Celtic Fan View: A great win but we need to talk about the goalkeeper problem

Celtic Park was treated to an yet another exhibition on Saturday. Brendan Rodgers’ pre-match rhetoric was centred around winning and doing so in a morale-boosting manner in order to take serious momentum into the crunch Champions League game against Manchester City on Wednesday. The players responded emphatically with a 6-1 victory over Kilmarnock and if truth be told, the away side were lucky to leave Glasgow’s east end having only conceded six.

The match stats reflected how one-sided this affair was: 68% possession, 23 shots for and four against which was much like last week, only this time the stat that mattered most showed the result was more just than it was in the Highlands. Once again, there was a tremendous fluency about Celtic, great movement and pace along with a relentless intensity. Fans haven’t seen this level of football for a number of years but they’re truly embracing it.

The protagonists were the ‘correct’ ones ahead of the visit of Pep Guardiola and co. Moussa Dembele carried on his fine form with two more goals while James Forrest and Tom Rogic were also on the scoresheet. Leigh Griffiths made his comeback and inevitably found the back of the net and Scott Sinclair made history by becoming the club’s first ever player to score in six consecutive league games- breaking Jimmy McGrory’s record from the 1934/35 season.

It was an almost perfect afternoon. Almost. The only blotch was failing to keep a clean sheet because of another goalkeeping mistake. As I pointed out in my post at the start of the week, despite the flair in attack, Rodgers may have some cause for concern regarding his goalkeepers. Gary Neville once said on Sky Sports that if a player makes a fatal error once then it can be forgiven, if they make it twice, it’s cause for concern but if they make it a third time then there’s definitely a problem. And Celtic do have a genuine issue between the sticks.

Dorus de Vries, signed by Rodgers and handpicked to be number one immediately, has now made errors in three consecutive matches that have led to goals. The latest blunder was being beaten from 40 yards by a shot that he should have kept out and it follows the attempts by Neymar and Billy King that were pushed into the net as opposed to around the post.

Three strikes generally means you’re out so it will be interesting to see how Rodgers handles this. Many believed he already had when de Vries was subbed at half-time, they thought it was a tactical decision, but the Northern Irishman later confirmed that the Dutchman had picked up a slight injury while adding that he didn’t blame the veteran for the goal.

De Vries looks extremely nervous and it’s worth pondering whether Rodgers did the right thing by handing him a starting spot as soon as he arrived at Parkhead. Perhaps it would have been more beneficial to make him compete with Gordon by giving him a run in the league cup to allow him to build some confidence. Instead, all of his confidence looks shot and, now, Gordon is waiting in the wings. The Scotland international has been culpable for goals conceded this term too and was lucky not to be sent off in midweek after committing a reckless foul on Alloa’s Greig Spence outside the box. But, at present, he looks to be the more safer of the two hence why he should start against City and, indeed, for the foreseeable future.

The bigger picture may be to upgrade on both players in the January transfer window should this continue but for now, Rodgers has to make the correct call rather than being stubborn. It’s clear the manager prefers de Vries but there’s no logic in keeping faith with him at the moment.

The ex Nottingham Forest shot-stopper was given the number one jersey because of his ability to play out from the back but we haven’t seen anything spectacular from him to suggest that this alone merits his inclusion in the starting XI. It’s great that Rodgers has this vision of his goalkeeper being comfortable with the ball at his feet and pinging passes out to the full-backs or wingers like Marc Andre ter-Stegen which is something that will hopefully be perfected in the coming seasons.

However, in the here and now, it’s not something that’s going to work for a couple of reasons. Firstly, domestic teams rarely press Celtic ferociously high up the pitch, rather, they choose to sit in and demand that the Bhoys break them down so there’s barely any pressure on the Hoops goalies to receive the ball in tight circumstances as the spare man and play a telling pass that will ‘beat the press’. Instead, a two-yard pass to the nearest defender who has plenty of room is almost always how a move will start from the back.

Secondly, the desire to have a competent ‘sweeper keeper’ is also dependent on having a defence that’s willing to take the ball under pressure and rest assured, Celtic’s Champions League group stage rivals all like to apply pressure at the top end of the pitch. But, none of Celtic’s defenders are skilled or comfortable enough to calmly take the ball from their goalkeeper while being pressed. We seen that at the Camp Nou, the distribution was poor especially from the back with most balls going long to Dembele. That’s not something that will be solved during this Euro campaign.

The goalie knocking the ball long may as well be Craig Gordon, then. The better of the two.

Celtic goalkeepers have a habit of shining on the European stage whether it be David Marshall, Artur Boruc or Fraser Forster. Between de Vries and Gordon, there’s too much uncertainty. For now, the team just needs a keeper who can do the basics effectively.