Luke McCowan on Wilfried Nancy’s ‘risk and reward’ system

Uncertainty continues to surround Celtic as their attacking quality once again came hand-in-hand with worrying vulnerability at the back, a recurring theme during the early weeks of Nancy’s tenure.

The Scottish champions were rocked early on as Livingston twice went in front within the first ten minutes through a brace from Cristian Montano, forcing Celtic into an immediate test to recover control of the contest.

Goals from Benjamin Nygren, Yang Hyun-Jun and a penalty converted by Arne Engels eventually swung the match in the Hoops’ favour, but not before the hosts had exposed familiar defensive faults.

McCowan made little attempt to sugar-coat the performance afterwards, acknowledging that the result masked issues that continue to undermine the side.

Rather than deflecting attention onto the comeback itself, McCowan conceded there were lessons still to be learned, accepting that Celtic’s margin for error remains uncomfortably thin despite their chance creation at the top end of the pitch.

Speaking via Daily Record, the Celtic midfielder said: “It was a game between two teams who were pretty open, if I’m being honest. That wasn’t the start of the game that we wanted. We want to try to dominate as much as we can, and we didn’t do that.”

“However, it shows the spirit of the players that we fought back. We have the quality in the team. Benji showed that throughout the game, but we have that all over the pitch. We need to believe in that more. We were just happy that we were able to start the second half on top and manage to maintain it.”

“Playing at Celtic is always a risk and reward. We play like no other team in the league. We invite teams on and play a passing game. The percentages are higher on our side than they are on other teams.”

McCowan added: “That’s the risk and reward of it. If we lose the ball in areas of the pitch, the other team can be in our final third. We know that’s the style, but it’s about being solid when we have the ball offensively and make sure teams can’t counter.”

“We aren’t really doing anything different. We just need to make sure that any ideas he [Nancy] has, the players are working so hard to get them across on the pitch. That’s the kind of message we have as players. You need to have that belief, regardless of what the score is. We’ve shown that in previous games and at previous times.”

“We need to have that belief and be calm,” McCowan continued. “Even if there is noise outside, we need to stay focused on ourselves.”

“We managed to do that and win the game by the end of the first half, almost, and then keep on top of that. “That’s what we need to keep doing.”

Conor Spence

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