Three talking points after Celtic’s 4-2 defeat against Aston Villa

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The Celtic Star

·30 janvier 2025

Three talking points after Celtic’s 4-2 defeat against Aston Villa

Celtic ended the initial phase of this year’s newly revamped Champions League with a defeat against Premier League side Aston Villa in a game that was enthralling from start to finish and at times could have swung either way…

Celtic fans celebrate with an Irish flag during the UEFA Champions League match between Aston Villa and Celtic at Villa Park on January 29, 2025. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

In the end you won’t find many Celtic fans who won’t agree that the home side probably deserved to claim all three points, a result which guaranteed them a top eight finish and direct access to the last 16 stage.

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End to end ‘basketball’ nature

The game itself was a fantastic contest to watch, with both teams showing attacking intent throughout. The end to end ‘basketball’ type nature of the contest probably played into the Birmingham based sides hands, and is something that both the Celtic players and the manager said they would try to avoid in the lead up to the game.

While at 2-2 in the second half you did feel like the game could go either way, it was Aston Villa who were creating the best chances and probably looked more likely to score. The defeat leaves Celtic with the prospect of facing either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the next round, which will mean a herculean effort is needed if we are to advance any further in this season’s competition. It does however give us a special night at Celtic Park in the first leg to look forward to.

A unique Unique Angle is well merited

It’s not often that Celtic release a Unique Angle video after a defeat but Adam Idah’s two goals certain merit an exception being made this time around. Here it is…

Now here are my three talking points after the defeat in Birmingham:

1. Our squad isn’t as strong as it could be

With the departure of Kyogo to Rennes coupled with the suspension of Daizen Maeda and the injury sustained by Cameron Carter-Vickers, last night showed that when some of our more important players are absent we struggle to replace them. Adam Idah was fantastic as a replacement for Kyogo but when the big Irishman faded late on the only replacement we had for him was young Daniel Cummings who has been playing football for the B-team all season.

Arne Engels, Daniel Cummings, and Brendan Rodgers, Manager of Celtic, applauds the fans after the team’s defeat during the UEFA Champions League match between Aston Villa and Celtic at Villa Park on January 29, 2025. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

With Maeda suspended he was replaced with Yang who in all honesty is nowhere near the level of player capable of performing in the Champions League. Then at the back we had two left footed centre backs in Auston Trusty and Liam Scales in from the start to cover for the injured Carter-Vickers. The fact that we shipped four goals and were lucky it wasn’t more shows how that pairing went.

Great news that both Jota and Tierney are returning

Jota rejoices in Celtic return. Photo Kenny Ramsay.

It’s great news that both Jota and Kieran Tierney are returning to the club which will definitely make us stronger but we absolutely cannot afford to see this transfer window shut without securing the signing of a top striker to replace Kyogo. It would be absolute madness to go into the second part of this season with only Idah available up front. If he was to sustain an injury we will be left with Johnny Kenny and Daniel Cummings trying to fire us to glory in Scotland and in Europe. I have faith that both these players could develop into useful assets in the future but for them to be catapulted into the main striker role at this stage of their development would be a huge mistake.

Brendan Rodgers looks on prior to the UEFA Champions League match between Aston Villa and Celtic at Villa Park on January 29, 2025. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Come the summer it will be imperative that we further strengthen the squad as a whole if we are to remain competitive in Europe.

2. We have learned from the defeat in Dortmund, but we are still naïve at times

Ollie Watkins of Aston Villa scores his team’s third goal past Kasper Schmeichel of Celtic during the UEFA Champions League match between Aston Villa and Celtic at Villa Park on January 29, 2025. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

After we shipped seven goals in Dortmund the word coming out from the Celtic camp from the manager and players was that they would learn from the experience and make sure we wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. Two scoreless draws away to Atalanta and Dinamo Zagreb proved that we had indeed changed our mindset and tactics but last night we saw the same old errors pop up again as we let Aston Villa score four against us, and if I’m honest it could have been worse.

Celtic once again were slow out of the blocks

Celtic once again were slow out of the blocks, letting Aston Villa cruise into a two goal lead inside the first 5 minutes as the players looked absolutely shell shocked. Thankfully they were able to regain composure and work their way back into the contest but falling behind like that so quickly in Europe is suicidal and if we do the same against the likes of Real Madrid or Bayern Munich there will be no way back for us.

We once again lost our composure in the second half

Ollie Watkins misses a penalty as Kasper Schmeichel of Celtic dives during the UEFA Champions League match between Aston Villa FC and Celtic FC at Villa Park on January 29, 2025. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

After finishing the first half strongly we once again lost our composure in the second half and Villa were opening us up at will. The amount of times they cut through the middle of the park and we were left in 1v1 or even 2v1 situations was unbelievable, on another night we would have been severely punished. I thought both Trusty and Scales were quite poor on the night but a lot of that was down to receiving no protection ahead of them. We were opened up constantly on the counter attack and this is something we will have to remedy heading into the next round. We must become more compact at the back otherwise we will get embarrassed.

3. Overall this European campaign has been a success

Morgan Rogers with the match ball after his hat trick during the UEFA Champions League match between Aston Villa and Celtic at Villa Park on January 29, 2025. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Last night ended in disappointment but overall this European journey has been a success. I think if we had been offered a chance to progress to the playoff round before the start of the season we would have snapped your hand off so the manager and the players should definitely be proud of themselves. There have been some great performances during the campaign such as the epic victory against RB Leipzig, the thrashing of Slovan Bratislava and the fantastic performance out in Bergamo against Atalanta.

View inside the stadium prior to the UEFA Champions League match between Aston Villa and Celtic at Villa Park on January 29, 2025. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

There were also chances to claim even more points and I think we will learn from that. We maybe underestimated Club Brugge a bit and I feel that with home advantage the three points were there for the taking bit we didn’t really turn up that night. Dinamo Zagreb was also a good opportunity to finally get a win away in the competition against a side dealing with multiple players missing through injury.

I think this new format has been hugely beneficial to Celtic and if we can qualify again next season with a stronger squad, I think we will excel in the competition. We will also have learned a lot of lessons from this season, such as how important goal difference can be and that every single point gained can make a huge difference to final standings.

For now though let’s look forward to what is going to be a huge night at Celtic Park against a European heavyweight. You never know what might happen!

COYBIG!

Conall McGinty

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