Celtic have closed the hole on the prime of the Scottish Premiership desk on a probably pivotal Sunday.
The Hoops demolished Kilmarnock 4-0 at Parkhead, with Johnny Kenny breaking the impasse, Kieran Tierney including a second shortly after half time, earlier than Daizen Maeda after which Arne Engels from the penalty spot added just a little gloss to the scoreline late on.
With Hearts held to a 1-1 draw by Dundee United over at Tynecastle, the Hoops go into the worldwide break now simply seven factors adrift of the leaders, additionally with a sport in hand.
For Martin O’Neill, since returning to the Parkhead dugout after twenty years away, he has loved back-to-back 4-0 Premiership wins, in addition to dumping Rangers out of the League Cup semi-finals at Hampden; the much less stated about Thursday’s Europa League conflict with Midtjylland the higher!
On this victory, for nonetheless lengthy the 73-year-old stays in caretaker cost, he realized that one Celtic participant specifically will be counted on.
Will O’Neill nonetheless be at Celtic after the break?
After Sunday’s comfy victory, O’Neill confirmed “I genuinely do not know” if he’ll nonetheless be in cost for his or her subsequent fixture, including that if the board do appoint a everlasting supervisor throughout the worldwide break that it will “be completely tremendous by me”.
When Celtic do return to motion later this month, they will journey to St Mirren earlier than dealing with Feyenoord in Rotterdam in a repeat of the 1970 European Cup Ultimate, however who will probably be in command of these matches?
Nicely, might it’s Wilfried Nancy?
He’s at present the favorite to land the job, reportedly one of many membership’s prime targets alongside Kieran McKenna, and a transfer to Glasgow might have edged just a little bit nearer this weekend, after Nancy’s Columbus Crew had been dumped out the MLS play-offs by rivals FC Cincinnati on Saturday, which means their season is now over, which might expedite any appointment, if he’s certainly who they need.
No matter who’s sat within the away dugout in Paisley in a fortnight, they certainly can not help however be impressed by the efficiency of 1 Celtic participant specifically this weekend.
Celtic star enjoys his most interesting day of the season vs Kilmarnock
The Celtic medical employees might have to paraphrase Police Chief Brody from Jaws: we will want a much bigger remedy room!
The Hoops are already with out Cameron Carter-Vickers, Alistair Johnston, Jota and Kelechi Ịheanachọ, earlier than Hampden hero Callum Osmand suffered a long-term harm in Herning on Thursday, whereas Marcelo Saracchi was then stretchered off within the first half towards Kilmarnock.
This clearly will not be ideally suited, however does after all current alternatives for others and, within the absence of Carter-Vickers, his compatriot Auston Trusty has actually impressed.
The American centre-back put in a wonderful show towards Rangers in final weekend’s semi-final victory, however was presumably much more eye-catching this Sunday, with the statistics supporting this assertion.
Trusty stats vs Kilmarnock | ||
|---|---|---|
Stats | Trusty | Match rank |
Correct passes | 98 | 1st |
Passing accuracy % | 96% | third |
Correct lengthy balls | 9 | 2nd |
Dribbles success % | 100% | 1st |
Defensive actions | 9 | fifth |
Clearances | 7 | third |
Interceptions | 1 | sixth |
Duels received | 9 | 1st |
Aerial duels received | 6 | 1st |
Touches | 117 | 1st |
SofaScore ranking | 8.4 | third |
Stats by way of SofaScore | ||
Because the desk paperwork, the centre-half put in a colossal defensive show on Sunday, ranked first for duels in addition to correct passes and touches.
Meantime, when solely Celtic gamers are thought of, no person accrued extra defensive actions, clearances or interceptions.
Glasgow World documented that he ‘continued his wealthy vein of type’, whereas noting that the 27-year-old seems to be the right man to fill a reasonably massive Carter-Vickers-shaped void on the again.
The defender, who was named man of the match, was additionally labelled “composed, dominant and aggressive”, having been “immense” since Carter-Vickers suffered a long-term achilles harm towards Sturm Graz.
As recognition of his type, Trusty has been recalled to america squad for his or her friendlies towards Paraguay in Pennsylvania after which Uruguay in Florida subsequent week.
Trusty has not performed a single minute for the USMNT since November final 12 months, however might properly change that as Mauricio Pochettino continues to experiment forward of the World Cup.
Again at membership degree, Celtic will want Trusty to stay match, accessible and in type as a result of, frankly, they have no different choices and, if a brand new supervisor is appointed within the subsequent fortnight, he has actually staked a declare to stay a key determine. This was undoubtedly his most interesting day of the marketing campaign thus far.
