Strachan must remedy system failure

I always have been – and remain – a supporter of Gordon Strachan as Celtic manager.

However, having been knocked out of the tournament that offered the best chance of success and trailing in the league, the head coach must act quickly to prevent a whitewash at the hands of a vastly inferior Rangers squad.

Let’s look across the city: in my opinion Rangers have only two players of exceptional quality in Carlos Cuellar and Barry Ferguson. On the form Cuellar has shown this season, he would brush aside any of Celtic’s centre-backs, given that the best central defender at the club, Darren O’Dea, is considered too young to be picked ahead of more established players.

Ferguson is a talented footballer playing some of his best football. Celtic, however, have an abundance of talent in the midfield area yet are looking fragile in that zone in which the game is controlled.

Strachan is entitled to pursue his favoured approach – and it has been extremely successful for Celtic up to this point – but sometimes it is better to do something different than to persevere for fear of being accused of being wrong.

Comparing Celtic with Rangers, two things scream out – a Rangers system that based purely on positioning, tackling, smothering the game and looking for breaks against Celtic’s attempt to play more technically pleasing, passing football; and Rangers’ relative selection continuity largely due to a glaring lack of talent among the fringe players.

However, Strachan insists not just on pursuing a 4-4-2 formation or, perhaps more accurately, 4-2-2-2 as the tactical genius John Barnes advocated, but also on continually tinkering with the central midfield area.

In doing so, he has refused to allow the players to find the time to gel together. On one hand it can be very good to show players that they must perform well every time if they want to be picked. On the other, many managers accept that sometimes you have to give certain players time in the knowledge that they will hit top form after six-to-eight games.

The various combinations of Donati-Brown- Hartley-Sno-Robson have functioned erratically throughout the season. For my money, Strachan should pick Hartley (arguably the most complete footballer in Scotland) to partner Brown and keep faith with them.

Regardless of his small vocal band of critics Brown is a gifted player who gives constant movement, strength, aggression, energy and sharp attacking instincts. Hartley offers the control that Donati was signed to deliver but in recent months has grown in stature as a Celtic player and Scotland international with a mature reading of the game complemented by excellent passing and positioning. One little-mentioned statistic showed that Hartley had a pass completion rate of 96% when he was substituted in the Camp Nou.

In my opinion, a manager either settles on a midfield pairing or reverts to one central playmaker – and Hartley, sometimes reminiscent of Paul McStay, is one player with the full range of attributes needed for that role.

Of course, Strachan could always do something radically different. It would be too much to hope that he might go crazy and play a 4-3-3 formation against Gretna. He also certainly has the players to adopt the 3-5-2 system that worked so well for Martin O’Neill for so long, using Hartley and Donati or Sno as holding midfielders. Allowing Brown to focus on attack while McGeady and Nakamura, or preferably Robson, take the offensive wide roles.

One thing is for sure – a squad with a huge amount of talent has been performing well short of its potential in recent weeks with confidence waning on the field and off. It is also clear that despite unfair criticism of Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and unrealistic expectations of Georgios Samaras, the understandable shading in Scott McDonald’s form has left Celtic looking goal-shy.

There is room for worry that the approaching match with Rangers will be like watching Alex Higgins play Cliff Thorburn at snooker. Higgins did his best to entertain and was either brilliant or awful. Thorburn played the most soul-destroying form of anti-snooker – but he often won.