It’s probably easier to start with what went right last night, than what went wrong. Efe Ambrose was the epitome of composure, trying to retain possession whenever possible, his transformation since Juventus has been remarkable. van Dijk, Lustig and Izaguirre each did well. Fraser Forster had a few saves to make, but this was one Champions League game he didn’t need to pull off a wonder-save. He was totally exposed for the goal but otherwise Ajax didn’t really stress the Celtic goalkeeper, a clue, perhaps, to the solid performance of those immediately in front of him.
Our top two Champions League performers, Georgios Samaras and Kris Commons, both put in their least effective game at this level. Samaras’ normally-reliable touch and ability to hold the ball deserted him, while Kris looked like a guy returning from injury. Slowly.
The minutia of these games are analysed by each team and after last month’s game, Frank de Boer clearly identified that Georgios was the major cog in Celtic’s machine. The striker was triangulated by opponents each time the ball came near him.
Neil Lennon was left with few choices in the middle of the park. Mulgrew and Kayal would not have been his first choice partnership, given a free hand, but the only practical change there would have been to introduce Joe Ledley. It’s far from clear what difference this would have made.
Celtic persisted in playing down the left long after it was evident this strategy was unproductive. Late in the first half one wag text me to say, “Time to bring Forrest on”, which told the whole story. Anthony Stokes was adrift, largely unconnected to the ankle clipping going on behind him. In short, our play was predictable and correctly predicted by do Boer. We didn’t have a Plan B, which even the best of teams need to avoid defeat occasionally in the Champions League.
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south of tunis
14:14 on 7 November, 2013
Currently , Milan are a shambles. Injuries, fitness problems, loss of form etc . A Club at war with itself and a Manager who might not make it to Christmas.Support is mightily p’d off.
They are very poor defensively,they don’t have the players to play cattenacio
—–
So we can expect them to take 3 off us!
Praecepta
The inference of your post IMHO infers we need to be smarter about managing the resources we have, and I wholeheartedly agree.
Good post
oopla
Philbhoy
Celtic 21/10
AC Milan 5/4
Draw 12 /5
west csc
“usually the posters here ignore stuff that makes them uncomfortable”
Or they prefer to have a clearer picture before fishing for dirt.
Hail Hailstones in EK
Jobocsc
SoT
Thanks!
My chin is now slightly higher than earlier!
Celtic 14/1 to qualify for last 16.
LB
clashcitybhoy
14:05 on 7 November, 2013
When did Joe Ledley come on ?
Of the eight pot 4 teams in the group stage, only 2 have more points than we do:
9 – Napoli
4 – Copenhagen
3 – Celtic
2 – Steaua Bucharest
1 – Real Sociedad, Anderlecht, Austria Vienna
0 – Viktoria Plzen
Tttt
John Paul Taylor the SLO has acted on a suggestion tgat asked supporters involved in the plain clothes police incident to get in touch.
Give it time.
West csc
Hun daftie.
Siesta time zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Philbhoy.
I went to the game in Milan . Milan were very poor.
Teams in Serie A don’t seem to be frightened of the current Milan team . Beaten by the likes of Parma and Verona ..Drawing with the likes of Bologna and Torino
If we signed Messi some folk on CQN would moan he’s too short..
Morrisseythe23rd As you know I,ve proxied my vote to Marie via the Celtic Trust can I proxy a different person to represent me at the AGM? If so who do you suggest? Hail Hail Hebcelt
Watched game on sky plus last night. I didn’t know the score but it was evident Celtic were going to either get beat or be very lucky to get away with a win or draw.
Plan B? I thought about that while watching. ABout 10 minutes in to the second half I felt we should have abandoned the high pressing game we were playing and revert to a two banks of four defence, disciplined shape keeping and hoping to hit on the break. This is the modern game sometimes and the mantra ‘If you can’t win, don’t lose’ was repeating itself in my mind.
We need to learn to change the whole system mid game.
We are capable of stifling Barca. We should have done the same to Ajax last night and it would not have been a source of shame, just the pragmatism to accept we were having an off night and our creative players were either being squeezed out or were unfit.
We’d do well to remember also that despite playing with a midfield that is far from our favourite we were in the match until the end.
It’s a tough ask to get Euro football now but we will be in there fighting one way or another to the last game of the group.
I think last night also revealed that we can afford the best young defenders and midfielders if we scout hard enough – but those who are able to put the ball away, carve open a defence with regularity at the top level come at something of a premium even in the development stage. We a re a way from establishing a rich vein of forward talent under the radar of the Monied Clubs (they are not all ‘Big Clubs’ so I don’t use the term)
On a positive finish – another narrow defeat away from home would indicate we are, despite being short on creative end product some times, not an easy touch, hard to beat and a tough proposition for every club in Europe.
CultsBhoy loves being 1st forever & ever
14:36 on
7 November, 2013
If we signed Messi some folk on CQN would moan he’s too short..
===================================================
He’d never cut it against Inverness Away on a cold January night…….
Here’s my take on last night (and previous nights trouble) viewed on a sketchy scientific basis.
We have travelled far and wide, including several trips to Italy and Spain where the police are not known for their gentility to football with no major trouble happening if at all.
And yet we go to Amsterdam, and there’s a mess. Which variables changed? That’s right the away fans and police.
Two weeks prior was the first time I can remember since the inception of the CL that away fans caused real bother in Glasgow prior to a Celtic game. Once again the variables that changed are who those away fans were.
I’m not for one minute going to suggest that our fans are all angels but it’s notable nonetheless.
Apparently there’s not a single Ajax fan in the Amsterdam police either ;)
roberttressell
Good point..
west csc
14:06 on
7 November, 2013
so the question i am asking is” did the celtic fans riot in amsterdam”????????????
the daily mail said there was trouble between celtic fans and the police in dam square before the match
i am not talking about the unprovoked attack on celtic on fans on tuesday night
potentially if celtic fans were rioting, this is much worse than the result in amsterdam
===
Various accounts from Celtic supporters and neutrals stress that Celtic fans were defending themselves. They were not the instigators of violence and only retaliated in kind when attacked. Personnally i do not care if it was Ajax Holligans or the Dutch Police attacking our support it they did the bhoys had ever right to defend themselves.
Having a reputation for good behaviour does not not exclude you from booting eejits in the love spuds if they threaten you.
From the videos circulating it is clear to me that there are idiots among our support who were seriously tanked up on alcohol. Never a good basis for defence.
thanks hamilton tim
because i am trying find what happened in dam square last night
i am a hun
oh yes ignore the fact that bbc has reported it
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24836820
truly could some of the people posting on this site be more paranoid and insular
thanks for that information oglach
Jungle Jim
13:54 on 7 November, 2013
YorkBhoy
Reporting Scotland at 1:30 did have fans talking of the heavy – handed police. The introduction to the News was one-sided against Celtic but the report and footage in general were fair.
Thanks for the response, I only had the BBC website to go on.
Rearrange these words to make a sentence:
Fans foot themselves in shot foot celtic alcohol by too drinking much the
#temperancecsc
West csc
As I said, Hun daftie.
Ps I think you’re the only poster I’ve ever called that in sincerity.
Cultsbhoy
I’ve had first hand accounts from yesterday. The Celtic supporters were not to blame, the Ajax fans and elements of the local police were.
To blame alcohol is spurious and misleading.
setting free the bears supports Celtic’s best fighter- Wee Oscar Knox
13:20 on
7 November, 2013
===========================================
Brilliant post.
CultsBhoy loves being 1st forever & ever
Fans foot themselves in shot foot celtic alcohol by too drinking much the
#temperancecsc
=============
Our support drink heavily and enjoy themselves wherever they go. As you are aware there is long list of cities where our support are lauded for the party atmosphere they bring. So why would getting P’d in Amsterdam be any different than getting P’d in Saville? The difference was we weren’t attacked in Saville, Baracelona, Milan, etc etc etc.
Oldtim – You are right about Sammi – it was plain to see. The same could be said for Commons who could not trap the ball when it came to him, nor find a decent pass. Both these players have been tremendous for us at times but a good manager recognizes when things are not going well and a strong manager makes tough calls. Neil has inherited the same blind spot MON had when it came to his favorite players
Neil perhaps looked at his bench and thought that an underperforming Samaras or Commons was still a better option. He chose to gamble on one of them creating a spark that delivered a goal. KC in particular is always a threat from a setpiece, but anyone who has played the game knows that when you are having an off day, you don’t take free kicks or penalties. These are left to players high on confidence. I saw Stokes at one point telling Kris that he wanted to take a FK in a dangerous position for us, but Kris told him no – the result was a weak grounder straight into the keepers arms.
We should be using the SFPL to build a team and a style that can compete in the CL. Practice ball retention, ball speed and improve movement all over the park. If we can’t do this against Partick Thistle, Inverness, Hibs etc, then can we really expect to be able to play the kind of game needed to beat the likes of AC Milan and Barcelona?
Sandman 12:17
Ok, you say the long ball isn’t a tactic. Can you explain then why every game we play, we roll the ball back to the right back and hit a long diagonal from kick off…every time. Can you explain why Forster kicks long all the time when the full backs or Cb’s are there for a short ball. This is something that has been worked on so that makes it a tactic and a very very poor one at that.
Watch the next game, watch the game after it will not change
west csc
“because i am trying find what happened in dam square last night
i am a hun”
It was maybe more to do with the fact that, despite getting a quick response on here to your request, you still responded with an unwarranted jibe that people did not want to discuss unseemly matters, at least not with the same enthusiasm as you possessed for the topic.
hamilton tim
i couldnt be bothered getting into slanging match with you
it achieves nothing
only lowers the tone of the blog
everyone is entitled to their opinion no matter how far off the mark it is
If only the Dutch were so brave when hitler came calling!!!
MWD
I’ve written on here before that it is remarkable that Celtic, a team who draws most of it’s support from the environs of Glasgow and Lanarkshire, and working class areas of Ireland, North and South, areas with traditions of gang violence, paramilitary violence and a general ‘hard man’ culture, has such a tremendous reputation based on the peaceful enjoyment of football trips to Europe by it’s thousands of supporters.
The fact that people, largely from these areas, tough cookies many of them, defended themselves when attacked is no surprise in all honesty. The Scots and Irish are not shrinking violets, but most of us behave impeccably while following our team. If there has been any unprovoked aggression from any Celtic supporter(s) then they need to be dealt with swiftly and condemned roundly by the rest of us, but it appears the hoolifans of Ajax who couldn’t get a fight in Glasgow did their best to get one in Amsterdam. And it also seems the Dutch cops are keener on arresting people and using physical force than their Glasgow counterparts…..
allymac
Very few kick off “tactics” are effective or influential. A player might attempt to dribble straight through two set banks of 4 if he gets by the two opposition attackers immediately facing him. It would still be neither a tactic nor one that a coach would advocate.
Do you know of any team with a more successful kick off tactic than ours?
Aye cultsbhoy.
They should have taken a cough bottle instead.
You turn on the Celtic support so easy that it’s difficult to see how you are part of the family.
Some good posts trying to put yesterday’s performance in context.
Still it doesn’t make me feel much better.
We’ve had some fundamental problems with the Team since Tony Mowbray’s time.
Now Neil has made huge strides since then but I think these issues still exist.
The SPL is a very forgiving league to play in, Scottish Cup competition’s are winnable.
It’s at European Level where we are found out.
Juve is a good example but I remember posting a reply to an article by Paul and stated that the Benfica games were much more typical of where we were last Season than the Barca games, I’m still of that opinion.
As long as we fail to deal with the fundememtals we Will have Morton CP and Ajax ArenA results/performances.
One of our challenges, by no means the most important is ensuring our youngsters come through, to that end we need to let James Forrest develop.
Arson Wenger has brought youngsters into his team and supports them, Arron Ramsey was getting loads of criticism – look at him now.
Neil is doing a great job with him.
He has good technique, great pace and can finish – sure he’ll have to find his best position but once he has more experiennce and improves his decision making he’ll be a great asset to the Club.
If anyone thinks that getting shot of JF is the answer they are not asking the right question.
Hail Hail
CultsBhoy.
There was no shortage of tanked up Ajax supporting idiots in Amsterdam last night. It is a socio cultural thing . Some people like drinking to excess.
There was serious violence before,during and after last night’s Napoli/ Marsiglia game . I can’t speak for the Marsiglia contingent but experience has taught me that the Napoli hoolies would not have been drinking [ being drunk is seen as naff ] but many would have been wired on cocaine.
In other words SFTB – your saying West CSC is a…
MWD