A proven striker scores a barrowload in this Celtic side

Brendan Rodgers had the luxury of leaving out Kasper Schmeichel, Cameron Carter Vickers, Liam Scales, Reo Hatate, Benjamin Nygren and Adam Idah but still seen his side cruise to victory thanks to goals from Daizen Maeda, Alistair Johnston, Dane Murray and an OG from Falkirk’s Liam Henderson after fine work from Yang.

Celtic’s tempo, pace, and rhythm on the night was absolutely fantastic, with the likes of Kieran Tierney, Daizen Maeda, Alistair Johnston, and Arne Engels all shining as we cruised into the quarter finals.

For all those who are quick to jump onto social media to criticise the 21 year-old Belgium international midfielder, they have been slow in dishing out praise when it is justified to do so. These agendas that exist, whether for Engels, Adam Idah or Liam Scales are unhelpful to the Celtic cause.

Johnny Kenny started in place of Adam Idah, but like his fellow Irishman he failed to convert any chances although he did put in a great shift to be fair, but yet again we looked toothless in the final third in terms of converting chances.

James Forrest and Arne Engels missed two gilt edge chances that a seasoned striker would have buried with their eyes shut. Although in fairness to both players they are not out and out target men, and both were fantastic on the night as they created numerous chances for their teammates.

Engels in particular had a fine game and his final ball was sublime all night. The Belgian’s assist from the corner kick which allowed Dane Murray to score the third was superb.

Deliveries from dead ball situations have been our Achilles heel in recent years, but Arne has made that all the better, we just need someone who can consistently put away all those opportunities he creates.

Much has been made of our lack of depth, and yes we do need a few new additions, but a quality striker has got to be our top priority, as in this Celtic side the right man scores a barrowload with the likes of Arne, Daizen, KT, Jamesy and Reo providing the creativity. Let’s hope we see some movement on the transfer front in the coming weeks to rectify that issue ad through in a back-up left-back and a couple of decent wingers and we’ll be flying this season.

This has not been an enjoyable transfer window for anyone at Celtic, it’s fair to say it’s left everyone frustrated and no-one more so than Brendan Rodgers. It will be a relief when it closes and hopefully by then Brendan is given what he clearly needs in terms of new signings and we can look forward to the Champions League, assuming we take care of Kairat Almaty. Like I said the other day we can have no excuses if the current Celtic squad fails to win this tie. We’d simply not deserve Champions League football.