Celtic surrendered another two points to fall further behind in the championship race, drawing 0-0 at home against Hibernian. It was a unorganised looking performance from the home team who gave Graham Stack little to do in the Hibernian goal.
Gary Hooper squandered Celtic’s only gilt-edged chance of the game when, after playing a one-two with Anthony Stokes, he struck the outside of the post with Ki available for the square pass. Anthony Stokes had earlier tested Stack, who failed to hold the ball but did enough to clear.
When the same teams met on Wednesday James Forrest transformed the game when he drifted inside but he spent most of today’s game adrift on the right wing. On two occasions he cut inside with purpose, once testing Stack with a blistering shot from 22 yards and later when a 25 yard pile-drive struck the crossbar, but Hibs were content to limit Celtic to such speculative efforts.
Neil Lennon was justified in his criticism of his front pairing of Stokes and Hooper today but Celtic were equally clueless in midfield. There appeared to be no cohesion and there was certainly not a productive match plan.
Motherwell’s away win in Inverness gives the Lanarkshire side a three point lead, having played a game more, going into next week’s crucial game against Celtic at Fir Park. Manager-less St Johnstone dropped three points at home this afternoon, leaving them four points behind Celtic in the fight for the last Europa League place.
This is where we are people, scrapping between Motherwell and St Johnstone. Get used to it.
1,111 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
Snake,
Excellent post earlier. Sums up the situation both on and off the park perfectly.
Dan
Moravcik
All those players are better than they have shown.
Big Dan is good for Sweden playing at a higher level than he does for us.
Likewise Juarez in La Liga or for Mexico,
Hoovield and Rassmussen?
The difference for these guys is playing in a defined role in a properly implemented system.
Bourne’s there is no point in holding out for a January transfer window – we have seen enough transfer windows to know that our Board wont spend any money.
new article posted.
Bourne
It is a head scratcher in some respects. With the exception of Matthews for Izaguirre, yesterday’s team plus the subs won 92 points last season. (Although Commons made a huge impact in the 2nd half of last season).
Players who last season were winning plaudits for energy, imagination and strength of character are this year being (rightly) criticised for being absent all of these qualities.
The game yesterday was oh so pedestrian, and it rather felt as though the players were under the impression that pedestrian is good enough. From the reluctance of the keeper to distribute quickly, to the turn-back-again midfield, to the refusal of the forward to provide anything other than an obvious position.
I don’t get the absurdity of playing the ball on the deck along the back 4, into midfield, then back for the centre backs to belt up the park. Happens in every game repeatedly. Possession held for a couple of minutes to no effedt, then surrendered with a whoof up the park over the heads of the diminutive, pace lacking and work-shy Stokes and Hooper.
Personally, Celtic Park hasn’t been the same since they removed the gazebo.
Nevertheless, other than Forrest, no player at any time looked as though they had either the craft, the pace, or the imagination to create anything individually, and in the absence of any real work ethic, the points were lost long before the final whistle.
The decision to set up the club as an attempted breeding ground for young ‘Champions League’ players is undermined by the inexperience of the managment team. The raw talent of the management team is undermined by the absence of experience in the team. If you want a young team, you the need requisite knowledge to hold them together and develop them. If you want to develop an inexperienced management team, you need the knowledge on the pitch.
In writing this out I realise it’s actually quite simple: We don’t know what to do.
If Neil doesn’t recognise this, or refuses to accept the expedience of bringing in knowledge, his game is up. There are plenty of knowledgeable football men out there. Neil needs one badly.
How badly? His results this season are in line with Tony Mowbray’s. That’s where he and his management team are. They are dropping more than 1 point per game on average, a sequence that will see the team finish with 72 points from 38 games, 30 points fewer than last season.
I always viewed Lenny’s appointment as a 3 year project: Year 1 to stumble and find his feet; Year 2 to show that he was learning from experience; Year 3 to succeed. The odd thing is that last year looks more like a year three, while this year looks like a year 1. It’s baffling. How did Lenny turn around the squad from the fumbling nonsense of last December to the winners of January? Perhaps the adrenalin of last season simply has not been replaced.
Lenny’s problem is the opposition he is facing. Rangers are being managed by Ally McCoist. Losing to Walter’s Myth is one thing, but to McCoist? He’ll find that humiliating. That Rangers are about to be declared bust wraps humiliation in ignominy.
Lenny needs to make a significant move, and quickly. John Roberston wouldn’t be a bad choice as a No 2, but the move requires acknowledgement that it’s necessary in the first place. Over to Neil on that one.
TBB
Would be interesting to know if the Management team have the players at the training ground today.
If not why not.
Snake Plissken says:
30 October, 2011 at 12:33
Been out all day and catching up, just read your post and needed to say “THANK YOU”, fully agree with your post and will now read on.
Honest Mistake – typical child comment. Look up shareholders of Celtic and you will find me there. I’m no rangers supporter and not hinding behind some alias. So many times I find myself underwhelmed by comments like yours because I disagree. But you know my name.
To the other poster yes JC pointed out his fitness in a context that was misinterpreted in press. His point is that our footballers are lazy don’t compete well – I agree.
Some silly comment on here sometimes!!!!
Can someone confirm the K Off time for the Murderwll game