Was anyone surprised at yesterday’s result? You shouldn’t have been. I don’t think I’ve ever before written two articles against taking a result for granted. Celtic are ridiculously inconsistent as Kilmarnock, Hibs, St Johnstone, Inverness and now St Mirren will testify, even Arbroath left Celtic Park with a draw. The intensity which has been self-evident on Champions League duty has been posted missing far too often.
Defeat yesterday was entirely possible as is defeat away to Raith Rovers in the Scottish Cup on Sunday. There will be entirely different tactics and attitude when Juventus call next month but right now you’re feeling sore because, against all odds, we’ve conceded a League Cup final place and we’ll find an equally brave opponent at some point in the Scottish Cup unless a solution is found.
Speaking at the funeral of Sean Fallon last week, Sir Alex Ferguson referred to need for a manager to be a hard taskmaster, generating a corresponding need for the assistant manager to be plugged into the dressing room. I’m sure this is not the only way of managing a football team but it was how Jock Stein and Sean worked, and it’s how Sir Alex has worked for the last three decades.
Millionaire players need an edge in their lives to deliver on a lesser stage.
I had to be in Paisley all morning, which did not help my mood.
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Lucky Cody – look out mate – the happies are ganging up on you!
All kiddin aside, the guy has a valid opinion, after 5 defeats at Hampden under Neil he may be right, clearly something is wrong and for whatever reason its not being addressed.
Ballotelli definitely cup-tied, so we’re only facing the electric pace and clinical finishing of Nicolas Anelka, oh sorry that was him 6 years ago.
ASonOfDan
By the way thanks for picking me up on the Dundee Utd/Kilmarnock thing, I was having a bad day in work and my head was melting.
lucky cody
You are entitled to your opinion – just as everybody else on here are – and I respect that!
HH!!
Lucky Cody, you’re entitled to your opinion like everyone else.
I’ll disagree with you for this reason, NFL has had to put up with things no-one should have to put up with to do their job, on our behalf he has put up with these things.
NFL will know when the time has come for him to move on, I hope that is not for a very long time. Call me a Happy Clapper if you like, I prefer to be called loyal.
Another reason would be he is a young coach learning in the job and overall doing very, very well.
Like you this is just my opinion.
BombsandBulletsCSC
Ich bin ein Berliner.
What separates winners from losers in football is often ability. But behind that ability there must be a steely determination to win. They call it professionalism. On Sunday St Mirren – with a fraction of our resources – had that professionalism. We didn’t. They won. We lost.
fritzsong
08:59 on 29 January, 2013
I think it’s more to do with the players, individually and collectively, being unsettled by the speculation during the transfer window.
And that’s to do with our position of being, for exceptional players, a potential stepping stone to the elite clubs. A bit like a ladder in snakes and ladders.
The fact that Fraser Forster is out injured would also have had an effect on the collective mentality of the team.
One Neil Lennon
HH
Lucky Cody
At some stage is is likely that you will be savaged for your critique .
Stay strong and keep posting.
TT
A Berliner is a doughnut…
….just sayin’…
; > )
Will the judgement happen before midday :o)
SFL to be sued for the cost of pies:
“Warning to SFL. Declaration I will recover all money lost in small claims court
As we are aware the SFL are meeting later this week to discuss reconstruction. Please post declarations below to warn them of the consequences.
If this does happen, I will be suing the SFL through the small claims court. I will be claiming for all ticket costs (home and away) all petrol costs, match programmes, pies and anything else I can think of up to a limit of £3000, based on the presumption that I was financially supporting my club in order to gain promotion, as set out by the SFL at the beginning of the season.”
This morning’s Juve news —–
Italian authorities have punished Juve for their reactions to being denied a penalty in the game v Genoa —–
The Club have been fined 50 k euros..
The President has been banned from talking to the Media for 3 weeks.
The Manager has been suspended for 2 games [ he’s only recently back from a suspension for match fixing ]
Bonucci has been suspended for 2 games.
Vucinic has been suspended for 1 game.
Chiellini has been suspended for 1 game.[ he wasn’t even playing ]
The punishments are a slap on the wrist but the fact that they were punished is a sign that their ” psychological hegemony ” is weakening .
Balotelli ?—– Official source said —– ” simply not true..”
Media claiming that Lyon have said no to Juve’s 4 million euros bid for Lisandro Lopez.
Media claiming that Juve continue to be interested in Immobile and Gabbiadini.
Lazio — Juve tonight 7 45 UK
miki67
09:22 on
29 January, 2013
A Berliner is a doughnut…
….just sayin’…
Similar to Lucky Cody in the eyes of some, then?
JJ
No substitute for experience!
Neil Lennon should be battering down peter Lawwell’s door today to get expereinced players into the squad. The youngsters we have will win games but experienced players would not allow that result to happen at the weekend.
Think back to a side that battled to a 3-2 victory against Rangers in 2008.
Robson scored the winner with a penalty at Celtic Park.
The team was as stated below. A few seasoned campaigners in that side.
Celtic: Boruc, Hinkel, McManus, Caldwell, Naylor, Nakamura, Hartley, McGeady, Robson, McDonald, Vennegoor of Hesselink.
Subs: Mark Brown, Samaras, Scott Brown, O’Dea, Caddis, Donati, Wilson.
Hartley was probably past his best but still provided experience and bite in the midfield. Robson was dominant and also knew how to mix it. JVOH was a threat in the air and also a good goalscorer.
We had experience. We had seasoned campaigners who would battle against Scottish sides when the chips were down. Robson and Hartley were both booked for crashing into challenges with Barry Ferguson. They got their retaliation in first.
I note this match because currently in Scottish games if we go down a goal we struggle to battle back. We seem to have issues combatting against other Scottish teams players when things are not going our way. I still feel we are lacking a Roy Aitken type figure on the field but I have been saying that for a number of years.
How can we rise to a European match but not to a team that haven’t beaten us for almost two years and haven’t even scored a goal against us in the same period? It’s a mystery to most of us but I think we can all see that a seasoned campaigner would add much more to this squad. It’s up to lenny or John Park or whoever is employed at the club to find someone suitable but there becomes a time when they must sit down and say ‘This will not be allowed to happen again’.
Ross County was a shock result but not without warning.
Kilmarnock was a poor day at the office and we didn’t win.
Hearts was another poor day with some shocking decisions from the referee.
St Mirren was just a shocker.
The one constant at hampden in all these defeats was that we lost the first goal and couldn’t drive on to secure the result. We had all the possession. Hearts was probably the harshest of all due top the shocking penalty decision.
Would Barry Robson make a decent signing? Is he too old? Would he have prevented some of what happened on Sunday? Who knows?
What is clear is that we need a Hartley or a Robson in this squad. They don’t have to play all the time but they will have the knowledge and the know how to mix it when required against these sides when the chips are down. Scott brown is the captain and on his day a very fine player he is finding it difficult to drive the team on in these matches. Can the class clown be a leader? I’m not convinced myself. Do we change the captaincy? I doubt that will happen and Brown has been at the club long enough to merit it.
The player who wears the arm band doesn’t have to be the major influence on the field and at training. We need a season campaigner and we need him NOW. Europe is a different ball game and we have progressed well and had some fantastic results but in Scotland you need at least one player who can battle and mix it when we are struggling. I don’t think one player on Sunday let St Mirren know they were in a game.
The window closes on Thursday night and while most people are looking at the exit door I will be hoping at least one player will be coming in who can play in the first team.
You can buy all the potential in the world but right now this team has shown that they need an experienced player to push the youngsters on when required.
It’s not a time to panic but the warning signs have been there this season and last.
If Celtic finish the season with only one trophy to their name it won’t be as successful as it should be. We threw away a treble last season and this season. Do the club wait until next season is in the same state before they realise we need an expereinced player to guide this young side.
Apologies for the long post but I needed to get that off my chest. Sunday was like a defeat to Oldco.
LB
Lucky Cody,
I take it our European performances this year were all flukes and should be dismissed as such ?
Unlike yourself, I rate the European competition and results a better litmus test to make my judgement on team and manager.
I’m just sorry that you have such a low regard for the premier world club football tournament, oboiously I will reasses my judgement to take in your obvious admiration if the Scottish league cup. Maybe no
Could you repeat the names of the clubs you consider Neil has failed to properly prepare the team for and I’m sure someone will match your claims with European games his preparations have exceeded expectation.
jungle jim:09:39 on29 January, 2013
>>>>
“You may say that.
I couldn’t possibly comment.”
LiviBhoy
That team :
Boruc, Hinkel, McManus, Caldwell, Naylor, Nakamura, Hartley, McGeady, Robson, McDonald, Vennegoor of Hesselink.
I couldn`t find a place for a single one of them in our current “best” eleven. I say that in spite of the sublime skills of McGeady and Nakamura.
JJ
Where’s Ayrtic these days?
Miki 67
“I couldn’t possibly comment.”
Nothing has stopped you in the past 0:-)
Right, I am off out on the bike now. Recent weather has meant no training for the WeeOscar Belfast extravaganzaI`ve hit my driver further than I have cycled this year! That has to be remedied….use a wedge?
JJ
Three calls now for Barry Robson to come back, I give up…
Some of the Hampden performances under Lenny have been good: Aberdeen semi-final, Scottish Cup Final against Motherwell to give two examples.
What was especially true in the Aberdeen one is that we totally battered them in the first half and on 45 minutes that semi-final was over as a contest.
There is, maybe, a pattern here with some of the games in which we have struggled at Celtic Park; it’s as though we shrink if we don’t get an early goal. Obviously that can’t be true, not really, but it may be that the opposition grows in confidence.
So, batter them. Change the tactics to bombard their box for the first 15 minutes and put the fear of God into them. High balls to giant ghuys. Route one, the lot. Grab a goal or two and the pass the ball beautifully for the remaining 75 minutes to please the purists.
miki67
Did you see this on panorama last night, Disgracefull
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/ltb–lying-thieving-bs-bbc-documentary-lifts-the-lid-on-offensive-code-used-to-describe-disabled-and-jobless-8469818.html
Nakamura would play ahead of Commons, in my opinion. I would manage to get Aiden in there somewhere as well.
Forster; Lustig, Ambrose, Wilson, Matthews; Wanyama, Brown; Nakamura, Samaras, McGeady; Hooper.
Jungle Jim
I would have had a 2008 Barry Robson and JVOH on the pitch on Sunday for a start.
It’s a squad game and we need a few experienced players.
Starry
I was advocating a Barry Robson/Paul Hartley type player as they are the latest players we have had who could mix it in the midfield.
LB
I see Charlie Mulgrew is getting some stick for his performance on Sunday, which is partly justified as it was calamitous to say the least. I think Neil has to take some of the blame for this though. Though he uses the ball well from the back, it has been proven time and time again that Charlie isn’t a reliable centre back. Furthermore, Izaguirre has offered zero attacking threat at left back since his first season. Surely Charlie’s performances at left back last season, not least in terms of assists and goal threat(title day at Rugby Park a perfect example) make the left back jersey his on merit? Strange one.
Dundee Utd get rid of their manager just in time for playing an important
game against a ragers of sorts.HMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
LiviBhoy
I don’t see how “mixing it” would have helped on Sunday. St MIrren were not a dirty team. I see our problem as a lack of creativity in midfield. If we can’t create chances from the flanks or from set pieces we can’t score. I don’t understand why McGeoch isn’t given a chance.
I was out all day yesterday, and don’t have the time to read an entire day’s blog. Was gutted on Sunday – the attitude was wrong, the players expected to turn up and be given the victory. I won’t go into detail, as I’m sure that I would just be repeating what many others have said. Suffice to say that lessons need to be learned – and quickly.
Lets not start making scapegoats of certain players the team as a whole had an off day,no individual player was responsible for our defeat we win as a team and lose as a team
I think Charlie is too slow to play left back. he is particularly too slow on the turn. Izzy has had his moments this year, Sammy’s goal in Moscow being one example, but in bigger games his positional play puts the fear of God into me. It must be NFL’s instruction for both full backs to bomb on at the same time, because he does it so often it can’t be overlooked by the management! However, Dundee Utrd last week, how many times at 0-0 did they manage to play the ball into his area of the pitch? Emenike’s equaliser in Moscow, the shot for their 2-1 in the same game, the pass to Ari for the goal at celtic Park, all of it down Izzy’s side of the pitch. I’d go with matthews at left back against Juve, personally.
Saint leo
Mulgrew is far too slow to play full back,he makes Caldwell look like Usian Bolt.but you are right about centre back,he is a liability.
79caps
The team has to have a mixture of guile and strength. With Victor under par on Sunday we were lacking strength. Why we persevered with 3 up front was beyond me.
That should have been changed at half time. I think Lassad and Samaras are too similar and should have been changed. I would have had Commons on at half time.
The game has gone and we are out the cup but it’s the lessons learned that could define this season.
I think Lenny will get it right. What has been achived in Europe is remarkable but the trophies in this country should be wrapped up with very little challenge.
St Mirren? Played well on Sunday but let’s be honest. Ross County battered them 4-1 at home the previous week.
What did Danny Lennon do? Went out and got a midfielder and a striker and his team played like their lives depended on it.
We looked like we just had to turn up and couldn’t mix it or create anything when we had to. When a team is struggling in a match sometimes a crunching challenge lifts the crowd
and lets the other players know that they are in a match. It was the lack of desire to win that was evident for me on Sunday and that was unaccaptable.
We need a player with a will to win these matches who can drive the team on.
LB
vp,
I’m glad they got rid of a manfer who has shown no commitment to the club, I think the players now have to prove themselves worthy to who ever takes over.
Monaghan- Ha ah what are they like?
Do Sevco fans have a contract with SFL – No
Have SFL been negligent- most likely, No
End of.
and manager
Cha Mul-Grew will always be in the team for the simple fact his set-piece delivery, although agree he was very poor on Sunday, looked like a lack of confidence, I’d give him a couple of games on the bench then get him ready for Juve, I’d play him left midfield for the game.