As if the long journey to Kazakhstan last week wasn’t bad enough for Celtic, the trek home after their insipid Champions League exit offered more time for reflection than any of their players might have wanted.
Just as necessary as that self-reflection though was a reminder of the demands that playing for the club should place upon each of them, and there was an importance for the players to also remind one another what they owe to their teammates and to their supporters every time they pull on the jersey.
So, while it wasn’t quite a group therapy session, and it might not have resulted in much of an improvement in attacking areas in the dreadful clash against Rangers on Sunday, Anthony Ralston has revealed that some home truths had to be delivered between the players before they took on their great city rivals following the horrendous showing in Almaty. Which, at the very least, resulted in an evident willingness to graft and fight to ensure a disappointing week didn’t get much worse at Ibrox.
“Yeah,” Ralston said when asked if the squad had got together to have a reset after their European disappointment.
“That’s what we are based on so to maintain that we have to have these demands we put on each other as players, to take the ball, create chances, fight and defend your box, all those things need to come together.
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“When we get back [from the international break] we’ll get the head down and focus on that.”
While transfer deadline reinforcements should help sharpen Celtic’s blunted edge, Ralston acknowledges the players are all too aware they have to take more responsibility to affect the game in the final third, after failing to find the net in either leg of their tie against Kairat Almaty and not looking remotely like scoring a goal against Rangers.
“We demand a lot of each other and we need to demand more in terms of creating those chances,” he said.
“When we get in the final third is about having that cutting edge, that final pass and the build up being more courageous to make more things happen.
“We have an abundance of talent in the team, honest boys, and I’m sure we’ll see that.
“It’s about being positive and being brave. That’s the message. There were positives to take away from Sunday, like the grit and fight, it’s just that final pass in the final third and that’s something we’ll be looking to put together when we come back from the international break.”
As any Celtic fan will tell you, and probably most Rangers fans too, it has now been five games and a calendar year since the champions tasted victory against their bitter Glasgow rivals in 90 minutes.
The solitary triumph for Celtic during that period came on penalty kicks after last season’s pulsating League Cup Final clash ended in a 3-3 draw, a match which was as far removed from Sunday’s snoozefest as it is possible to be.
“I understand that,” he said.
“It’s self-explanatory, as a squad we want to win these games. It’s our job to go and do that. We have a lot of these fixtures throughout the season. We won’t get too far ahead but it’s about focusing on the next one. It will be our aim next time to put it right.
“We wanted to go there and win. Despite not getting that, I thought the boys fought. When you go there you need to fight, you need to show heart and defend at times.
“I thought we did that very well as a unit and as a back four defending our box.
“We wanted to create more chances as a team and ultimately get the win, but we will pick up on the positives.”
Those crumbs of comfort from Sunday’s game may have been meagre at best for Celtic, but the closing of the transfer window – provided that the necessary attacking reinforcements have arrived – should quieten some of the noise that has swirled around the club once more during this transfer window. Not that it has offered an excuse for their indifferent performances to date, according to Ralston.
“It’s our job as players to take care of the next game or the next training session,” he said.
“It’s not something I personally get caught up in. Our job is to take care of the business in hand, and on Sunday that was the game.
“We don’t look much further than that. I won’t watch too much of it personally.
“I understand it, but we are lucky to have a dressing room with lots of experience of transfer windows around big games.
“It’s not something that affects us.”
