It was far from beautiful flowing football at Inverness yesterday but the players raised the tempo sufficiently to get the result. Leigh Griffiths scored a classic poacher’s goal. He missed plenty against Kilmarnock and Ajax but that’s part of the territory of being a striker.
I was delighted to see Carlton Cole make his first appearance for the club, and for anyone since last season. His first touch could have resulted in a goal but his sheer body mass caused sufficient panic in the Inverness defence that a goal resulted soon enough. There’s a lot of work ahead as Carlton looks to get match fit but he’s exactly the kind of foil we’ve missed this season.
For all the Zonal Marking Detesters……… We’re now man-to-man and we’re still conceding headers in front of goal. The problem was not resolved with the switch to man-to-man. Defending corner kicks requires a physicality and alertness which we’ve missed all season. The sooner we fix this and get back to zonal the better.
On the subject of physicality, Dedryck, this is your hand. A brick wall should have been thrown up in front of Miles Storey at the Inverness goal. I accept we have unresolved issues at set-pieces and that we’ll lose goals as a consequence. Goals conceded on Thursday – a deflection-come-ricochet, and a breakaway, had little to do with the defence, but yesterday’s Inverness goal was just rank bad defending.
At Carfin on Friday I told Phil MacGiollaBhain that there was no way Dave King could weasel out of paying Mike Ashley his £5m, having said he would do so. Phil referred me to the “glib and shameless liar” part of King’s past and not to be so naive. He could have a point.
Ashley holds the aces here. Any attempt to ‘play’ him will fail.
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I blame z̶o̶n̶a̶l̶ ̶m̶a̶r̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ man for man marking.
If you have a spare 30 odd minutes,these are worth a look
http://youtu.be/4i1fwh4Atj4
http://youtu.be/TsYv4r5kvyk
http://youtu.be/-ArDUeQI1CQ
HH
Some fans forgetting that Boyatta is a rookie.Not a great deal of 1st team football under his belt.Jason was the same last season,took him a while,and that was with VVD.We have had loads of chopping and changing in central defence.It takes time to form a bond.We have two defenders who have signed up long term,its only right to give them time.We are not going to be able to afford any CL quality CHs to come in.We have the rest of the season for them to gel in Scotland.We now have breathing space to go after the treble.Lets go for it.Success breeds confidence.
Well done to the Murray brothers for spearheading the Davis Cup win.
Their victory is almost as much an admonishment for the LTA, is it is a personal triumph.
Embdae else ken a bunch of local suits in navy blazers that are just as inept, out of touch and incompetent as the LTA?
:-)
Turkeybhoy
Id hardly say Dedryk was a rookie.
Man City, Belgian international.
What I can see, is that Dedryk could be a better player, but he should be doing the basics properly.
He pays well….then switches off…and ballwatches.
Only my opinion of course.
However…Hail Hail
Dedryk was Man City’s best young player in 2009-20010.
It is now 2015.
Just saying.
HH
Dedryk is the new Efe
Prae
mock decision?
face painter csc
Very few brands have survived and none have flourished independently after the grim reaper Ashley gets his greedy paws on them.
Walk around Sports Direct stores – it’s a graveyard for brands which at one point were significant and successful.
Ashley is the one who doesn’t do walking away. As they say on FF…FACT.
Thems saying they will pay a loan off,and actually doing it,are 2 different things
Carlton Cole is front runner for the Freddie Ljungberg award of 2016.
unseenfenianhand csc
Bsr @1334
How very true.
HH
Carlton Cole .
A really good mate of mine is a West Ham fanatic .. ————- he has conditioned me to think that the man is callled— ####### Carlton Cole or Carlton ####### Cole .
Mike Ashley is just toying with those sevconian fools.
Ipox is a crumbling relic.
Shortly they will pull it down, and build a shopping centre that’s ideal for the motorway.
They will probably also build a R****** Heritage Museum and Car Park rolled into one.
Where ra berz can watch video screens in the parking bays, showing all their old cheating exploits….they can then go for their shopping.
Genius.
Hope you are tuning in Mike.
HH
The Green Man 1:29
I think you have summed it up pretty well there. I think there’s a good player in there, but also some things that concern me a bit. Hopefully he can develop better defending instincts in time for the CL qualifiers. But I don’t think it would harm to have someone else in the mix.
South of Tunis
Iv a good buddy aswel who is big hammers fan.
I won’t repeat what his views on cole are, hopefully it works out.
GLASSTWOTHIRDSFULL
Dedryk is a good player ok, he has good credentials.
He needs to concentrate on the basics….the rest will follow.
He just needs to up his game.
HH
Someone sent me Jingle Jangle’s love letter to King and the Sevco board,in today’s DR. Could have been Traynor fawning over Murray all over again,boak inducing stuff.
SOLMICK
Aye, you are of course correct.
Will do, should have done it earlier.
HH
Coincidence, glibby pays a visit to hampden, and two days later he is telling the world he is paying back the 5 mill loan.
I think not.
The powers will be crapping themself’s, Mash could mash them up anytime he chooses.
Give Boyata and Jozo a bit of time together,to build up a partnership,it took van Dijk and Denayer a few months to gel.
Our goal was another example of the poor risk assessment of our players.
Bitton passed to Armstrong on the half way line and chest height with his back to goal. This happened a lot last season particularly in early European games where Charlie Mulgrew was receiving the ball with his back to the opposition and then Mis controlled or screwed up the pass.
There was then a seamless run of errors after the chest mis control with a few players unwilling to put in a proper percentage challenge then the goalkeeper making a hash of it.
A factor in Ronnys instructions seems to be that it is up to a midfielder to receive a pass in those halfway line areas, control and pass but start with his back to the goal we are shooting at. It happened to McGregor against Ajax as well.
For those passes to work in your attack and to not lose the ball you need players running into space on your half turn or someone close by willing to bale you out if you make a backside of it. We appear to have neither players able to control a pass with their back to goal, teammates willing to make a run for the next pass or someone willing to make a blocking tackle. Maybe it’s a symptom of a young team that they always assume the other guy will work a pass rather than helping him find it or being aware that a team mate could be in danger and adjust to suit?
I’d love to see a team mate get a colleague out of trouble for once then berate them for losing it. A good saving tackle followed by a what the f do you think your playing at does wonders for concentration.
Should Armstrong be able to control a ball coming at chest height with his back to goal? Maybe. Should Bitton have passed it in such a manner? No and he should know the limitations of his team mates.
Stating the obvious but opposition goals come from them gaining possession. You minimise risk in losing possession the higher up the field. We take risks with passing up to half way all match long and compound that with namby pamby defending. An experienced centre half could sort both issues by cutting out the bizarre high risk passes and defending them. Goals from set pieces come from us conceding possession higher up the park. Again no brainer. How many corners have we conceded that could have been a throw if team mates hustled the ball for a shy instead. The full backs will be so far ahead of the poor pass that lost possession they won’t get a chance to recover.
Of course they have made the run to receive the ball from the guy that’s just lost it but they are 30 yards inside the opposition half!
First goal courtesy of the brilliance of the maestro shows how it should be done.
http://youtu.be/ks9twsD3Y9g
Re zonal v non zonal
If you can read a game and can jump then it doesn’t matter
On a different note
…. MSN boys keepin Barca rolling
Was it Bitton who passed to Armstrong? I’m open to correction but I thought ’twas Joe Hanson.
Similarly I was reading that Wee James took the corner that led to the Ajax winner, I thought it was Armstong.
Paul67,
It was a powder puff tackle with the wrong foot.
However, I am no more convinced than ever that our problems are the amount of times midfield and forward players lose possession and the opposition are straight onto our defence. Baresi and Maldini would struggle to keep clean sheets.
The ball is not sticking up front and is coming back at a regular rate. Is this due to 1 striker? I don’t know.
More alarming for me is what happens once we take an early lead.
We actually wilt and go into our shells and instead of being on the front foot are the team deflated by scoring. What is this all about?
Happy with the 3 points yesterday. All 15 domestic games under Ronny have been won post Europe, that’s not a bad record.
Árd Macha
In agreement with those who felt the defence were not particularly to blame for the goal yesterday. I thought Boyata showed intelligence to refrain from barging in. TBB thinks Collum would have shown a Yellow; I think it would have been a Red.
I was also very pleased that Griff scored.He took his opportunity very well and saved us the hysteria of the MSSM re Griff`s Goal Famine.
JJ
Meanwhile Statler and Waldorf are in the Blue Room
5 players, yeah, we’ll bring in 5 players in January.
2, no, we’ll only need 2, we’re flying.
No, None, it would be disrespectful to the squad.
Rangers FC @RangersFC 1h1 hour ago
MW: If any player leaves here, they will leave on our terms.
(The terms being if someone offers money).
Now I’m going out on a limb here, but I have my suspicions this guy Gannon was at the last C T meeting?
MICHAEL believes Celtic are at a crossroads and a change of direction is needed from the Parkhead board.
SHARES
Celtic Chief Executive Peter Lawwell looks on as Celtic crash out of the Europa League against Ajax on Thursday night
IT’S hard to admit you’re lost. When you’ve been driving around for hours without much of a scooby, it’s tough to turn to the missus in the passenger seat and cough up that she was right all along.
But at some point you need to bite the bullet, because the longer you go on guessing the harder it gets to find your way back.
Celtic boss Ronny Deila looked lost when asked the bog-standard “Where do you go from here?” question after Ajax on Thursday night.
The normally cool Norwegian lost the rag for once. “We go forward,” he said. “Always forward.”
Sorry Ronny but the only thing at Celtic going in that direction is the clock. The rest of the club is going round in circles at best and backwards at worst.
That doesn’t just go for Deila. It’s top to bottom. Celtic are a club that’s taken too many wrong turns and ended up in a cul-de-sac on the wrong side of town.
They must wish they could reverse back a couple of years and have another bash – because Celtic have completely botched the Rangers wilderness years.
This should have been the wonder years.
The cash should have been flowing in and the Hoops should have been waiting for their old rivals
coming back like a Bond baddie sitting in his swivelling seat, stroking a cat and marvelling at his dastardly plan.
But they’re not. They’ve become joke figures in the very competitions they should be targeting.
They’ve had a free crack at the Champions League for four seasons. Four free punches thanks to their only realistic rival lying on the canvas.
But they’ve swung and missed and fallen flat on their face.
The project has not worked. Two years ago Peter Lawwell and the board felt it was a good time to try something.
They looked at the changing climate and thought it was low risk. We’ll scoosh the league so why not take a punt. But it doesn’t work that way.
The Champions League has to be Celtic’s domain. The champions route of qualification lights the path for clubs like Celtic.
Deila and John Collins talk about budget issues but don’t give us that.
Celtic are one of the big boys when it comes to the sides in the champions route sections of the draw.
The likes of Maribor and Molde would love the kind of dough the Parkhead club can command.
Yes, it’s a difficult environment with Rangers gone but that makes Europe even more important. That’s where the honey lies.
But they’ve made a total mess of it. Lawwell told Celtic’s shareholders last week the manager was a builder and a developer. That’s all very well – how the heck can a boss be relied on to develop when he’s still learning himself?
Managers don’t get to be builders when they are starting out. They earn that right. Sir Alex Ferguson was the best developer of the lot but made his mistakes lower down the food chain.
Deila could well go on to be a great boss. There are certainly signs he has something about him.
But he’s being allowed to make his errors at a club where there is no room for constant cock-ups.
He’s not been helped by a recruitment policy that’s gone to pot. He’s signed – or been given – 19 players and not many of them have made an impression.
The system’s not working and the damage is too great. Celtic have missed out on up to £40million for going AWOL from the Champions League.
Even this Europa League campaign will be lucky to earn them the bus fare home given you get dosh for points.
The Celtic fans have been brilliantly patient with Deila – but that patience is beginning to run out.
They can only watch the same horror film so many times. They don’t expect to be beating Barcelona. No one is saying they can go back to the glory days of the 2000s when Celtic lost just twice at home in Europe in eight years – both times to Barca.
But they do demand beating Malmo, Molde and Ajax at home. They can’t accept losing 39 goals in 25 games – all in qualifiers as well as Europe’s second-tier competition.
The punters are not buying the Del Boy Trotter “next year we’ll be millionaires Rodney” routine.
Lawwell has practically promised Deila another crack at it next season.
Fans see the likes of David Moyes sitting in the stands on Thursday and get fanciful ideas.
Forget it. Moyes didn’t fancy it in 2009 or 2010 when Celtic were a force and had a proper challenge at home.
When the likes of West Brom and Newcastle are paying mangers £2m a year, for Moyes to end up at Parkhead would suggest he needed a new agent.
That’s not going to happen but Celtic do have a major decision to make.
They are at the crossroads and now it’s keep charging on in the dark and hope they hit the motorway – or admit they’re up a blind alley and ask the missus to dig out the satnav.
Ard Macha:
“More alarming for me is what happens once we take an early lead.”
I , too, have noticed that and had concluded that the demands of the fans for something close to perfection inhibits the team after we have scored. As the support at the Away games are so positive, though, I would have to ditch my conclusion if the same `wilting` occurs in those matches away from Celtic Park. Does it?
JJ
Maybe I should have added that I always feel very confident in SPFL games at Home .
Tony D
The dreadful nature of the article is the issue. I think you will distract attention from that by making an association which looks as though you just want to criticise the CT. The article is the disgrace, not the CT.
JJ
I am happy with my own company……but not on CQN!
Cheerio to one and all.
JJ
PS Fell off the bike again! Skidded on a bit of ice. Bloody idiot 0:-)
JJ..,
Do you call your bike the titanic :)
I see some debating it was the midfield , others , it was the defence.
The reality is that the whole squad is full of players who are of a low European standard.
It’s the whole squad that is poor , not just certain areas.
TT
I’ve been following Celtic since the 50’s.
I never saw a defender who cleared every header, made every tackle, made every interception.
And some of these ghuys were magnificent players.
Oh and guess who said this –
“As long as we are Kingpins in or own midden, everything else is a bonus”
Someone said that Boyata is the new Efe – don’t worry Efe will again be the new Efe and, the old one – Shrodingers Centre-Back.
I remember when the Celtic defence was seen as the problem to losing goals. Big Jock had just taken over the team and – I think – he was the one who said that it was because the forwards couldn’t hold the ball and as a result of that defenders were continually under pressure.
Big Jock didn’t mind losing goals, as long as we scored more than we lost.