with a sparkling performance which left fans mesmerised. It was truly reminiscent of many performances which the Champions enjoyed under Rodgers opening season in his first tenure: direct, ruthless and clinical.

The Northern Irishman cut a relieved figure at the end of the ninety, though he would never care to admit. Since the Winter break he has been the brunt of a lot of criticism from within the club’s fanbase and from external sources. Having dropped points against Aberdeen and Kilmarnock plus needing late winners against Hibs and Motherwell paired with a narrow victory over a struggling Ross County side, the lack of intensity has left many of the Celtic faithful frustrated with some even throwing the towel in on a league title at this stage of the season .

After a much improved second half performance against Motherwell, for Celtic it was making sure that this didn’t turn into another false dawn and backing it up was imperative.

Dundee stood in their way. In a season where Celtic have dropped points on seven separate occasions, it’s not been Tony Docherty’s side who have caused the problems. Two three nil victories with five different scorers (Turnbull, Kyogo, Maeda, Bernardo and Johnston), the bhoys have enjoyed their recent outings.

The Set Up

Celtic continued with the back four which has been the most settled throughout the season. Alastair Johnson continued on the right and enjoyed great freedom due to the defensive acumen of Tomoki Iwata who sat in front of Carter-Vickers and Scales. Taylor played once more in the inverted role with Matt O’Riley and Callum McGregor completing the box in front. Yang, Idah and Maeda completed a front three full of energy and directness.

As for Dundee, they sat with a 5-3-2. Mcghee and Owen Beck started as full backs, two players who have shown great consistency this season. The latter of course earning a re-call from Liverpool for his efforts. An experienced centre-back triplet of Portales, Shaugnessy and Lamie were offered protection of Boateng, Robertson and McCowan in front of them. Main and Bakayoko were paired up front which had the potential to be a tricky front two full of physicality and aggression.

Dundee’s gameplan was rather surprising from the off. Despite losing 3-0 to Celtic twice in previous games, both outings were goalless at half time, so it was clear they knew how to frustrate last year’s treble winners. Yet they were more open in this outing. They originally tried to play with a 3-5-2, while targeting Celtic’s left side of defence (as shown bellow) . A tactic that most attacking outfits have attempted as it’s fair to say that Taylor and Scales are more vulnerable than Carter-Vickers and Johnson.

So why did it go so wrong? To be fair to Dundee, it’s an approach which as brought considerable success for many sides against Celtic this season. Sit centrally and allow Celtic into wide areas as often Rodgers side haven’t crossed from those areas but recycled back into central areas at a less than rapid pace. However, with Yang, Iwata and Idah all playing together, the style changed.

Plus, the intention was clearly different. All night Celtic hit 33 crosses. To put that into perspective in the 5 league games since returning from the break the amount of crosses has been 26, 10, 20, 20 and 11. To supplement this there was a far greater tempo with much more of Celtic’s play being in dangerous areas. The question is: was it a night of Celtic brilliance or Dundee naivety? As with always it lies somewhere in the middle

How it happened

As You’ll Never Walk Alone blared out the tannoid system, 60,000 rose from their seats to belt the famous anthem. A win was needed, but a performance would also be gratefully appreciated. Dundee started brightly creating a few chances forcing Joe Hart to be active early on. As Celtic attacked Yang was brought down by Owen Beck for a foul in a dangerous area, a left back which some expected to join the home side in the January window.

O’Riley whipped in a dangerous ball which was met by the towering Carter-Vickers. McGregor and O’Riley linked up terrifically at all night long, and a crisp peace of passing play left the Englishman unfortunate not to double the lead. Alastair Johnson and Yang would then link up one of many times and send a cross which was spectacularly converted by Idah. Greg Taylor’s ball in which Matt O’Riley headed home completed three early headed goals, showing a real improvement in Celtic’s productivity. Before half time Taylor, Maeda and McGregor would all add to the tally meaning that the Parkhead side headed in six goals in front. An extra goal from youngster Daniel Kelly as he replaced the likely supposedly injured Callum McGregor meant that Celtic ended the night with seven goals as Dundee managed a late consolation.

The three tactical talking points

Tomoki Iwata

Since signing under Ange Postecoglou over a year ago, Tomoki Iwata has had to be patient to establish himself as a mainstay in the Celtic midfield. Truth be told he still doesn’t hold that status, Although his performances when called upon this season will have done him no harm. Forgive me for a lazy comparison here, but Tomoki Iwata reminds so much of Liverpool’s number six Waturo Endo. His composure on the ball is unmatched as is his positional awareness. His ability to pass quickly and accurately sounds like a basic need , and while that’s true, it’s something which Celtic have missed often this season in the number six role. This was demonstrated through his 94% pass accuracy, while 68 of his 76 touches were first time passes. Yet with Iwata – as so often it is with players in his position – it’s less about what he does in the ball and more what he brings structurally.

He allows McGregor to play in a more attacking role and gives more freedom to Alastair Johnson to get further forward. This is incredibly beneficial as it is often forgotten how talented the captain is in advanced positions, I would argue that is where McGregor is better suited. Looking at last night and comparing it with the last home game against Kilmarnock (where Iwata sat on the bench) this is what we see:

Average positions against Kilmarnock at home of Tony Ralston, Daizen Maeda and Matt O’Riley

Average positions against Dundee at Home of Alastair Johnson, Yang and Matt O’Riley

Of course, it would be over simplistic to claim this is solely down to Iwata. He is one piece of what was a much improved jigsaw. Yet it was clear that Johnson could roam forward much more than Ralston did due to the defensive and physical presence that is Iwata, the Japanese didn’t get dribbled by a single time during the 90 minutes.

Yang.

As just mentioned, it would be unfair to say that it was solely down to Iwata that there was such an upturn in performance on Wednesday night. After all, it was Yang’s inspiring performance which earned him the man of the match award. Trying to find a winger pairing has been a bit of a headache for Brendan Rodgers this season. Last season of course, it was Jota and Maeda who played the most although Abada and Haksabanovic enjoyed considerable game time as well.

With Jota leaving on a permanent, Haksabanovic out on loan plus Abada’s Celtic career looking over Rodgers has relied on the new signings last Summer to make the impact. Palma looked to be the solution after a string of good performances last Autumn but has went dreadfully off the boil since. Maeda has played right wing quite often, and despite last night’s goal from that position, hasn’t inspired in that role. Mikey Johnstone showed moments of promise when involved however a loan move to West Brom seemed better for both parties. Tilio has never seemed favoured and is currently back on loan at Melbourne City.

Yang has been inconsistent at times, although there is signs that he is starting to grow into the right-wing jersey. Having taken the spot of new signing Nicolas Kuhn, his two performances in this last week have inspired. His ability to actually dribble -Yes, dribble, beat a man, yes, these are things that are possible in a Celtic shirt – has been refreshing. As has the quality of crosses which he can deliver. Perhaps it was a sign of his great development, that the same Owen Beck who he struggled against in September he absolutely tore to shreds.

The Idah Factor

Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic had a clear blueprint for scoring goals. Brendan Rodgers side also have a clear blue print for scoring goals. It’s just that the Aussie’s blueprint proved to be much more successful. The aim of that system was to get a ball played in between centre back and full back and cut back across to Kyogo in the middle to slot home.

We saw it during Postecoglou’s first game in charge of Celtic against Dundee in a 6-0 win.

We saw it during a 4-1 victory over St Johnstone last season

And we saw it against Rangers in the Viaplay cup final

In the off case that this didn’t work Giakoumakis gave a different type of physical threat.

This season Celtic have changed their attacking approach with more of their goals coming from central creation. It seems as though the wingers have been told to hug the touchline with one of the number 8’s making the forward run to either shoot or cut back to the striker.

We saw this away to Hearts

We saw this away to Dundee

And we saw this at home to Aberdeen

Yet there is an issue with this tactic. It needs a lot of space in behind to work. That’s why teams this season playing against Celtic had figured that unlike last season, they could let Celtic get wide and no productivity would come from the wide areas. Instead it would be slowly recycled to the central areas waiting for an opening that sometimes never came. However on Wednesday night, Idah gave Celtic the option of a physical striker with an areal threat. Even when the Irishman wasn’t getting on the end of crosses he was needing to be marked, which left space for O’Riley, Taylor and McGregor to get on the score sheet.

It’s the first time Celtic have had a solid plan B since the signing of Georgious Giakoumakis. While that sounds harsh on Oh, who has been bright in spells, it’s clear as day that he doesn’t have the trust of Brendan Rodgers.

Speaking after the match Brendan Rodgers said “The tempo and the passing and the creativity was all there, so it was a fantastic night, great goals, and obviously one of our young guys, Daniel, gets his first ever goal for the club.

“I think it is a big congratulations for the supporters, because we’re here to entertain them but we need their backing and encouragement and at half-time it filled us with great pride.

“It’s a tough one for the Dundee guys. They worked very hard and gave everything in the game, but I just thought that the speed and quality of our game and the quality of our goals was at a really high level and I’m so pleased for the players.”

Next up for Celtic is a trip to Tynecastle where they face third placed Hearts under Steven Naismith.