Wilfried Nancy lands unwanted Celtic first as confused team now faced with unthinkable scenario

The wolves of Rome are hungry. They also might be surprised just how easily they have feasted on the two biggest clubs in the country. Two clean sheets and five goals scored, three of them coming here at the home of the champions.

These aren’t the days of Jim McLean, whose Dundee United team – and then Scottish champions - had taken years to build. Instead, two managers in Danny Rohl and Wilfried Nancy who are still trying to find their feet in Scottish football have had the misfortune to find themselves up against a Roma side who, while less potent than their 1980s antecedents, are still formidable enough.

Rohl was given a free pass after Roma toyed with Rangers such was the extent of the disarray at the Ibrox club. Nancy, too, has arrived amid difficult circumstances but, crucially, has turned a winning team into a losing one.

While even Martin O’Neill’s celebrated interim spell included some uninspired performances, the optics aren’t good for the Frenchman. He is the first Celtic manager to fall to successive defeats in his opening two matches.

Celtic aren’t just losing, they look confused. Two right-backs came on in the second half in Colby Donovan and Anthony Ralston while Liam Scales was shifted to left centre half – or was it left back? It seemed so for a bit. Nancy, to his credit, was trying to make running repairs. Celtic did look slightly more dangerous and, unlike the first 45 minutes when they lost three goals, were not being pinned back for quite such long stretches. Of course, Roma already had their win.

The natives of Parkhead are restless. Nancy might have ditched the green and white trainers for a pair of disappointingly regulation white-soled shoes, as worn by nearly every manager below the age of 60, but he was less flexible when it came to team system. It was not just the same formation, ostensibly, with three at the back again employed, but also the same 11 players, for the first 45 awful minutes at least. Celtic struggled to break out of their own half.

That two Irishmen, including their own Liam Scales, did the damage simply rubbed salt into the wound for Celtic. Evan Ferguson, who scored twice, recently named Republic of Ireland teammate Scales as his favourite Celtic player. There’s no reason for him to change that opinion after the defender nodded into his own net just five minutes in to give Roma the helping hand they did not need. Ferguson then took centre stage and had hit a double before half time.

The striker, who is on loan from Brighton, is exactly the kind of player Celtic need and might one day have made it their priority to sign. Having missed Roma’s visit to Ibrox through injury, he enjoyed himself against the team he claims to support. His first goal, after 36 minutes, was tapped in after a flowing move down the right involving the excellent Matias Soule and Zeki Celik.

It was a commanding advantage but one Celtic had the chance to make slightly less daunting just seconds before half time after Arne Engels had his shirt tugged in the box. The same player, once so dependable from the spot, struck ‘keeper Mile Svilar’s right upright with his effort.

When it’s not going your way, it’s not going your way. Half-time substitute Kelechi Iheanacho had a goal ruled out for offside following a VAR check after 64 minutes. Celtic - and Nancy - really need their luck to change at this weekend’s League Cup final against St Mirren, when a third defeat in his short tenure must be considered unthinkable.

There was little here for Celtic fans to cling to other than the lively appearance by Iheanacho. The striker was one of three changes Nancy made at the interval and they looked a better proposition with an actual centre forward on the pitch. He put an effort narrowly wide within seven minutes of coming on.

But it was thin gruel otherwise on a night of torrential rain. Both teams were hoping to bounce back from disappointing weekend defeats, with Roma going down at Cagliari and Celtic having been beaten by title rivals Hearts in Nancy’s first game in charge. The hosts hoped for an early breakthrough but that was not on the cards. Even though Scales headed into his own net so early in the game when trying to clear a corner, it already felt like a goal was coming.

It doesn’t help when Kasper Schmeichel was already guilty on two occasions of gifting possession to the opposition with poor kicks, the second of which led eventually to the corner from which the visitors opened the scoring.

Ferguson hit the post after 27 minutes and when Niccolo Pisilli fired over with just over half an hour gone, the home crowd’s reaction told its own story. They were seriously unhappy.

Ferguson’s goal didn’t improve matters and neither did his second shortly before half time. It just seemed so effortless. Soule played the ball into the Irishman’s feet. He took one touch and then turned and swept the ball into the corner.

Engels wasted the chance to cut the deficit in time added on at the end of the first half. Might it have been a different story if his penalty had gone in? It doesn’t seem likely.

Substitute Leon Bailey, another player on loan from the English Premier League, showed good feet before firing into the top corner. It, too, was chopped off after a review for offside. A 4-0 home defeat would have been hard to bear but this was bruising enough.