Five things that stood out from Celtic’s win over Dundee

Here’s what I saw live at Celtic Park

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I was at Celtic Park last night to watch Celtic beat Dundee 1-0 on flag day. While the result will grab the headlines, there were several things that stood out to me live.

Here are my biggest observations from the match.

1. Kasper Høgh

Not the debut the Danish striker would have wanted after his £11 million pound switch. The former Bodo/Glimt forward was bigger than I thought in person, he had an almost Chris Sutton like presence I felt. That being said, his team mates looked like they didn’t know how to use him in the match. Sinisalo would constantly go long for the Celtic no 9 and he didn’t seem to win too many of the challenges, nor did his team mates run off him effectively either. It’s early days of course, but I think we will get more joy from him on the deck in behind than we will from him coming deep and being involved in the build up. He showed flashes and some nice touches but he had a few chances he would have hoped to have taken on his debut. Here’s hoping he can get off the mark asap to help him settle in and own his position in the team ahead of the big qualifier that’s coming up.

2. Camilo Duran

Duran was pretty non existent the first half with most the good play going down the left hand side through Tierney and Yang. That being said , O’Neill admitted he’s having to play the Columbian out of position and stressed his intention was to play Høgh and Duran together as a partnership. He did show some nice turns and movements in the second half that created a few moments for the team. Hopefully we’ll see more from him once the two strikers have settled in and are paired upfront.

3. Engles and AJ

Both players looked nervous as if they were on the verge of moves that haven’t been completed yet. Particularly Engels, who looked like he was in the wrong movie at times. We know what the Belgian is capable of but he and Johnston would misplace basic passes that they would normally make no problem. O’Neill said he wanted to keep both players for the CL qualifier but AJ’s tearful lap of honour made it look like theres a chance it could be his last match for the club. Hopefully both are around for the LASK fixtures unless replacements are about to arrive.

4. A team caught between styles

Celtic could have won the game more comfortably but overall the performance didn’t fill me with confidence. I understand it’s the first game of the season but there was

• A lack of tempo

• No cohesion or clear style

• Some players looked like they didn’t know what they were being asked to do

• No improvement in set pieces (it’s early days)

It’s almost as if they are still caught between the managers and the coaching staff’s differing styles of play. They would go long from goal kicks a lot more than we’ve been used to seeing from this team, which is fine if they know how to play off the main focal point but that didn’t seem to be the case. It looked like more of the same from last season where Celtic know how to get over the line but don’t do it with any style or conviction. Hopefully this improves moving forward with a few new quality additions.

5. We got the result and move forward

The key thing is to get the result when we aren’t playing how we are wanting to play. That’s a key attribute of O’Neills teams and it happened again last night. Tierney put in a great cross for the winning goal and once again Nygren took it well. The Swede picked up where he left off by popping up with the winning goal. He’s vital to the success of this team right now with his match winning contributions. We need to keep building match fitness towards the huge playoff qualifier against LASK. We take the result and move on.

Final thoughts

Last night was another reminder that this squad still has a long way to go. Dundee deserve credit for making things difficult but there’s lots for this team to work on moving forward.

All views expressed on Celtic DNA are personal opinions and are for commentary and discussion purposes only

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