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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I agree that we need that kind of player too. But isn’t Scott Brown the man who should be driving the team on?
goldstar10
10:07 on 29 January, 2013
ECHR.
Are they human? No.
LiviBhoy
Livi there were others calling for his return yesterday after months and months of folk saying that Victor was indestructible I find that strange that we suddenly need a player who can mix it or does he have to be Scottish to understand that when the going gets tough you need to roll your sleeves up? and then there is Beram Kayal who was bought specifically to bring a bit of bite to the midfield which he does.
The problem in my opinion was the shape of the team as soon as I hear Paul at Celtic TV talking about a diamond formation my spider senses prick up, it’s rare that we play this well, Scott Brown for all his mixing and bite factor can’t pass the ball, Joe Ledley errs on the side of caution and Big Vic though he is afforded superstar status by our support is still a young inexperienced pro whose passing is not 100% reliable so on Sunday where was the service going to come from.
In my opinion we need a passer, St Mirren passed the ball around us and they are not the first team to do that this season, there’s a few teams in Scotland now playing football and passing the ball on the deck and for us as a support to call all of these teams diddy teams in my view is disrespectful, the game is changing and the management at Celtic should be noting that and I doubt that we take any game as a given.
Don’t underestimate the loss of our Talisman on Sunday Big Fraser, the defence looks like cats on hot bricks right from the get go.
Lastly I think Neil got his selection wrong which is easy for me to say but when the teams were announced I had a funny feeling about the shape and that’s not to take anything away from St Mirren, they worked out how to stop us playing and took there chances when presented.
I don’t know if Neil will buy any more players this window as I think he feels his squad is close to what he wants but I still think that the lack of a pure passing midfielder is the root of Celtics troubles in these games…
Hail Hail from the Valley
murdochauldandhay :09:49 on29 January, 2013miki67:
“Did you see this on panorama last night, Disgracefull”
>>>>>>>
I did. And I’ve been looking at how it’s made the headlines in the msm.
It was/is incredibly shocking to see how blatant the crass insensitivity and fraudulent behaviour of these private benefit stripping/denying companies have been given absolute power by this horrendous government. They trot out their companies ethics in glossy websites and propagandistic legalese, which are nothing less than lies.
I wasn’t going to say anything here for fear of being caned for being the obligatory “left-wing loony” (it feels like 1983 all over again these days…..only worse), but you asked, so I’m letting rip.
At the heart and soul of all this is the now incontrovertible fact that The IDS Gang would simply prefer that some people just wither and die in hungry penury, or be slavishly worked to the bone in their service.
And ‘New Labour’? Just ‘Tory Lite’.
If I was thirty years younger, fitter and more able to take up the cudgel, I’d be out there, getting tore into the ratbags…….win, lose or draw.
To sit back and say/do nothing while this runs on unchecked (and citizens are paying for this every bit as much as they whinge about providing benefits/social security….it’s a scam) is to be compliant.
Apologies if my ire has offended anyone.
MurdochauldandHay
09:58
Well said
79caps
09:56
As much as I agree we need more creativity, I have 1 major problem with that train of thought.
Can’t create chances if we cant keep hold of the ball when we try to move it forward.
The creativity needs to be there yes, but who would this creative player have passed to? How would we have even got the ball to him?
We didn’t manipulate and control the space in the slightest.
Which comes mainly, as I’m sure many have already said, from the front line and an outnumbered midfield.
Pressing starts from the front, passing from the back, and possession from the keeper.
Didnt function as a unit, was not that 1 ingredient (creativity) missing.
_______________________
For reference, the reason I mention manipulating and controlling the space is that in my mind finding those small pockets and creating space is as much down to manipulation of the way your opposition lines up as it is intelligence in the forwards (See Mezut Ozil)
Son Of
HH
Starry plough
We had a passer of the ball and couldn’t wait to get rid of him,I give you Ki.Sung Yung.
Watch him playing for Swansea and see what we are missing.
Heavy rain -way down south .
Out earlier buying goat . Curried goat ,rice and peas for dinner tonight . Winter food !
The butcher is a Napoli supporter—————-
” Hope your lot stuff those Rubentus illegitimates ! ”
Many call Juventus —— Rubentus –from the Italian verb —–rubare -to steal…
It would be great to hear a packed Celtic Park chanting ————-
ROO –BEN -TOOS ————-ROO -BEN-TOOS !.
A lovely big tifo from the Green Brigade would be great ..
Jamie Mackie for £3m and apparently available?
fanadpatriot
There was no bigger fan of Ki than me and I was told he was too lightweight for the SPL, he had a great game against Chelsea the other night.
I think it’s we as a support that need to ditch the idea of need players to mix it to beat other SPL teams, most SPL teams are trying to play football these days funnily enough since the demise of the Orcs..
Fanadpatriot
Bang on.
Ki kept possession aswell.
We have signed Rogic , which will be interesting.
I was told by an Aussie that he doesn’t like a tackle, but is very skilful .
TT
Paul’s headline “Celtic get what their inconsistency deserved” could equally have been written “Celtic get what their complacency deserved”
If as has been reported, Neil Lennon was in Italy watching Juventus on Saturday evening, then this was a mistake. This would send out the wrong message to the players on the eve of a key match. If the manager is not taking the a Cup semi-final seriously then why should the players be expected to do so?
St Mirren, a team that doesn`t have to play against packed defences or win every week could afford to play two ball players against Celtic, the team that lets others play.
While I admire the play of McGowan and McGinn I`m not sure that Celtic could do like wise.
starry plough
I think you have made some good points and we do need a number 10 in the team as our possession of the ball in Europe is poor but I think we will need to wait for the right player and the funds that will be required to buy a quality player will come in the summer once a few have departed.
I was so disappointed with Sunday. The 3rd goal was a killer. I believe we would have still won the game until that went in. The players looked shocked and stunned. It drained them. It took us more than 15 mins to get over that goal.
If Stokes was fit should he have started? Hooper and Stokes built up a decent partneship over the last couple of seasons. It just all went wrong on Sunday. Fair play to St Mirren who were excellent but we should have made a better fist of it.
There must be a player out there who can give us some experience on the pitch when we need it.
These guys don’t have to be the best player in the world but provide the managers, instructions, thoughts and encouragement onto the field of play. WGS talked about it when he was given the Scotland job.
I would love to have a Paul McStay in this side. We would still be unbeaten for the season and I include the away Barcelona match!
LB
Took the opportunity to read the DR hotline , on the net as I would never dream of paying for that rag! Are these really Celtic supporters that phone into that piece of garbage? I cannot believe some of their comments. I doubt if these so called Celtic supporters could even find their way to Celtic Park or even put a penny into our famous Club.my fault for getting upset, I know I shouldn’t even log into that rubbish. HH
Morning all
Working late this week so won’t make game tomorrow. Hope and expect it to be 100pc better than Sunday which is one of the more annoying Celtic matches I’ve been at
Reading comments by and in reply to Lucy Cody I’d say that NFL’s first two seasons were so unusual – the first for him personally , the second because of the collapse of RFCAsWas- as to make assessment of the manager very difficult. Sunday’s defeat was different but I think it’s far too early to be talking about changing manager. Should we win one ( or fewer God Forbid) trophies and lose comfortably to Juve then I might change my mind but none of these things have happened yet. Interesting times ahead and hopefully good ones.
As for today’s tribunal ( or whatever the hell it is) can’t say I’m overly optimistic that anything more than a mild rebuke of Oldco will be the result. I know the credentials of Lord Nimmo Smith and co are ‘impeccable’ but I have an inbuilt suspicion of such figures. The evidence presented so far coupled with the actual rules suggest titles should be stripped ( and awarded to no one else IMO) but I doubt that will happen
Interesting times though.
Jimbo
Canamalar,hope you’re right,with the showing new manfer what you’ve got.:O)
Neil Lennon @OfficialNeil
Disappointing day Sunday, however we still have lots to aim for and achieve starting tomorrow. On a lighter note happy birthday Davie Hay
Latest response to the Govt from the English FA –
“The FA are concerned that the people responsible for taking the countries economic situation from recession to depression, with no feesable planes to improve the countries economic situation, have now decided to involve themselves in the governance of the most successful sporting ogranisation in the world. Bloody cheek” :oD)))
starry plough
10:10
Please dont scoff and scroll down after my next statement cos there is a reason for it:
I dont mind the diamond in midfield.
It has to be balanced though. Either front 2 dragging the play and running channels or someone moving laterally at the pin point of the diamond
(See Forrest vs Udinese or Commons when used centrally)
Then the 3 behind that have to be well drilled, which we generally are, but they need to know where to be and when to be there and on a pitch the size of hampden can give them a lot of room to cover.
Thats where and how we got overrun.
If you talk about their 5 in the middle there were always 2 out wide who tucked in or doubled up wide whenever we got the ball and spread the play when they won it back.
That just gave our 3 far too much room to cover and too many to pass through.
So there is a time and place for the diamond, but we need the right mix which we didn’t have.
And even then, the time and place is not on a wide pitch against a well drilled 5 man midfield that protect their back line.
Meeting time
Son Of
HH
@ OfficialNeil
Disappointing day Sunday, however we still have lots to aim for and achieve starting tomorrow. On a lighter note happy birthday Davie Hay.
Gretnabhoy
10:20 on
29 January, 2013
Took the opportunity to read the DR hotline , on the net as I would never dream of paying for that rag! Are these really Celtic supporters that phone into that piece of garbage? I cannot believe some of their comments.
————————————————————————————————-
No it’s Kev Jungle and his many disguises.
BigYin…,
disagree, if Neil picked up one bit of information that gives us an advantage through attending the game then its worth it.
manfer all seasons
Son of Gabriel
No scoffing Mate you explained it perfectly in a way I couldn’t…
We got it wrong again at Hampden, Sunday’s defeat for me was harder to take than the others as St Mirren played us off the park!!
What drives me mad is the carnage on here after the defeat, I went straight put after the game but read back last night, speechless at some of the crap that’s gets spewed up on here every time we lose!!
Big games coming up now and time for the Bhoys to focus and get it right..
starry, 3/4 of the posters post match are not regulars, clearly not tims
Neil canamalar Lennon hunskelper extrordinaire at 10:26
There have bene other opportunities to see Juventus before we play them and there will be more. So why leave on the eve of a major game?
Still think we are missing Efe, no harm to his national ambitions but I’d rather he was back for the weekeknd
bigyinmilan
____
Agree,but what does it say about our ass manager and backroom staff.Lenny cant be there all the time he has to have confidence that they are getting on with the job.We are not as good as we think we are but we will learn and we will get better
Happy birthday to Davie Hay. Some player!
The major disappointing aspect of Sundays failure was we’ve seen it all before, several times now and we don’t seem to be able to do anything about it, a shrug of the shoulders, move on and forget about it. Have another read of Paul’s opening paragraph on the article above, until thats remedied another failure such as Sundays is waiting just around the corner.
fanadpatriot
He’s isn’t blessed with genuine pace but I don’t think he’s a carthorse either. I don’t remember him being exposed too often at LB last season.
Its only the League Cup bhoys- nobody gives a stuff about it.
BigYin..,
the more he sees them the better his chances to pick up on and advantage, simple statistics no
I’d expect he had done a full days work before flying out, and he’d have been at work at the same time as everybody else on Sunday morning, so no quite sure how going to see Juve would have affected the teams preparation.
I’m thinking people are jst looking for excuses to have a pop at him, for no other reason that he’s no their favorite manager, its a ginger thing I think :o)
goldstar10
10:07 on
29 January, 2013
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.
——
I can see big problems if they succeed in recovering outlays on pies though – not one for the Small Claims court!
Food court maybe :o)
Not sure if it’s been mentioned already but just heard on Talk Spurt that ICT might have a case to call for a replay of the QF vs Hertz as they fielded new loan signing Danny Wilson who appears to have had an unserved suspension from his time with the deid club the last time he played in the competition.
Could get interesting!!
HH
/Bishop B
I see that Charles Green isn’t happy that the SPL didn’t take a vote on reconstruction as it was unanimous.
Two questions: who cares what a third division chairman thinks, especially given that his new club isn’t even a full SFL member?
And doesn’t he understand what unanimous means?
The biggest issue from Sunday for me,was the lack of early adjustment to the formation and lack of early substitutions.