I am sure none of us were particularly surprised that the gap between bottom and top of the Europa League was the distance between a 3-1 win and a 3-1 defeat. Midtjylland peppered the Celtic goal before the flow of goals started, it was a mercy their intensity dropped after scoring three in eight first half minutes.
There are many issues to resolve but the core one has changed little since games against Brugge and Newco from the midpoint of last season onwards. When Celtic try to build from the back, resourceful teams man-mark against them. To advance, defenders have to pick out a player who can control the ball and pass into the space a teammate is moving into. Again, this did not happen.
Last night, in the event a forward pass reached a Celtic player, he was invariably isolated and unable to hold the ball or see a pass. Possession was lost and Midtjylland started another attack. Alternatively, central defenders break through opposition lines, as Auston Trusty did on Sunday, but among the confidence drain on show in Denmark, I was happy to see Auston hold his position. It is, of course, sacrilege these days, but in earlier times, when teams were unable to play out from the back, they went long.
One of Brendan Rodgers’ early lessons when arriving at Celtic in 2023 was the value of Reo Hatate. Reo links play better than anyone at the club. I am a firm fan but his engine looks tired this season; I was not surprised he was dropped for what promised to be a night of constant running. The extra legs may have kept the scoreline down, but we need players in the middle of the park who can take a pass while under pressure.
I shouted “Don’t let him get the cross in” as Anthony Ralston showed Krüger-Johnsen down the line before the first goal. With James Forrest on hand to cover the cut inside, Anthony made the wrong decision. Aware of this mistake, Anthony was all about not letting Krüger-Johnsen get a cross in 90 seconds later. In a moment, the game was beyond reach.
Just as you and I worried about yesterday, Liam Scales’ booking means he is one more caution away from a suspension. With four games to go we can anticipate a Trusty-Murray back line if both stay fit. Europe is rapidly becoming the least important aspect of our season.
Callum Osmand’s hamstring injury added a cost to an already profitless night. The striker sparked for Celtic after coming on and won the penalty which tempered the score. Hopefully the damage is not too severe.
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Only saw first half.
Friday it is.
Have a good one all.
HH!
THE EXILED TIM @ 11:41 am,
Yes…
…Matt O’Riley Is The Model
Well – you say getting the scouting correct is the first priority.
I’d say getting someone in who can get our scouting and a few other things besides in is the major priority….
Mid-morning decided to watch the match – as a penance I watched the whole of the TNT show.
Interesting comments on where we are especially from Johan and Stan.
Quite often when you watch these matches in the cold light of day things can be put in a better perspective.
While some of the wide of the mark and emotional comments were quite wrong to my way of thinking.
The root and branch issues and challenges comments were not.
My three for Jobo will be…
1. Schmeichel
2. Tounekti
3. Trusty
Hail Hail
Th wakeup call from last night for me is…
Midtjylland today are Hearts with 5 years of data-informed recruitment.
Surely no way Rodgers can survive this!
Maybe not as simple as telling the players they are Ferraris after all.
Not to worry though – Across The City FC are still bottom so we can have a good chuckle at that and pretend it makes us a well run club.
Same as it ever was………
Beginning to wonder just what the hell has happened to Scottish Football. Money or the lack of it obviously.
Remember when we won the European Cup, thems won the Cupwinners cup, yeah, both were something to be reckoned with and feared. Now both are a joke in all ways and sneered at all over, sadly , rightly so.
Just what can we do about it, hmmmmmm
kingLUBO
I thought in the last 12 months or so, our possession based, controlled approach away from home in Europe had made us a difficult opponent.
MoN’s way of playing was always going to see us cut open last night. It was wave after wave in that first half and we simply couldn’t retain the ball. Had they not eased up it would have been a Barca or Dortmund type tanking.
The quality is lacking but we’ve now got some very big league games on the horizon which we must win to stay in contention.
St Mirren and Hibs away before the end of this month with Hearts coming to CP in early December are vital games. These games will define our season.
A competently run football club would have a permanent manager in place next week as we prepare for these games.
It’s the poorest Celtic side that I’ve ever seen and this league is very much wide open.
Football has moved on. Even the madter of playing out from the back Pep has absnfoned it. All the top teams including and even hearts and midyitlans have decicated set piece experts.
Meanwhile we take hslf an hour for a throw in
An Fun
That manager may still be under contract and does not want to walk out on his club until the end of the month when his season ends.
Ralston’s defending for the first goal was appalling. Such a fundamental basic error.
Tony is not good enough to be our back up and last night is the latest example of that.
Midjtylland are well-drilled and well-prepared.
Something our team wasn’t last night. Did our interim management team do any homework on the opposition? It certainly didn’t look like it judging by the personnel and formation selected. Lessons to be learned both in the dugout and on the pitch last night.
Can argue with the failure in Mid fields, but at a more basic level, Ralston is just nowhere near good enough. When the winback supporting is Jamsie, t almost feels like neglect by the management team.
You are only as strong as your weakest link.
The most frightening thing yesterday was how we were so easily outmuscled all over the pitch by our opponents. They didn’t have a height advantage but they just swatted our players aside. Quite often our players would get their body between opponent and ball and win the tackle but somehow could not hold onto the ball as the opponent would brush them off and take the ball away.
I also felt on Sunday that we played Rangers off the pitch in the first half but we were very sluggish and laboured in the second half even with an extra player. We also looked slow and laboured last night. I wonder how fit our players are.
Anyway, I hope it has sharpened the resolve of our largest single shareholder and his Board to redouble their efforts and appoint an experienced manager who knows how to compete in Europe and to get him in as soon as is possible.
Twice in his post match comments, Callum is credited with saying:
“We were playing against a really good, strong, physical team…”
After so many Euro bullyings, why are we not headed to becoming that kind of team, ourselves?
Against Atalanta last year, we showed the right kind of discipline and shrewdness.
More, who in our recruitment team or what in the acquisition diktat deems that we can progress in Europe with a team of relative lightweights? We know AJ, CCV and Liam bring asomerobustness but it’s rarely shown as an offensive quality. Our midfield is as summery as I can ever remember; meaning we often get outmuscled.
Not that I’m after a team of gnarly bruisers, but some options with an imposing attitude/presence wouldn’t go amiss, as a counterweight to all these nippy wee artisans we’re fond of acquiring.
WanyamaTypes CSC
PS: I thought Shaun M was in charge of coaching and formation, and MON the affable media owl ?
An Dun
Please accept my apologies. The ‘An Fun’ above was a typo and absolutely not intentional.
We managed to get kind of into the game half an hour in after being shown that this team could really cause us problems , wide left, wide right and through a midfield that went missing in action. Mydtjies are not an untypical team, they have a format which works for them, and they bring in players who fit in.
Our formation left us wide open, and they did not need an invitation, three goals in eight minutes says it all.
Real pity about young Callum, only gets in because CCV got injured and now he is out too, hamstring muscles it seems are not clearly understood at Lennoxtown.
THEORIGINALSADIESBHOY on 7TH NOVEMBER 2025 12:28 PM
An Dun
Please accept my apologies. The ‘A Fun’ above was a typo and absolutely not intentional.
—
No need to apologise. It was quite funny !
Last night also seen the continuation of our tendency to concede goals in quick succession in Europe.
No craic in Down at all :-))
Last night I said it felt like our season was ending, not literally of course, more to do with my diminishing hope and expectations. Retaining the league is in the balance, even MoN thinks Hearts will win it, and Europe is as good as over. Our squad was weaker when the transfer window shut and has become a great deal worse since then due to injuries. With Jota, CCV, AJ, Iheanacho and now Osmand all out for weeks/months at a time, the next few weeks sees us down to the bare bones. There is a good chance we will fall further behind Hearts before the end of the year.
Remember that from December 21st to January the 18th, the African Cup of Nations is on and our decimated squad is likely to be without Tounekti, Balikwisha and possibly Iheanacho (if fit) during that time. With Osmand also out, that leaves us JF, Maeda, Kenny and Yang (if they don’t get injured) . And that is assuming Maeda has not been promised a transfer in January after the summer debacle.
Does anyone seriously think we will sign 4-6 first team quality players in January?
An Tearmann @ 11:37 am,
Absolutely – there is no doubt where the responsibility for the mess Celtic Football Club are in and the consistent underachievment lies.
There should never, ever have been any doubt…
An Dún – 12:11 pm,
“I thought in the last 12 months or so, our possession based, controlled approach away from home in Europe had made us a difficult opponent.”
Got to agree, the Celtic never win away from home in Europe mantra has to be put in context.
We drew three games away from home in Europe last season…
Dynimo Zagreb – Who defended stoutly to keep us out
Atalanta – We defended stoutly to keep them out
Bayern Munich – Where we were winning to the last minute of injury time.
So for me a corner was turned, lessons were learned.
When Stan was asked last night why we managed to best R2ngers but were well beaten by Midtylland, he said European football is completely different.
Our 90% possession, 1,000 passes, domestic football was, at times a difficult watch but it worked for Europe.
Yet playing football the Glasgow Celtic way at Hampden for an frilling Hampden “old firm” extra time win was what Scottish fitba’ is all about – but as we saw, doesn’t cut it in Europe.
There is a middle way and hopefully our next manager will navigate that path.
Hail Hail
Still zero blame to the powers that be
Lawwell and Bankier told us at AGMs that CL football, and being competitive in Europe was beyond us,they were right,With the lack of investment, lack of ambition, no incentive for players and management comes from that endemic negatively.
If we don’t act, we will forever be also ransom,it’s so much more than a new manager can fix,the Football Department from top to bottom is rotten,full of old practices and nepotism, we will be here at this time next year having the same debate.
I watched the Celts last night and then watched The HUNS v ROMA.
Rory Hamilton and THAT other CHUMP MCCOIST commentating.
McCoist was talking about the Huns and their good/bad points etc since DOHL took over. McCoist was saying that ” We have to HONEST/and tell the truth Blah Blah” when talking about the Huns and their failings this season ?
The conversation then turned to last Sunday, and the Celtic v Huns game….McCoist then claimed that ” Rangers were UNLUCKY NOT to WIN the game” ?????
McCoist obviously missed 20 odd opportunities that Celtic made against the Huns during that game….
So much for being ” HONEST and TELLING the TRUTH”….That didnt last long.
HH.
LOSTINBENIDORMONTHEWAYTOBARCA on 7TH NOVEMBER 2025 11:53 AM
Last night’s defeat was more than just three points dropped, more than another missed opportunity on the European stage. For many of us, it was the final, devastating blow. It was the moment the anguish over the result finally collapsed into the deeper, sickening realization of betrayal.
The pain of a loss is a familiar ache, one we sign up for as supporters. But this time, the anguish is compounded by the knowledge that this defeat was foreseeable, predictable, and entirely preventable by a competent executive team.
The Corporate Chasm
For months, as a shareholder, a season ticket holder, and a lifelong fan—even navigating 55-hour work weeks and trans-European travel from Munich just for a match—I watched the warning signs flash red. We saw the strategic failures of the transfer market, the penny-pinching, and the lack of ambition that left our squad threadbare and unprepared for the highest level.
When the Executive Team finally broke their silence, their statement was not an apology or a commitment to change; it was an act of condescension. It was a boardroom memo designed to placate investors, not reassure the lifeblood of the club—the supporters.
It confirmed our worst fear: the club, founded on the anti-oppression spirit of the people, has been reduced to a mere money train for its current custodians. We are viewed as an endless revenue stream, a number on a balance sheet, while our passion is taken for granted.The final, bitter feeling is the profound sadness of choosing not to return the love that has been so consistently dismissed. My decision—shared by my wife and countless others—not to purchase those Europa League home match tickets is not a financial choice; it is a heartbroken protest.
That withdrawal is the admission that the relationship is no longer a trust, but an exploitation.
We withdraw because the anguish of watching the club’s potential be wasted by its own leadership is far worse than the anguish of a simple defeat. We withdraw because the power of the people must be asserted when the custodians forget their duty.
Our cash is no longer a blank cheque for complacency. Our emotional investment has run dry.
The fight is no longer just for the team on the pitch, but for the very soul of Celtic. And until that soul is protected, we must reluctantly, devastatingly, walk away from the table.
#TimeForChange #UnitedForCeltic
Thought this was worth a re-post…
We were not very good last night
Partly because they were better
But even Pep would struggle to get us scoring
The easy road to take is blame the Manager (obviously not Martin as he is doing us a favour)
But regardless your view on Brendan the team has not been supported by a Board who seem to hide behind the sofa
The root cause of our demise is a Board who failed to improve our club
Our Host has brushed this under the sofa as there is no room behind it
67ECW
THE BATTERED BUNNET on 7TH NOVEMBER 2025 12:08 PM
Th wakeup call from last night for me is…
Midtjylland today are Hearts with 5 years of data-informed recruitment.”
The midgies success isnt based solely on their recruitment. Since Matthew Benham took them over in 2014 they use analytics in all parts of the business. Business performance, team performance, coaches, everything. He also focused on their commercial department. Like at Brentford with similar results
Hearts have greater potential than the Midgieland in my opinion. Bigger stadium, bigger fan base, bigger commercial potential.
We used to be better by being ahead of the game, not copying what others do. We’ll never be better than the Benhams or Blooms at data analytics but we can be good enough and do the other things better.
From the Midtjylland squad last night, the following gives an idea of where they go shopping.
Starting 11 includes
Icelander, 25 (signed at 18)
Korean, 23 (signed at 21)
Croatian, 27 (ex Serie A)
Swiss, 30
Columbian, 20
Chilean, 21
Korean, 27 (signed at 22)
Bissau-Guinean, 22
Danish, 19
Substitutes include:
Ecuadorian, 21
Senegalese, 21
Nigerian, 21 (the wonderfully named Friday Etim, ‘Gaud’ to his friends)
Nigerian, also 21
Guinea-Bissau, 19
Brazil, 30 (signed at 24)
Brazil, 26 (signed at 19)
Midtjylland are one of the original Algo-ball teams in Europe, owned until recently by ‘professional gambler’ Matthew Benham – who also owns Brentford.
He’s a graduate in Physics from Oxford Uni, ex City hedge fund manager and owns the Smartodds statistics research firm. Consequently he has an eye for a player…
It would disserve Midtjylland’s strategy for me to try to rehash it here, but suffice to say they look for players who fit their profile, and their profile is determined by mathematical modelling.
He sold the club a couple of years ago to Glen Feshie resident Anders Holch Povlsen, 9 years after he had bought them out of bankruptcy.
The following article from 2015 gives some of the background. 2015! That’s at least 4 generations of technology ago. The quote I like is:
‘We can’t outspend our competitors, so we have to outthink them.”
https://thecorrespondent.com/2607/how-data-not-people-call-the-shots-in-denmark/230219386155-d2948861
Here’s a quote from an article from 5 years ago:
Ankersen says data is key because it helps Midtjylland get closer to the truth. “In football the stories we tell ourselves are often wrong,” he says. “Look what happens when a team goes through a bad set of results. The fans and the media search for a narrative to explain it. It’s the same when a team does well.
“Last season, for instance, we won the league by 14 points. People were saying we were doing fantastically well. But when you looked at the underlying data, we didn’t actually improve. Our closest competitors got worse. And once you’ve seen regression to the mean, again and again, you build up a big belief that this is the right way of doing things.”
We’ve fallen into the trap of telling ourselves the wrong stories for too long, it’s taken disrupters like Benham and Bloom to show how wrong we’ve been
Celtic40me – I can’t type fast enough, clearly 🤣
31003 on 7th November 2025 12:57 pm
LOSTINBENIDORMONTHEWAYTOBARCA on 7TH NOVEMBER 2025 11:53 AM
Thanks.
The post was removed from the last chat
ROHL….NOT DOHL.
LOSTINBENIDORMONTHEWAYTOBARCA @ 11:53 AM,
Eloquent heartfelt post…
31033… Thanks for posting…
Hail Hail
*also rans
Midtjylland have a Vision 2025 document on their website which sets out the Club’s objectives in football, their financial aims and their aims for fan match day experiences.
I believe the collective asked our execs to publish their plan for us but were told this was too sensitive to publish…
Not sure how much of a loss the current version of Balikwisha will be re the Cup of Nations.
Plus, Jan will see us lose the likely wantawyas like Daizen and Reo.
Beginning to look like rebuild stuff innit !
THE BATTERED BUNNET on 7TH NOVEMBER 2025 1:03 PM
👍
I said a very similar thing about Hearts and five years this morning.
Watching the game, my thoughts were along the lines of…
…How come we can’t get near them when they have the ball, and can’t get away from them when we have it?
There’s an awful lot of work to be done.
THE BATTERED BUNNET on 7TH NOVEMBER 2025 1:21 PM
I thought they’d be bigger, quicker and stronger but not so much better than us technically
Fitter, too although that wasnt so much of a surprise
I wonder what Nicholson has done for his ‘world class ‘salary this week?