We should be reasonably pleased this week as we still have five teams in Europe. Hibernian and Aberdeen have done very well with comfortable home wins and qualification into the next round.

St Johnstone and Rangers haven’t played yet, so have matches to look forward to. Celtic are still in the Europa League but an interesting outcome was also affirmed when Celtic played their second leg tie in Denmark. As I said last week, with Celtic having a new manager in Ange Postecoglou, we need to analyse the team performances in addition to the results in the initial part of his tenure.

Celtic played well in the first leg at home and were let down by the ordering off of Bitton and the poor mistake by Barkas. That stopped them winning the match although a draw wasn’t the worst of results.

Midtjylland are not a great side but have some excellent players and are well organised. Celtic still had a real chance going into the second leg and for the first part of the game they were certainly on a strong foot, creating the better chances with the midfield controlling the match. Even after Celtic took the lead from a magnificent shot by new captain Callum McGregor.

They then brought on James Forrest to replace Abada, who had been surprisingly poor on the night. Forrest had a very good chance to increase Celtic’s lead but didn’t take it when finishing is generally a very positive side of his game. Midtjylland equalised very soon afterwards. Once they were back in the game, it was quite obvious to see the lift it gave them and they went on to dominate the match.

If we look overall at the tactics employed by Postecoglou then I would say he deserves criticism but also some understanding. When Celtic went in front he should have had them shut up shop and sit deep, thus making it very hard for Midtjylland to find space in the final third of the field.

This would have meant that Celtic could have been well set up to defend their box and then be in a strong position to catch the Danes on the counter attack.

I have to say, however, that the options to do this were very limited. When you consider that the average age of the starting back four was 21 then this gives you an indication of the lack of experience in this Celtic team and indeed the squad. On the bench there was also a distinct lack of maturity, with only Forrest and Rogic having suitable high-level know-how that could have helped Celtic through this turmoil.

The biggest factor, in terms of where Celtic are and in what’s required of Postecoglou to turn things around, is in the building of a squad that can once again compete in all competitions.

In fairness to him, Celtic have now failed to qualify for the Champions League group stage for the last four years which demonstrates that this weakness is not down to his appointment.

However, during these seasons, Celtic were dominant in the domestic game and certainly had a much stronger squad than they currently have. He requires to build very quickly as when you are managing either of the Old Firm, you need to have the correct measure of skill, experience and determination in your squad.

Celtic decidedly lack this and although they have very talented young players such as Murray, Welsh, Montgomery and Abada, the great requirement right now is for top players to be signed up.

If you compare the Rangers squad at present with that of Celtic it’s markedly better and you’d be struggling to even think that there could be any competition between them this season. Rangers could currently put two strong sides together and we could still identify good players in reserve who wouldn’t make either.

Celtic on the other hand are struggling to put out a top-class team and will need to recruit a number of players as quickly as possible if this season isn’t going to be another embarrassment. Postecoglou is currently taking the blame for this but I think he needs a great deal more help from within the club from people who can help him identify and recruit the necessary talent.

AND ANOTHER THING

For those who think I’m a boring type of guy, I can admit that this was confirmed last Sunday when I watched the League Cup group match between St Mirren and Partick Thistle. I had my stopwatch on during the second half to determine how much time was apportioned when the ball was actually in play. Now, on the night there were some injuries and substitutions in the second half and so there were five minutes additional time.

In my study, the ball was in play for just more than

28 minutes of the full 50 that was allocated. This confirms that the game should be 30 or 35 minutes each half with the time only being measured when the ball is in play. I really hope that this is brought into our game in the not-too-distant future.