Celtic Edge Dundee but Face LASK Challenge Ahead
The Premiership campaign has started with three points, but nobody around Celtic is kidding themselves. Monday night’s narrow win over Dundee brought the expected result, not the performance to match it – and with LASK looming in a Champions League play-off, the mood in the stands is a mix of relief, concern and a stubborn streak of optimism.
Win on the board, doubts in the air
Alistair captures the split personality of Celtic’s start. The league table already shows a “head start” on their two closest challengers, and that matters in a title race that rarely allows early slips. The job got done. The season is up and running.
Yet the manner of it has set alarm bells ringing. The weaknesses out wide and at left-back were “clear to see”, he says, and he’s not alone. In a game that should have allowed Celtic to flex their attacking muscle, the champions instead looked short of sharpness and short of options.
John M doesn’t sugar-coat it. “It wasn't pretty,” he says, but Celtic “did what Celtic do” – they found a way. That has long been part of this club’s domestic identity: grind, then go. This time, though, the grind lasted too long. For him, rustiness and the process of “bedding in” new signings explain part of it, but not all. The real worry lies higher up the pitch. He wants more urgency, more snap in the movement, more conviction in how Celtic move through the thirds.
And hanging over every assessment is the same conclusion: players are leaving, and they must be replaced with similar quality, and quickly.
LASK on the horizon, nerves in full view
If Dundee exposed flaws, LASK threaten to punish them.
George takes the bleakest view. With “lack of signings, preparation time with new players, and key players leaving”, he sees a Champions League play-off that will be “very difficult” to navigate. The equation in his mind is brutally simple: Celtic need to win by a couple of goals at home to have any real chance of progressing. On the evidence of Monday night’s “awful performance”, he doesn’t see that happening.
That’s the fear: that a sluggish domestic display is a warning, not a blip.
Kevin, though, leans into the challenge. “We need ties like this,” he argues. Celtic’s European record “early doors” has often faltered, especially against less familiar opposition. LASK fit that profile: awkward, organised, dangerous if underestimated. The sense is that this is exactly the kind of test that has tripped Celtic before.
This time, he looks to the new forwards as the difference. The club have added firepower, and he believes those signings can tilt the tie. There’s also a pointed hope that LASK’s threat will “wake the board up” and force through more deals before the first leg. He still “fancies” Celtic to go through. It’s not blind faith; it’s a bet on the club’s ability to react under pressure.
Must-win mindset or early reality check?
John’s verdict lands somewhere between caution and conviction. He calls it “a tough draw” but one that should sharpen minds rather than spook them. There can be no easing into this one, no half-pace, early-August excuse. Celtic, he insists, must treat it as a “must-win” from the first whistle.
What gives him confidence is the front line. With “a bit of firepower up front” and “two proven scorers in Europe in the past”, he sees a Celtic side that can hurt LASK if the supply line functions. The question is whether the structural issues – those exposed against Dundee – can be patched up in time.
That’s the tension running through the support. A win on opening night, but not a convincing one. A Champions League play-off that feels like a test of more than just tactics – a test of recruitment, of readiness, of nerve.
Celtic have the points. Now they have to prove they have the power.
