Time for Brendan Rodgers to Jack-in Jozo for Celtic

Last summer on this blog the partnership between Dedryck Boyata and Jozo Šimunović was  being lauded in the way that only someone truly ill-informed could ever hope to do.

In fairness, both had shown their best qualities in the previous months and looked to have the making of a gifted and reliable pairing.

How footballers conspire to make writers look like they don't know what they are talking about (which is often true).

"It must be here somewhere... Oh, look - it's in the net!"

But if Boyata has exasperated this season,, looking every inch the “bomb-scare” defender that we saw under Ronny Deila, time is surely up for Jozo.

There were doubts about his defending under Ronny, with the player explaining that he had been carrying a knee injury that affected him psychologically. It was an unusual excuse but one that sounded plausible and most fans accepted it.

Some stellar performances last season saw the beginnings of a cult following. In fact, he was surely on the brink of having an embarrassingly bad song penned about him, to the tune of a 1990s girl-band hit.

Thankfully, for those of us who enjoy music and football, Jozo decided to head off that risk with performances that have left fans singing laments into their Bovrils.

But that's about the only thing to be thankful for.

Just a week ago, Brendan Rodgers said: “I’ve had a good chat with Jozo and reiterated to him that he will not achieve the levels I think he can get to if he’s not concentrated.

“It’s as simple as that. It doesn’t matter if it’s Partick, St Petersburg or St Johnstone – you have to be concentrated in your game.”

That seemed to be indicate that Jozo was drinking at the Last Chance Saloon, after a horrendous gaffe against Partick Thistle made a contest out of what should have been a routine tie.

But Jozo's performance against Zenit St Petersburg must surely have been the last straw. Celtic were poor in most areas against Zenit but when your central defenders are apparently so slow of thought that they give quality teams free headers in European competition, you have virtually no chance of progress.

And what's worse is the fact that Jozo doesn't learn and doesn't seem to care.

Last season, when Kolo Toure made two errors against Borussia Monchengladbach, he apologised clearly heartbroken at making mistakes which, in his own words, were to be expected of a teenager.

That was indicative of the kind of high standards Kolo set for himself in his career, making him into one of the top defenders in the game.

Jozo, on the other hand, shrugs ruefully and seems to sail on in the apparent belief that true love means accepting someone's infuriating flaws.
Well, Jozo, you might be a nice guy but no fans ever loved any player who continually ruins their ambitions.

Celtic are in an uncomfortable position with gaps in the defence caused by injuries and a lack of top-quality recruitment.

But the unavoidable fact is that, with Jozo in defence (and others who will be covered later) there can be no confidence that Celtic will win any big game.

We have Marvin Compper recovering from injury and it is to be hoped that a defender who has played successfully in the Bundesliga has mastered the fundamentals of marking, positioning and just not giving the ball to the opposition. However, it appears that he will need more time to recover.

That leaves Jack Hendry, who Brendan Rodgers is on record as saying he can turn into a top defender.

Hendry is young but hungry and is surely the man to throw in for the remaining months of the season.

He will make mistakes as all young players do but right now that is preferable to having someone who has thrown away so many opportunities for himself and for Celtic, with them.

Jozo-out – Jack-in!
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Don't beat about the bush, Brendan – Celtic have bottled it in Europe

For all the great work Brendan Rodgers has done for Celtic – and it is substantial – there remains an elephant in the room.

Many Celtic fans won't want to hear it, never mind accept it, but a key ingredient is missing from the current team – old-fashioned guts.

Following the 3-0 defeat in St Petersburg, Brendan had this to say: “Defensively, we lacked aggression in particular in the first half. We didn’t close the space quickly enough. You talk about defending forward and we didn’t do that well enough, and we conceded poor goals from that...

“At 2-0, we still have an opportunity in the game. We said at half-time that everything was too sideways and backwards and that’s about bravery and courage to play....

“Last week was an outstanding performance and we came into this game with a great opportunity to come through, but if you don’t start with that aggressive mentality, then it’s really difficult for you.”

It is not the first time that the manager has urged his players to have more “courage to play” or “courage on the ball” in Europe and while we have played teams with superior resources, we have also seen the team collapse time, after time.

Gone are the days when Celtic had one of the best home records in the Champions League (and one of the worst away).

We have now lost five Champions League matches – and drawn one – out of the last six at Celtic Park and it is clearly not a place to be feared. If Barcelona, Paris St Germain are cash-rich, the manner of the defeats against them over the last two seasons was alarming.

But the defeats at home to Borussia Monchengladbach and Anderlecht were more worrying. Both clubs had been labouring elsewhere but won in Glasgow without having to break sweat.

Our defeats in European competition have been marked by catastrophic errors and, with a few exceptions, a lack of players with the heart and belief to win.

As Roy Keane (rarely the most measured of judges) said: "You are hoping Celtic can grind out a result to make the supporters proud, but they didn't do that. They needed to show courage. With 20 minutes to go and 3-0 down everyone wanted the ball ... bluffers.”

It is worth noting that Brendan acknowledged the same weakness in his Liverpool side that capitulated when odds-on favourites to win the English Premier League, which does raise some legitimate questions as to what he can do about the situation.

“Bluffers” may be an unkind word as it suggests that the players are taking Celtic fans for a ride, which is, for the most part, unfair.

But with a match looming at Pittodrie against Aberdeen, the Scottish Premiership team most guilty of collapsing on the big occasion, some of their fans might wonder if Scotland's top division has more than one side of bottlers.--