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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Burnley78…
“Regarding who would get in their team.
That is the point. The Celtic team has beaten rangers twice this year. That was actually a weakened team on each occasion.
However the team we could filed :
Hart Johnston Taylor CCV Nawrocki Hatate O Riley McGregor Maeda (with proper motivation) Abada Kyogo.
8 of that team would be picked ahead of rangers best 11 players.
The 3 for me who might not would be. : Nawrocki was the POTY at Legia last year and Johnston who defensively appeared solid and a real performer under Ange plus Hart who is not quite as good as their goalie it seems.
That team I mentioned was the guts of a team which won 5 out of 6 domestic trophies.
The issue for me is we have is we have not managed Maeda Abada Kyogo O Riley and others well.”
If you truly believe the above then you would indeed be the perfect replacement for Herr Lawwell.
Looking forward to Hatate coming back and having a handful of games before being crocked again for the rest of the season.
“They didn’t have a good transfer window”
What about our last couple of windows?
Micky Mouth sacked again!
He’s a complete chancer.
When he was emptied by the huns i said the biggest risk is they stumble upon someone semi-competent.
dessybhoy on 19th February 2024 4:10 pm
All guns will be blazing again next season, buying players that are Celtic standard, when the league is lost and sevco are back on a safe financial footing.
Which was the plan all along. Keep the OldFirm.com bandwagon rolling on.
Don’t for one minute believe that this board would not sabotage a league crown in order to keep sevco on an even keel. The RES 12 boys will tell you all about that. And guess who’s back in the boardroom again.. . .
As Cicero once said:
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.”
The players are to wee and to powderpuff.
Coupled with the fact they are mostly crap, I don’t think we will win anything this season.
Anyone for tennis?
There’s no use coming on here and boasting about Rangers being in Eurooe. The only reason they’re still in Europe is because they failed to qualify for the Champions League and had to negotiate a much weaker Europa League.
I was well informed on Res 12 as a shareholder/signatury to getting this on the AGM agenda, done none of the work that was Auldheid and sevral other whose names I’ve forgotten, still feel that was a stitch up by the club.
PHILBHOY on 19TH FEBRUARY 2024 4:39 PM
I don’t agree that the players are “mostly crap”.
We have guys in the team who have won everything in Scotland plus internationalists.
These “crap” players should be good enough to last 90 minutes against the likes of Hibs & Kilmarnock.
Maybe the “crap” we have is at managerial level and above.
Who replaces Brendan then ?
debacle is a good word for it paul67
don’t forget now! Rodgers said the board were not brave enough during the window. This means we identified quality signings as requested , the players wanted to come but the board didn’t want to pay that wee bit extra – even loan deals for 5months.
Rodgers , the team and the fans hung out to dry – a team with 4 players off on international and key players injured. An efficient business would deal with that and accept deviation from normal practices to compensate for challenging circumstance. Not this board!! Desmond at pebble and the recruiters limited by funds. Inexcusable # 1.
Inexcusable # 2 is Rodgers trying the same process time and time and time again and expecting different results. The effin left back position is a bomb scare at the back post in every match. Rodgers should see the danger and assign Scales at left while Rocky in center. Solidify the defense and adjust the set up.
We will lose the league if he continues to try with this process – ITS NOT WORKING – Solutions? 3-5-2 , Palma as a 10 , Welsh as a #6 – we pay him to find solutions not to moan about players not having mentality!
ONIL
The crap players were not good enough to beat Kilmarnock.
And the manager could not raise their game to do so,
Says it all,
Replacing the manager is the job of the beloved board or more accurately, the job of the Irish Raj.
It’s not for mere paying plebs like us to have an input….
PHILBHOY on 19TH FEBRUARY 2024 4:56 PM
!00% but I would argue that these players are not sub standard….
SAINT STIVS , Steve Clark
DESSYBHOY- it’s a figure I was told at the weekend mate,but be sure to play it down…..
I checked companies house next report which I assume is the interims are due on the 24/2
The issue was that Desmond appointed Rodgers as a pal.
Footballing philosophy went out the window and we are where we are.
Any forward thinking club would have appointed a manager in the same style as our previous incumbent.
But as is the case for many appointments at our club, the old pals act came into play and we are where we are.
are fs
Good catch dessy hoy.
I did some fag packet sums.
I am expecting something alike to last years. All the revenue streams are very similar.
So revenues circa 70-80 million.
This board will react to the current situation as they did the last time our signing policy was shown to be disastrous and we gradually handed the huns the league on a plate. The reaction will be to do absolutely hee haw.
They obviously do not feel the pain like the support does.
!!BADA BING!! on 19TH FEBRUARY 2024 3:57 PM
Seems we only have £92 million in the bank,never enough for a LB,striker………..etc
…………………………..
Seems about right given they should include CL group stage matches which last season didn’t
SAINT STIVS on 19TH FEBRUARY 2024 4:49 PM
Who replaces Brendan then ?
Beale 🤣
A man with a pint to prove to the Huns! 👍
in a real leap of faith, i would be ok with van bronkhurst
You don’t win a league with kids
I hope I am as wrong as Hanson was
Spare a thought for Imran Khan, fantastic sportsman and gentleman and maybe a womaniser but supported by the people of his huge country. Imprisoned unlawfully and deserves support from the world of sport .
So we replace BR and hope our new gaffer can turn Holm, Lagerbilke, Nawrocki, Palma, Kuhn, Yang, Kwon and Bernardo into consistent, contributing & worthwhile players.
And if he doesn’t, we replace him ?
Meanwhile the guy that recommended these players stays in position and gets to add more players to the squad ?
Sounds like a plan.
Throughout history it is the people who are telling the truth that are always silenced.
The same can be said for Imran Khan.
RIMTIMTIM on 19TH FEBRUARY 2024 6:02 PM
You don’t win a league with kids
I hope I am as wrong as Hanson was.
——————
It depends on the kids. A big difference between the quality street kids and the Bash Street kids.🙂
HH
I wonder if, rather than bonusing our recruitment team on the profit generated from sales of players they recruited, we bonused them on Champions League results, we’d see a different approach to player acquisition.
TBB
If we balanced out losses to gains on players we wouldn’t pay out much, seriously are they bonused for sale price v buying price?
‘When The Celts Go Marching In’ If we will be singing this song at the end of May is now very much in the balance. Did not see the game on Saturday and sought out the result with great trepidation and sure enough another two points were dropped on the home patch after another poor showing by all accounts and our main opponents go to the summit.
A plethora of criticism being hurled left, right and center and a lot of it deserved but with injuries and some of our best players moving out this is not the super team of the Ange era, let’s face it. There is still a lot of matches to go and we must get behind the team. There is a big challenge there for a change and now we will see how the players will deal with it.
Thing is, those United kids were aided by solid pros like Bruce, Pallister, Robson, Hughes….
Plus Giggs and Beckham were better than Holm and Yang 🤭
AN DÚN
I don’t think it’s either/or.
The coach and head of recruitment are culpable for different reasons.
As Paul alluded to, Sevco’s recruitment was seen to be worse than ours when Beale was sacked. A better coach can make a huge impact.
Did we not fail to qualify from a europa league group?
Why are we earning huge profits thereby paying huge amounts of cash to the government?Governments are expert at wasting money. It’s what they do best.
Here’s an original idea. Spend every spare penny on the team. We win trophies and we don’t subsidise government.
Keep it simple.
GEEBEE1978 on 19TH FEBRUARY 2024 6:29 PM
AN DÚN
As Paul alluded to, Sevco’s recruitment was seen to be worse than ours when Beale was sacked. A better coach can make a huge impact.
————–
Clement has not fundamentally changed how they play though. They still play with two holding midfielders who support the CBs to allow the full backs to get forward and cross relentlessly into the box. That’s been them since Gerrard came in and filled the team with 6 foot plus players and implemented this style.
Clement has them more organised but perhaps that’s more of a reflection on where Beale is as a manager than anything Clement has done well. Certainly Beale’s 12 games in charge of Sunderland before getting canned again suggests he’s not a good manager – Clement has not taken the microphone of Sinatra when he got appointed.
P67’s analysis is lazy and devoid of any substance.
Luis Palma and Greg Taylor are by far Celtic’s most competent retainers of possession – and giving the ball away
Kuhn is a crosser of the ball (though poorly on this occasion) – never crossed a ball since he came.
The defence played well; Tony Ralston and Liam Scales in particular – being honest both should not be in the team , limited ability , nowhere good enough
Soon Cameron Carter-Vickers will return, and we can hope Reo Hatate gives us the last couple of months of the season – both injury prone ,expect both will breakdown as soon as they come back and we will be told both need operations.
the team play’s to instruction from our current manager or they would not be selected , the buck stops with him.
Rodgers should be emptied for a couple of those shambolic passages of play on Saturday alone.
He won’t be, but he should. That’s the product of his coaching and tactics.
Garbage.