Only ONE Celtic player even hit the basic requirement of pass marks in the crushing 3-0 defeat to Rangers at Ibrox on Thursday according to Chris Sutton.
The motormouth pundit watched in dismay as his old team was given a thumping that could have been even worse were it not for missed chances and the woodwork.
Celtic's attacking players only managed a single shot on target during a disconnected display and while Sutton feels only one man showed up, he's not ready to give up the ghost quite yet.
His own Hoops team had a similar result when coasting to the title at the turn of the century. A 5-1 defeat was painful at the time but was the catalyst for an eventual treble win - something that Celtic can yet achieve.
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He told the Daily Record: "It was a bad day – a really bad day. I don’t think a single Celtic player got pass marks apart from perhaps Cameron Carter-Vickers. Players who have excelled in this fixture had total stinkers. They were flat, slow on the ball, ponderous in possession and I don’t think I’ve seen a Rodgers side give the ball away quite so much. It was incredible. The Celtic midfield didn’t react well to being put under pressure and it forced them to fluff their passes. But even when they were not under pressure, there were times when they failed to hit a man or even passed the ball right out of the pitch. It was hard to believe what we were seeing. I don’t care what anyone says, no one saw this coming.
"There will be some who say that’s two games in a row where Philippe Clement had Celtic’s number. I wouldn’t be so sure. Rangers did well in the first half of the League Cup Final at Hampden and very well for 90 plus minutes the other day. But it’s taken Clement seven attempts to get a win against Rodgers and Celtic so I wouldn’t say he’s cracked the code just yet. Even if he has, the Belgian needs to figure out how to get his team to win away from home against the rest of the Premiership, otherwise the talk over his future will crank up again.
"In the meantime he can enjoy a win and Celtic need to lick their wounds. Look, I’ve been there. Our Celtic team got battered 5-1 at Ibrox remember? What happened that year again? Oh yes, we went on to win the Treble. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the outcome again this time. Having been involved in a fair few of these games, results like the other day can happen."
