack of precision in the final delivery was evident.
“It is a huge game,” Stewart said to the BBC.
“The positive for Celtic going into it is the fact they’ve had two of their main players coming back in and doing well.
“[Cameron] Carter-Vickers is such a calming influence at the back. And [Reo] Hatate comes in, he’s been out for such a long period of time, yet he’s come back in and been a really good performer in the centre of the park [against Livingston].
“It’s real positives that their big players are coming back.
“Their one concern would be that against Livingston they got into some really good areas out wide but the final ball wasn’t there.
“They’re going to have to be more clinical in those areas against Rangers. If they get into those positions they’re going to have to be more clinical than that.”
My main worry would be not getting into those area livingston packing the area was noticed it even helped with first goal plus we were playing on straw great result no injuries bonus in a really dominant performance that’s three good footballing performance one better tan the other going through the gears and more to chose from any team attacks and gives us the freedom in forward areas which we never have in spl games the one worry is officails