A seagull swooped down from above the Sandy Jardine stand at Ibrox about an hour after the conclusion of a slugfest in the bearpit, which was almost offensively poor.
More entertainment was provided by the players than it had been for the 90 minutes before when a piece of bread was flipped in the air and shoved down its beak in a millisecond. It was the only graceful thing we saw all day, a rare example of accuracy in the wake of one of the worst Old Firm games ever to come to a 0-0 draw.
Russell Martin did a phenomenal job as manager of the Rangers, which is not often what you could say.
He cited his team’s fight, aggression, desire, spirit, and togetherness as examples of the strengths of their performance. You couldn’t disagree with anything. The beleaguered Rangers manager saw something different from his team’s organization, resilience, and a clean sheet despite playing a game that caused the eyes to bleed.
It’s the worst Rangers start to a league season since 1983, thanks to another draw, but they’ve spent so much time underground that this must have felt better than what was happening before.
The predictions made for a pitch explosion and a visceral uprising in the stands were falsified. The majority of it was a few irrational boos.
This was a welcome relief for a defense that had given up numerous opportunities in domestic football with slapstick moments and conceded six in Europe during the week.
Better for Rodgers or Martin to make?
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Is it still up to Martin to make it last? Despite extending Celtic’s run of clean sheets to four in the league, Martin was better off for it than Brendan Rodgers because of their respective difficulties.
This was Rodgers’ least successful effort of all, despite having won five Old Firm games in his last five attempts. Afterward, he lamented the lack of creativity and said it himself, saying that this was “not the way Celtic play.” He then lamented the standard of his team’s attacking game.
It is, after all, now. It was amazing how inept Celtic was at producing so much. They passed almost twice as often as they did in the first 45 minutes. Nothing was missing out on the middle and out wide. If such things float your boat, they had no shot on goal, no corner, and an xG-expected goal in the first half. That is quite a feat.
For the first time this season, a domestic team didn’t score against Rangers in the opening half. Motherwell had two goals in the league, followed by Dundee three, and St Mirren eight.
Rodgers needs to do a lot of things to help his squad, which includes a myriad of players who aren’t good enough, while also recruiting freshmen. And it’s not long before he starts.
When Celtic enters the transfer market, things move at a glacial pace, but nothing will change if this powder-puff performance, or, to put it another way, ignites a fire under the hierarchy’s (major shareholder, Dermot Desmond), in other words.
After an hour and a corner, Celtic made their first start on target. The scorching fire and brimstone were used by Ragers, with Bojan Miovski offering a lot of edge on his debut, and Connor Barron, Mo Diomande, and Mikey Moore leading, but Celtic were so unimpressed with it.
A frontline of Benjamin Nygren (not a winger), Maeda (not a natural centre-forward and badly out of sorts), and Michel-Ange Balikwisha (not in the city a wet week) was poor for a club that has seen the likes of Kyogo Furuhashi, Jota, Liel Abada, Liel Abada, Liel Abada, Liel Abada, Liel Abada
Celtic is “as threatening as a popgun.”
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Celtic have been linked with a number of forwards and wingers, and the £9 million striker Adam Idah is about to move. Before the transfer window closes in Scotland on Monday at 23:00 BST, new players will be signed, but fans are concerned about the signings’ caliber.
Celtic compared Arne Engels, who was ineffective at Ibrox, Idah, who they are now interested in offloading, and Auston Trusty, who Celtic says is not fit to play in the team despite being fit, which he isn’t.
When it came to finding and polishing rough diamonds, the Parkhead club once had a little Midas Touch. They have since abandoned that touch.
Celtic folk will be praying that Kasper Dolberg, the Danish international they adore, is the one who will solve their problems through the middle, and that Sebastian Tounekti, the target of the conflict, is the solution on one side.
If they want to make the Europa League a success, where success looks like a run to the end, they need even more. They are currently just as threatening as a popgun. Rodriguez compared how “creativity has come out of the team” to the players who did such a good job of connecting his side and how he has lost them.
In their futile attempts to score a goal against the minnows of Kairat Almaty, it was blatantly obvious, and it was once again demonstrated at Ibrox when they toiled against a Rangers defense that, up until this point, had kittens every time an attacker approached.
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