Celtic midfield problems

645

Neil Lennon accepted responsibility for the tactical decision to start yesterday’s game with three at the back, saying, “We thought the three would suit us, but that didn’t seem to be the case. We looked a little bit flat the first 10-15 minutes and I don’t know why.”

Hibernian scored during this period, which may or may not have been a result of the defensive line-up, but if anything, Celtic were even flatter after they went to four at the back.  The game was a throwback to the days when Gordon Strachan’s teams worked hard but seldom inspired.

The midfield didn’t dominate enough of the ball to prevent Hibs creating several good chances and was unable to craft a clear-enough opening.  With Charlie Mulgrew on the field we are always dangerous, and Kris Commons has a better sense of where the goal is than anyone at the club, but without them we grasp to Paddy McCourt, who only seems to get the call when we’re in trouble.

So where do we need to strengthen next month……………?

Have you ordered your CQN Annual yet? Get it here!

You can read the latest edition of CQN Magazine free online by clicking on the double headed arrow at the bottom right of the graphic below.
[calameo code=000390171cc0c3617c8cc lang=en page=1 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]

Click Here for Comments >
Share.

About Author

645 Comments

  1. Marrakesh Express on

    Just read Jackson’s hatchet job on all things Celtic (online). This shameless hack tries to show the Celtic support as a blight on the country, with no reference to the hun who are quite possibly the worst support in European football. A scandalous piece even by his standards.

     

     

    On the subject, I was reminded by my cousin who was at a wedding the week after Sevco lost at Stirling, where he got talking to a Sevco fan who was also a duty cop that day. He told him it was that particular constabulary’s worst day of fan trouble, and those arrested filled cells in Stirling, Alloa and Falkirk police stations. Newspaper coverage?

  2. estorilbhoy

     

     

    11:48 on 31 December, 2012

     

     

    ‘Thank god I no longer buy that excuse for a newspaper.’

     

     

     

    Haven’t bought a Record for years, and can’t remember the last time I saw a printed copy.

     

     

    I used to look at it online until they stopped allowing readers to comment on the football stories. I assume that was Jabba doing his master’s bidding. No point paying PR people to produce copy just for it to rebutted and ridiculed by the great unwashed.

     

     

    Hell mend them.

  3. Steinreignedsupreme on

    Keech, Jabba and the Legless Loon probably combined forces for that trash.

     

     

    Isn’t great to know how much they are hurting?

  4. To cut a long story short……

     

     

    Why don’t Celtic FC/PLC grow a pair and – BAN Jangle Jackson ?

     

     

    Instead of…..bringing oot the pea-shooter and banning Hugh Keevins ?

     

     

    I buy the DR and I call the – Hotline – for another Hooooowwwwllllllll at the moon.

     

     

    If – Celtic FC make it official that – the DR is banned from CP

     

     

    then I will support the ban. Until then…..

     

     

    Only saying and being as honest as I can.

  5. Has Gaudd transferred over from Etims to CQN? If not then Kevjangle is giving an excellent impersonation. Tell you what Kev, why don’t you relax with a nice William Faulkner tome–I suggest Absalom,Absalom!—a real bundle of laughs. Have some Leonard Cohen playing in the background..While your at it,reflect on Socrates,( not the footballer), have a hemlock and Murdoch cocktail,and relax.If there was a transfer window on CQN I’d give you a free to the MSM or FF.

  6. Fortunes Favour Mibbes

     

    12:04 on

     

    31 December, 2012

     

    Not the dreaded spider debate again. And this time it’s got legs

     

    —————————–

     

    It`ll be all over the web at this rate.

  7. som mes que un club

     

     

    11:57 on

     

    31 December, 2012

     

    Wouldn’t surprise me if that was Jabba who penned that nonsense.

     

     

    —-

     

     

    Does it matter? They are all members of the same fraternity and are driven by the same agenda, that we can see that and others cannot is a blessing.

  8. Fresh and Crisp in the Chilterns…

     

     

    Well what was the highight of 2012

     

     

    Got to be my lucky pants doing a job on Barca

     

     

    Yet somehow singing

     

     

    “There’s not a team like the Glasgow R@ngers No not one they’ll never be another one”

     

     

    With gusto had an unusually satisfying ring aboot it….

  9. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    KEVJUNGLE

     

     

    Thanks,bud-off oot to start the cellies……..

     

     

    I support your suggestion for a ban-if only to see the confused look on your face when you walk into the newsagents every morning.

     

     

    Then walk out again.

     

     

    OldhabitsdiehardCSC

     

     

    See ya….

  10. We go into 2013 with a £35m sticking plaster over the worsening wound of attendances at at Celtic Park.

     

    That £CL patch will be gone in 6 months. Replaced with player sales.

     

     

    Who knows? Maybe a 3rd rescue package will be the academy players. If so, will they be kept to entertain us?

     

     

    The Green Brigade have shown that without them and their remarkable efforts, the atmosphere at Celtic Park is stony. With all due respect, and thanks, to the GB, the singing and dancing ought to be more a thing of spontaneity. Whatever the board or other fans think of them, 60,000 singing and dancing for 2 hrs every week at Parkhead is the only way to replace them. A replacement the GB might accept. But certainly we could count them in on.

     

     

     

    I’m optimistic for 2013.

     

    Just roll up our sleeves. Do what has to be done. Do who has to be done.

     

     

    I wish all CQN’ers good health for the New Year. With that you can take on the world.

     

     

    I have, in the main, always walked the last 2½ miles to Parkhead. I count it as part of the experience. One wee thing I’m looking forward to is the improvements in the roads and pavements over the next 18 months, hopefully making that pleasant option available to more of our support.

  11. Steinreignedsupreme on

    I’ve never saw anyone making a mountain out of a molehill – despite that people still think it’s a rubbish achievement.

  12. gordybhoy64

     

     

    12:16 on 31 December, 2012

     

     

    Kev,

     

    Why not stop buying the excuse of a paper cause its shite

     

    _________________________________________________

     

    I buy it to read – Murdo & Hugh Keevins

     

     

    Murdo’s my favorite Celtic player

     

     

    Hugh’s my favorite journalist

     

     

    What’s not to like ? :o)

     

     

    Hoooooooowwwwweeeeelllllll

  13. I’m angry at that poison. Really angry at Celtic ie Lawwell for giving them credence too. What is his agenda ?

     

     

    They really do hate us and I’m becoming tired of being victim.

  14. I have two highlights that I can’t separate for 2012.

     

    The day after Oldco went into administration and were subject to a 10 point deduction .

     

     

    The Celtic support turned up at Easter rd, in full party mode.

     

    Party hats, streamers, party balloons,fancy dress.

     

    The Celts then knocked in 5.

     

     

    Then there was the last ever “Old Firm ” derby.

     

    The four horsemen banner , by the GB.

     

    The 3-0 humping, then attending the clubs official POTY dance at the Thistle hotel at night.

     

     

    Great memories.

     

    A67

  15. BCW @12:20 the Celtic management are not adherents of the wee adage “Reward those who bring the beans in, not the ones who count them.” In fact the Celtic Board believe quite the opposite. Garnished with contempt.

  16. BIG-CUP-WINNERS

     

     

    12:20 on 31 December, 2012

     

    _____________________________________

     

    Four Celtic fans were drunk up in Dundee

     

     

    Why did – Lawwell & Lennon – not ask the 4 fans side of the story

     

    before jumping into bed with the establishment ?

     

     

    What’s bugging me is – for Neil to come out and tell the 4 fans to not come back ?

     

     

    Well Neil – the style of football YOUR team is playing – the 4 might as well join the other 30k who don’t come to see yer team any more.

     

     

    As for Lawwell – Spineless/Rudderless/DD’s Puppet….ah dear dear.

  17. 2012 was a great year. To witness the demise of the club who introduced sectarian policies into sport and ultimately became the most bigoted club in the world ( yep another world record) was great. To see the SFA with Campbell Ogilvie trying to shoehorn the newco back into the top flight with the support of Regan and Doncaster was not surprising. Campbell Ogilvie administered the sectarian policy of the oldco and his loyalties are still at Ibrox.

     

     

    Ultimately it was an opportunity lost as the newco has reverted to type with the anthems of hate present against Queens Park. Unlike Peter Lawwell and Lennons public statements after Dundee , there has been complete silence from Green and McCoist underlying the tacit approval for the continuation of bigotry at Ibrox.

     

     

    There will be more twists and turns in the whole Sevco story as the men in the shadows who control Green will take “their money” out of Ibrox. Green and the “investors” have their plan prepared and McCoist will realise too late, he is being played for a fool. A compliant media will ensure they will not waken….especially when cheerleaders like Jackson are too busy writing articles attacking Celtic ( I wonder if Jabba helped Jackson as the twist in the article is too clever for Jackson).

     

     

    On the good ship Celtic I am looking forward to a treble this season. However Lenny needs to dramatically improve the performances in the domestic game.the lack of desire from the players at Easter Road especially in the first 15 minutes was totally unacceptable. It may be harsh but if we don’t win the Treble this year Lenny should chuck it.

  18. The Ghood will prevail on

    I’m not a fan of ‘whataboutery’, and I’m happy for Celtic as a club and a support to face up to the (rare) occasions when some of our fans are out of order, but I will not be lectured by the daily record on the matter, or indeed a scottish media which is selectively deaf and blind when it comes to the worst supporters in the world. The Rangers might be a new club, but their fans’ continued vocal support for repatriation of people of Irish descent and songs about paedophilia mean that at least the spirit of the oldco is alive and flourising. Keech, we don’t believe that secvo supporters are just as bad as our ned element; we believe that they are much, much worse.

     

    Our club’s softly softly approach to that rag bemuses me. It has not worked. This is an organ that promotes the interests of rfc and now sevco regardless, and undermines Celtic at every opportunity. It also gleefully reports scandal about all things Catholic (of course, Celtic is not and never has been exclusively Catholic, but many of our fans are). On a rare occasion when I misguidedly picked up the rag in the works canteen (scrupulously avoiding the sports section) Jimmy Saville was described as a ‘devout Catholic’. No other report in any other media organ I came across used such a term to describe that abuser. Funny that.

     

    There is simply now nothing to lose by banning them from Celtic Park and Lennoxtown. It might drive the message home to the misguided fans who still buy it.

  19. Switched the radio on at back of 1am this morning and talksport was on, would normally immediately change the channel from that crap, however discussion was Scottish Football 2012 year.

     

     

    As much as the presenter tried to discuss Celtic’s achievement in the Champions League he was rebuffed each time by a hurting wee hun nyaff called Stewart Weir(think he does/did work for the evening times). He was waxing lyrically about Sevco’s performance in Div 3 and the financial and attendance problems throughout the rest of the country Interviewer then, asked him about Celtic being clear in the SPL and Weir went into an incoherent ramble about Leigh Griffiths, Jamie Murphy et all, when he finally got round to talking about Celtic he stated that on Hooper, Wanyama & Foster should be sold in January.

     

     

    He also stated that ‘Rangers’ may be forced into selling the promising youngsters who have broken through this season !!!

     

     

    It was bizzare but also very satisfying listening to the lengths they go to in denying reality.

     

     

    I didn’t hear him mention World War Z in Dundee in midweek but I did tune in half way through so I’m quite sure he had already managed to fit that in.

     

     

    The presenter had I right good get it up ye sign off, telling Weir that everyone down south was really looking forward to following Celtic in the Champions League.

  20. mcstays-ma-hero on

    We’re crying out for a good left back!

     

    Izzy’s not the player he was pre-injury…..and is our defensive weak link especially in CL. Juve are liable to rip us apart down our left hand side. Priority No.1 = left back with a bit of height!!