'Gutless' Celtic making heavy weather of title defence
Celtic suffered their eighth defeat of the season at Tannadice on Sunday and dropped to third in the table, five points off leaders Hearts. Injuries, fan unrest and managerial changes have all played their part in what has been a chaotic campaign for the reigning champions, who are in serious danger of losing their grasp on the title. You'd have to go all the way back to the 1999-2000 season to find a season in which Celtic lost more games (nine).
Now, with seven matches of the title race to go, Martin O'Neill's side can ill afford to drop further points. "I think you've kind of reached a point with Celtic now where almost regardless of the team selection you expect a really tough game for them," said Stephen McGowan, football writer with The Herald, on the BBC's Scottish Football Podcast . "Irrespective of who plays and irrespective of the [Tannadice] pitch, and there was much discussion about that as well, they are really struggling and making heavy weather out of their league campaign.
"I think it's one of these seasons where for Celtic it's almost a case of what's not going wrong? Form, injuries, poor recruitment, managerial issues - you have to go back to the days of John Barnes and Kenny Dalglish to find the last time Celtic lost this many games in a league season. "They've lost more than Hearts and Rangers combined.
They've lost more than either Hibernian or Motherwell. And the goal difference is none too clever either. "Probably the most worrying aspect of it at Tannadice was the fact it really was quite a gutless performance.
There was very little in terms of physicality or mental strength. "You've seen Celtic come back and launch these kind of late gung-ho comebacks to save their bacon at times this season. There was no indication of that at all on Sunday.