Our traditional bogey fixture. Adam Montgomery was 3 when we last won away to Livingston in the league. From the press conference we might expect McCarthy to start and Giakoumakis to make the bench.
We will have Abada back too so possibly
Hart
Ralston CCV Starfelt Juranovic
McCarthy
Rogic Turnbull
Abada Ajeti Jota
With Montgomery and Giakoumakis at least giving us attacking options on the bench today.
Bolingoli out of nowhere! Welsh back too. Starfelt must be injured. McCarthy starting too as predicted. Mikey on the bench. No Giakoumakis yet.
FFS sake.
Welsh wasn’t great there.
That’s not great at all.
Started well. Abada messed up a pull back when we had a great chance. Their goal came out of nothing really. As usual we left our centre backs exposed 1v1 and Welsh was outplayed by Shinnie.
Been more even since then. Big save from Hart a few minutes ago.
Generally under Ange we’ve been poor away from home, worse in the second half than first half and a bit pedestrian when we’re behind and chasing the game. We need to reverse all those trends in this half.
Welsh has been poor today. Poor for for the goal and a terrible header across his own goal later that the didn’t take.
Don’t think anyone has done particularly well. Rogic has looked dangerous and McCarthy has been tidy but we’re generally average. Need Turnbull and the wingers to contribute more to create chances after the break.
Bad.
Brutal stuff
Really bad. Created very little. Passing was crap throughout.
In all feckin fairness Livingstone
There’s something wrong when you’re chasing a game and two of your three subs are Bitton and Soro. The squad is weak but Ange doesn’t seem to be able to get our energy going again when it drops.
Shitty plastic pitch but that’s terrible. Can’t afford any more dropped points until we meet them.
No match for rangers this season
The blessing was Der Hun dropped points too.
Not for long they’re good and they’re lucky 
Just on yesterday, don’t like being too harsh on individual players as shitty plastic pitch and overall poor performance but McCarthy was really, really bad.
Welsh was at fault for the goal and Bolingoli didn’t really show much in a rare chance.
We’re badly lacking in midfield and need to have a few reinforcements lined up for January.
Hart made two good saves and so was probably our best player.
Juranovic was ineffective.
CCV had some wild passe
Welsh defended badly a couple of times
Bolingoli looked lost in the inverted role
McCarthy’s passing was poor
Rogic I thought was ok
Turnbull was wasteful. We needed him in the box later but because the rest of our team wasn’t clicking he was playing too wide and deep
Abada didn’t turn up
Jota was more involved but nothing really worked for him
Ajeti fashioned one chance well for himself and was probably very frustrated by service but he was too peripheral
Bitton was an idiot again for the time he was on the pitch. Usual stupid frees from hands on the back.
Celtic’s midfield is too porous without McGregor – and there is no effective Plan B
By Kieran Devlin 5h ago
7 
More dropped points in the league, more questions hanging over Ange Postecoglou. It is now three away matches in the Scottish Premiership and three defeats, with Celtic chalking up their latest failure to win away at Livingston since they were promoted in 2018-19.
It was another poor defensive error that cost them the only goal of the game, this time from Stephen Welsh failing to properly close down the shooter Andrew Shinnie. Going forward, they inexplicably and impotently relied on laboured crosses against one of the most physically imposing sides in the Premiership, and the rawness of their two wingers Liel Abada and Filipe Jota became apparent in the poor decision-making and execution of their final balls. It was a reminder that these players are not at the consistent level of a Moi Elyounoussi or Scott Sinclair yet, and will have off days.
It was a strange and ineffectual game plan from Postecoglou but perhaps the biggest concern was central midfield. Celtic appeared timid in the middle of the park. Every time Livingston broke through Celtic’s initial high press, they were virtually unencumbered by Celtic midfielders, who were either positionally absent or too apprehensive in challenging them.
David Turnbull had improved during Celtic’s impressive August, but his form has fallen away in recent weeks, especially off the ball. Although Welsh’s failure to close down Shinnie’s shot was most directly responsible for the goal, Turnbull had let his man past him far too easily in the build-up. Although Tom Rogic has many qualities and can press well at times, defensive output is not near the top of the list.
He did not start against Livingston but Ismaila Soro has also laboured in his performances so far this season. His haphazard display against Real Betis, exacerbated by his booking after only nine minutes, suggested he might not have the positional awareness to succeed as a Postecoglou No 6, even as a back-up.
Soro’s pedigree as a good passer and dribbler suggests he might be better suited as a No 8 in this side. But Postecoglou has four key characteristics for this role — creativity, a goal threat, aggressive pressing, and the speed of thought and technique for one-touch combination play. The 23-year-old arguably does not fulfil enough of those criteria either.
Dressing room sources have spoken of how James McCarthy has struggled in training with the pace and intensity of Postecoglou’s sessions and the demands of his midfielders. The Athletic understands neither Postecoglou nor the scouting department had meaningful input into signing McCarthy, and the Republic of Ireland international looked uncomfortable during the Livingston game. He often needed to take two or three touches and misplaced many of his passes, sometimes from close range while under no pressure. It was an incredibly awkward first start.
McCarthy might come good with time and better fitness, but he does not yet come close to emulating Callum McGregor’s influence. This midfield is a shadow of itself without the captain.
McGregor has enjoyed a renaissance since Postecoglou shifted him to the deepest of the midfield three, which coincided with Celtic playing their best football under the 56-year-old. His movement off the ball is tremendous, constantly opening up new passing angles for the back line and goalkeeper Joe Hart. His passing from deep is similarly excellent. Whether it is long, short or one-touch, it is one of Celtic’s main ways to accelerate their attack. The onus is on the club to create an effective contingency plan for when McGregor is absent — due to injury on this occasion — and they do not yet have one.
“It’s inconceivable that they’re going to play every game,” Postecoglou said last month. “Callum McGregor probably thinks he can – and he probably could. But we have to be careful. Especially playing the football we do, we need bodies.” Since then, they also lost Ryan Christie, who left for Bournemouth for around £2.5 million on transfer deadline day, without bringing in another midfielder.
Scott Brown’s exit was for the best for all parties and there was a feeling of inevitability to Olivier Ntcham (Swansea) and Christie’s departures too, with just one year left on their deals. The issue is not necessarily with them leaving — though the manner of Ntcham’s, a mutual termination, was strange — but with Celtic failing to fill the void.
Ntcham and Christie divided fans by the end of their Celtic careers but their fundamental ability as footballers was very good, and their skill sets align with what Postecoglou wants from his two No 8s, as listed above. Christie specifically had started brilliantly under Postecoglou, personifying his high-octane style. His combination of aggression, energy and technical quality was sorely missing from Celtic’s midfield on Sunday.
Given Turnbull’s difficult form, having another viable option at No 8 would allow him time out of the spotlight if nothing else. Even if Turnbull and Rogic were both in scintillating form, having depth to provide injury cover would be essential.
In principle, a Postecoglou three-man midfield with a deep-lying playmaker such as McGregor can be offensively dangerous and defensively sound if the two central players further forward can press and track back, and display technical and creative qualities. But without McGregor, and with Rogic and Turnbull further forward, they struggle to fulfil either defensive solidity or attacking verve, never mind fulfilling both at once.
Until January, when they can sign a midfielder (or two) with the right qualities to succeed in Postecoglou’s system, Celtic’s manager will have to come up with a solution to address this porous midfield if they are to maintain any hope of a title challenge this season.
That’s not a bad article (except his dressing room sources are usually bullshit).
McGregor is vital. McCarthy should be capable of being a smaller drop off though. He’s not a bad player - though he had a poor game.
One other thing that concerns me is the profile of our attackers. I think Ange like players who can play across the three in this system. Otherwise the striker gets isolated in the box. But only Kyogo really seems capable of that and he definitely seems best when playing centrally. Abada and Jota are really outside players. Abada has done well to get on the end of some crosses this season but we can’t really expect him to be a presence in the box all the time with his build and the type of player he is. We miss the likes of Christie and Elyounoussi who can play wide but compete a bit around the box.
It’s not all bad news though. It’s a very different system and a lot of new players so it will take time to make an impact. But we seem to create most of our chances through sheer tempo (and Kyogo’s movement) and our general passing and movement isn’t really good enough yet.
Yeah, I’d agree.
We’re 4 points behind already though and simply cannot afford anymore slip ups so we have to get the results over the next couple of months.
