For the second time this season against Kilmarnock, the first half offered Celtic promise as well as a lead at the interval. Celtic’s pace of play and directness had the visitors on the backfoot until the break. The left wing played an important part of the story. Luis Palma and Greg Taylor are by far Celtic’s most competent retainers of possession on the left and made sure we were able to quickly attack Killie down that flank.
Luis put in a couple of poor crosses just before the break, and with options on the bench, Brendan Rodgers hooked the Honduran for Yang. An attempt to aid our attacking efforts would later undermine our ability to progress play up-field. The rot did not really set in until Taylor, on his first game back from injury, was replaced after an hour.
Daizen Maeda is not known for holding play up, however he gets up and down the park and tracks back better than anyone in the game. But seven minutes after our left flank’s defensive and ball holding abilities were weakened, Maeda made way for Nicolas Kuhn. Kuhn is a crosser of the ball (though poorly on this occasion), not a defensive-minded player. You can be sure, “Tracks back” does not feature on his bio.
Yet again, Joe Hart was called upon to make several saves (more than his counterpart in the Kilmarnock goal). The defence played well; Tony Ralston and Liam Scales in particular, but in the second half we were without a gameplan to move play forward.
The above debacle set the scene for Kilmarnock’s deserved draw. Celtic could have got away with the win, just as they did recently home to Ross County, or at Hibs, but it would have been a win despite what happened at crucial times on the field.
We are now behind a team in the league, which lost several first-team players in the summer without transfer fees, who then signed players that overwhelmingly disappointed, some of whom have already been offloaded, and who sacked their manager during an injury crisis which saw them slip well off the pace.
What do they have that we don’t? They didn’t have a good transfer window, they didn’t have a season without injuries, they didn’t start with a manager who knew what he was doing. Midseason, they added organisational ability and here we are!
Newco remain in Europe and could find this undermines them in the league, but only if we are able to apply our own pressure, which means winning football games. We need a robust and functioning gameplan for Sunday, or we risk dropping points yet again to Motherwell and removing any pressure on our title rivals.
Soon Cameron Carter-Vickers will return, and we can hope Reo Hatate gives us the last couple of months of the season. On their own, this does not feel like it will be enough to push us over the line.
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*doing
We have had an extreme version of ‘the model’ this season.
24 and younger, max £5M fee, £15K a week max, 50 first team games or less.
It’s a bust.
Epic fail.
What do they have that we don’t?”
———————
Well beyond the obvious answer of “who cares what’s happening at other clubs”, you would have to say ambition.
Last season in the CL we showed up fairly well but it was clear we were two or three first team players away from being a third-placed team.
But instead of adding 2-3 we SUBTRACTED 2-3! Real ambition there! Now with another 2-3 unavailable for most of the season so far we have had a significant drop-off.
But at least we have a competitive old firm. What else matters, really?
So now we have a plc allegedly holding back the interim results to do some creative accountancy.
Dearie me.
Big Jimmy
Well done, Cheltenham on the horizon but its getting more like the flat with with the big trainers having all the good horses, Mullins De Bromhead, Nicholls Henderson often with multiple runners in the races, handicaps they can have 4 or 5 especially Mullins. It’s killing the fun I think.
Quite a detailed breakdown of our in game approach. I agree with it all.
Bigger picture – could be a very busy season if we highlight shortcomings after each game as, I believe, we are simply weaker than previous seasons. The quality of the first XI has regressed. The clues are all there, fewer goals scored, more mention of Joe Harts performance. In seasons past, we’ve barely mentioned the keeper. Now, he is key to securing a draw.
I honestly don’t know what can be done mid February, though we simply have to be thinking about the next opportunity to strengthen. We must get it right.
No more round pegs in square holes, being decided by non footballing non experts.
Recruit to demand and get the best we can, within budget.
We’ve already lost out on the treble and on post group stage European football. How painful can the season yet be?
I’ve tried to remain positive throughout this season , but alas, there is no point in polishing a turd.
Changes are needed at every level of the Club, from Boardroom, Coaching Staff and playing staff. Every one of these areas has stagnated, are stale, and in need of fresh ideas and fresh faces.
That we’re still in a Title race is only down to the Huns having Mole in the dugout for opening 3 months.
Sadly, this ends one way, and it does not end well for Celtic.
A first step to recovery could be sacking the Manager and the Head of Recruitment, both with immediate effect. Then take it from there.
The fact that we sit with near £100m in the bank makes this whole episode a farce and leaves us,with a squad who couldn’t lace the team if the 90s boots. That’s quite some going Celtic, take a bow.
Dearie me yourself Stivs. Your deliberate misrepresentation of posts is as tedious and by the numbers as all your other contributions.
I merely observed that the results are more than week later than in previous years and counting.
I offer one possible explanation. Another is that they just need the extra time because of all of the additional money they have to count.. 😉
The interim accounts are the financial position at 31st Dec.
Nothing that has happened since then will be accounted for.
The board are above any criticism …….
Good to know. Will be a damp squib then__
PS I believe Enron was a plc…
BigChips
Spot on. High crosses are exactly what the opposition want us to do!
Don’t know why we are not doing the things that worked so well for us last season. If it’s not down to the manager’s instructions then it surely has to be the drop in quality of player. Would we have scored as many last season without Jota, Abada, Hatate and Mooy?
Sing us a song Cillian!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6FzR-KwseM
January window signalled what’s supporters see in the post.
Even with the players available Celtic with a “ top, top manager “ should be able to beat Kilmarnock more often than one in four – shouldn’t they? BR’s tactical masterclass was to diminish a struggling midfield, by leaving Paulo Bernardo on the bench. Sure Kyogo ended his goal drought, he scored his goal from inside the box, as ever but there was two struggling players in midfield. Matt O’Riley looking more MK Dons than Athleti, in another poor game in a broken creaking system, and firefighting Calum MacGregor, suffering from burn out, all season.
We’d no idea what Adam Idah would bring to Parkhead but had a feeling it wouldn’t be goals, and he’s already demonstrated the art of sitter missing with a moving ball, he’s bound to score before the season ends, because he’s replaced our top striker? Luis Palma clearly doesn’t fancy ‘taking on’ industrial Scottish full backs whereas Yang does, but can’t stay upright after he has skinned the first man. Not hard to imagine, but Daizen Maeda’s face is tripping him, fed up chasing no hope balls or just fed up. Nicolas Kuhn completed the winger on a prayer routine, as a no impact sub.
The back four already not what was expected this time last year, when we’d just beaten Motherwell to go nine points clear. If you can’t defend corners it can only be coached to the right players by the right coaches, and it’s much easier see to further dropped points, when even the happy clappers have left the building.
“winger on a prayer” 👏
Darwin
“ I have always said that there will be no insurance coverage for the CBC debacle – the Celtic ‘distancing’ defence and common sense says not.”
That must have been under your previous moniker 👍
Meanwhile, on a golf course far,far away……you will find Dermot Desmond…….the root of the problem….
BADA
It’s football Jim, but not as we know it
Well done, Cheltenham on the horizon but its getting more like the flat with with the big trainers having all the good horses, Mullins De Bromhead, Nicholls Henderson often with multiple runners in the races, handicaps they can have 4 or 5 especially Mullins. It’s killing the fun I think.
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the difference is with the same trainers having multiple runners on the flat is that it tends to be the same owners as well having multiple runners – coolmore, godolphin etc which isnt great for punters as it allows some team tactics to come into play that we arent privy to.
with the jumps the trainers having multiple entries are often for different owners all of whom want their horse to win that race so at least it is more ‘honest’
yes i know JP, Gigginstown etc often put multiple runners in big field prestigious jumps races but in general if Mulllins for example has 2 horses in a race then they will be different owners
i dont care about the relative goals-against stats from last season to this season – the fact is that a club with a pile of cash and who harbour some sort of european ambition and are trying to win a league should not be playing with that back 4
Comment of the day from The Star Above The Crest on 19th February 2024 12:38 pm
Good to see Darwin still apologising for Genocide. At least you haven’t wavered as the figure of the murdered pass 30,000 and the slaughter that is going to be inflicted upon those hemmed in at Rafa.
You lot are an entitled peepo and seem to have found yourselves, somehow, following the wrong club.
Celtic have no given right to win every game or every trophy. That right has to be earned on the pitch.
We have more resources than any team in the country but what we sorely lack is any sort of cohesive strategy which involves using those resources effectively.
Our youth development which is there to provide players for the first team has ceased to do that.
Our signing policy is now a “lick your finger and stick it in the air” job with more than a waft of nepotism thrown in.
We have a manager who seems content to have to play the hand dealt for him by people who consistently show they no little about the playing side. That does not excuse him from flack though, as his tactics are from a bygone era. To bring Bernabie into that physical maelstrom on Saturday was just ridiculous. Nawrocki should have came on and Scales moved to left back to fight physicality with physicality.
That brings me to our centre half’s. We bought two in the summer, one we no longer want and the other cannot displace two players we wanted rid of in the summer.
Meanwhile the phrase “stopping crosses at their source” is an alien concept. We adopt the “after you Claude” approach where we allow balls to be shelled into our area where our keeper refuses to catch a ball.
At the other end we have that many wingers they will soon require their own bus. Palma can cross but constantly wants to show everyone how good he js to the detriment of those around him. The amount of times he refused to slip Taylor or McGregor in on Saturday was embarrassing. The rest either hit the first man or balloon the ball out the park on the other side.
Create exercises for them crossing the ball on rhe run.
We now have a big target man so why are we waiting until he is substituted before we start playing the ball into the box ?
Leadership comes from the top and we have none. The hoarding of cash while the team is as poor as it is amount to nothing more that corporate malfeasance.
Oue CEO once signed players prior to the window opening but those days are now gone.
For people who watch our club it is plain that one individual walking back in the door last January has caused this. If this is debated, and as some people claim, he has no say in the day to day running then remove him completely. Again people then point to the influence he has at UEFA. Well that influence is tremendous when a club, that has turned a profit one year in twelve, is about to have all of its financial issues resolved by winning the League when it is on a UEFA watch list.
Justshattered
Spot on, his influence is fake a grandiose delusion, zero benefit to Celtic FC
Beale sacked
Taxi for Beale.
At Uefa i meant not within Celtic where he dominates the place.
“We are now behind a team in the league, which lost several first-team players in the summer without transfer fees, who then signed players that overwhelmingly disappointed, some of whom have already been offloaded, and who sacked their manager during an injury crisis which saw them slip well off the pace.”
Well, isn’t it ironic?
We played Kilmarnock at Celtic Park and wom 3-1, Michael Beale got the sack.
That same team played played on Saturday…
Well, minus the players that are out due to our injury crisis.
Hatate’s goal and assist in that three one win tells it’s own story.
We don’t have anything, like the strength and depth in our squad to lose the quality players we had out on Saturday.
Hatate and CCV are of course the most irreplaceable.
It has taken a long time to count that cash:)))))
Next year, do it by wheelbarrow…
Hail Hail
JUSTSHATERED,
I can’t disagree with any of that.
BADA @ 2.28
Michael they have taken you away
Oops the Hun on again, doing as Huns do.
Best ignore.
Ave Ave
I know nowt about fitba but that Kuhn’s not the answer…………..
Beale and Sunderland, they deserved each other GIRFUY.
No chairperson in any organization is involved in dad to day operations. That is the executives jobs.
When pl steps down who do you want next ? What qualifications or experience should they have ?
Darwin
“ I have always said that there will be no insurance coverage for the CBC debacle – the Celtic ‘distancing’ defence and common sense says not.”
That must have been under your previous moniker 👍
Or maybe the one before that.
Why as we were told on here was he negotiating a new contract with the agent of CCV, his new role or the role of the execs? Maybe thats why he got the NEDs another 20k each per annum now on 60k for part time work with the best seats in the house thrown in. Hard life they have for sure, must be torture for them.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Israel’s military campaign was between a “highly prepared army and women and children”.
And of course that will make him an anti-Semite.
Well spoken Mr President.
The ‘brains behind the 55’ has been sacked twice since BR was appointed
What experience did John Reid have, none, he was a well known labour politician and cabinet minister, he also was not shy in standing up for the club when necessary until he went quiet for some reason, what does Lawwell bring to Celtic now a CE too long in post and now Chairman has he any insight into what people think of him at all?