5 Reasons Why Celtic Are Out Of Europe

3. Fire Power

I've converted 3 of my good friends to the Celtic family, and they were all stunned at the level at which Celtic performed in the opening game against AC Milan. The passing was fluid, the structure was rigid, the players all understood their roles and Milan were dominated by a club ran at perhaps a 10th of their salary budget. But despite such an almost flawless game plan our chances were incredibly limited. Usually this can be blamed on either a lack of creativity in midfield or a lack of fire power. For Celtic I believe it's a combination of the two but critically, we lack a commanding centre forward. In the summer we signed Teemu Pukki and Amido Balde to fill the boots of the departed Gary Hooper and although I am impressed with aspects of both of their abilities neither replace what he offered. Hooper's movement was phenomenal in big games, whether chasing channelled balls, linking up with the midfield or scoring goals he offered a dynamic versatility that could adapt to playing in the Nou Camp and then to Nou Douglas Park that Celtic simply haven't replaced. Anthony Stokes was responsible for a little bit of brilliance in our final qualifier so he justified his place in the games he played but he just isn't the type of player we needed to poach a goal and his hold up play was poor. Of what we've seen from Pukki so far he could be the answer to our prayers. The ex-Schalke striker has a split reputation amongst Celtic fans but I side with the optimismists (i know it's not a word). His technique is good and he doesn't give the ball away very often. Hopefully he'll fuse with the squad this season and prove me right. I'm sure Neil Lennon is well aware that we were lackluster going forward this year and it doesn't take a genius to identify the weakness when the only 2 goals we scored were a penalty and a lucky deflected shot!