NafisaNeil McCann’s bizarre Celtic claim after 5-1 Kilmarnock humiliation leaves one question: What game was he watching?
Neil McCann has accepted full responsibility for Kilmarnock’s humiliating 5-1 defeat to Celtic at Rugby Park.
On that point, at least, there is little to argue with.
Unfortunately for the Kilmarnock manager, much of what followed sounded less like an honest assessment of a heavy defeat and more like an attempt to put a flattering spin on what was an emphatic Celtic victory.
The scoreline tells the story.
Celtic scored five times at Rugby Park, with Kasper Høgh opening the scoring after just two minutes before completing his hat-trick in a devastating first-half display.
And had Celtic been more clinical, the damage could have been even greater.
McCann himself admitted as much afterwards.
“We’ve conceded five goals today and it could have been a few more,” he told The Herald.
Quite.
But then came the part of McCann’s assessment that left plenty of people scratching their heads.
Despite Kilmarnock being comfortably beaten, the manager claimed his side were actually the better team during the opening stages.
“It sounds daft now that I’m sitting on the back of a hiding,” he said. “I have to say I felt for the first part of the game we were the better side.”
Sounds daft?
It certainly does.
What game was Neil McCann watching?
There is nothing wrong with acknowledging that Kilmarnock had positive moments.
They did.
The home side tried to attack, created opportunities and showed enough going forward to suggest that this could have been a more competitive contest.
But claiming Kilmarnock were somehow the better team for a significant spell of the game is difficult to reconcile with what actually unfolded at Rugby Park.
Celtic were two goals ahead before the half-hour mark and had already established a clear superiority in the final third.
Høgh then completed his hat-trick before half-time, leaving Kilmarnock facing an almost impossible task after just 45 minutes.
Celtic were not hanging on.
They were not being overwhelmed.
And they certainly weren’t relying on counter-attacks to survive.
Yet McCann’s next comment was perhaps even more difficult to understand.
“Celtic playing on the counter-attack are always going to be dangerous because of how we’re playing,” he said.
Counter-attack?
What game was he watching?
Celtic were not sitting deep and desperately waiting for Kilmarnock to make a mistake before breaking forward.
Both teams were attempting to play football and attack.
The crucial difference was the quality available to Celtic.
Once Brendan Rodgers’ side found their rhythm, Kilmarnock simply could not cope.
The gulf became increasingly obvious as the game progressed, and the eventual 5-1 scoreline was a fair reflection of that difference.
Celtic exposed McCann’s tactical gamble
Perhaps the biggest issue for McCann was that he deliberately instructed his team to play an “open and expansive” style against the Scottish champions.
There is nothing inherently wrong with being ambitious.
But against a Celtic side packed with attacking quality, that approach carries obvious risks.
And those risks were brutally exposed.
Kilmarnock repeatedly left space for Celtic to exploit, while Max Stryjek was forced into action on several occasions to prevent the scoreline from becoming even more embarrassing.
Five goals conceded is difficult enough to explain.
Nine conceded across Kilmarnock’s opening two league matches is considerably more worrying.
That is the statistic McCann needs to address.
Not whether his team had a decent opening spell.
Not whether Celtic were dangerous on the counter.
And certainly not whether the referee’s interpretation of the suspension rules was fair.
McCann’s SPFL complaint misses the bigger problem
McCann also directed his frustration towards Robbie Deas’ suspension, describing the SPFL rule surrounding his absence as a “disgrace” and a “joke”.
He is perfectly entitled to challenge the rule.
But even if everyone agreed with him, it would not explain Celtic scoring five goals.
Deas’ absence did not force Kilmarnock to concede five times.
It did not make Høgh score a hat-trick.
And it certainly did not explain the enormous difference in attacking quality between the two teams.
Celtic did not win because Kilmarnock were simply unlucky.
They won because they were the better side.
Much better.
Responsibility means confronting the reality
There is credit due to McCann for accepting responsibility for the defeat.
Managers cannot always hide behind their players, referees or circumstances, and taking ownership is normally the first step towards fixing a problem.
But accepting responsibility also means being brutally honest about what went wrong.
Kilmarnock were not unfortunate to lose 5-1.
They were not victims of an unfair tactical outcome.
And this was not a case of Celtic somehow sneaking a result after Kilmarnock dominated for long periods.
The champions were ruthless, dangerous and clinical when it mattered.
McCann’s team were simply unable to live with them.
Football matches last 90 minutes, and Celtic made sure the entire match mattered.
That is ultimately what McCann must take from this.
He can debate the suspension rules.
He can point towards Kilmarnock’s positive moments.
He can argue that his side were the better team during the opening stages.
But none of that changes the reality staring back at him from the scoreboard.
Celtic 5, Kilmarnock 1.
And with nine goals already conceded in two league matches, McCann has a much bigger problem to solve than finding a more flattering explanation for what happened at Rugby Park.
Nafisa
