Winners win and losers lose, yesterday proved that beyond all doubt. Credit to Steven Gerrard, who had his team press against the champions. Celtic played an hour without a striker, but that was no mitigation for the sheer gulf in performance between the teams.
Winning nine trophies in succession gave Celtic the tools to survive an onslaught that would have buried others, although much of the credit must go to Fraser Forster, who played in none of those nine wins. By contrast, Newco played like they had a deep-seated loser schema. There is no other viable explanation as to why a team can dominate so thoroughly but show so little composure when it came to making a difference.
Central to all of this was Alfredo Morelos. He is Newco’s best player but he is not good enough. He does not have the mentality to do what is necessary against Celtic, and for a team who aspire to win things in Scotland, that is unacceptable.
His psychological makeup was questioned when he was the most red carded player in world football last season. He has not been ordered off this season, although that should change with a retrospective charge for running his studs down Christopher Jullien’s Achilles. Scoring and behaving when it doesn’t really matter is pointless if you cannot find calm when it counts.
The goal looked offside at first pass but the picture is less clear having watched the replay dozens of times. Newco’s Helander moves behind Jullien’s frame. On camera, we do not see which of them has a playable body part nearer goal when the kick is taken.
The finish was a carbon copy of Ciro Immobile’s opener against Celtic in Rome. Immobile showed his class with that goal, Jullien showed a comparable touch and composure. He is a winner and a leader.
A lifetime watching Celtic play Oldco and Newco came together for me a moment after Odsonne Edouard came on as a second half substitute. His first action was to have the legs taken from him by Connor Goldson. It was as though we were watching John Greig doing what made him the Greatest Ever Ranger – kicking a Celtic player. Some things never change.
Celtic were ahead before Newco touched the ball again. If Walt Whitman best described Wednesday’s win over Hamilton, Lennon (the other one) inspired this victory when he sang, “Instant Karma’s gonna get you”. This is Celtic in their poetry period.
Tom Rogic signed shirt raffle for Celtic FC Foundation
The Celtic squad wore a special shirt for last month’s league game against Motherwell, bearing the Celtic FC Foundation Christmas Appeal logo instead of the normal Dafabet logo on the front, and the words “Christmas Appeal” on the back, instead of the Magners logo.
Tom Rogic’s signed shirt from that day is available for raffle. Each donation of £10 or more will be entered into a draw, which will take place on Friday 13 December. The shirt will be posted on Monday 16th (or available for collection at the Hibs game on Sunday 15th).
The Celtic FC Foundation do incredible work throughout the world all year round, but their work with those most in need in the winter months, and for children and families coping with chronic poverty, can give warmth, nourishment, self-respect and human compassion that some people struggle to find. All donations go straight to the Foundation.
This is why Celtic exists. You can enter here at JustGiving. Good luck and thank you!!
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Well done The Tic.
Oh what a wonder day😂
Oh My Days !
OLDTIM67 on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 12:18 PM
Well done The Tic.
WELL done you.are you or any of usual suspects going to BLANE VALLEY on TUESDAY night.
;)
:))))))))))))))))))
FAVOURITE UNCLE.
I was in the Blane Valley on Friday for the Annual Christmas dinner which we all enjoyed, I don’t think I can manage another bevvy up so soon,but thanks for the invite.
Oh my days!Why not?
Gerrintaethum Celtic!!
Roll on the end of the month.3 weeks till we gub them on a real surface.Don’t give a monkeys about Offsides,penalties,red cards,,they are in anguish today.That is all I care about.
Winners win and losers lose, luv it Paul.
As TURKEYBHOY said ” they are in anguish ”
H.H Mick
” Immobile showed his class ” .
” There’s no doubt that Immobile can score goals but the missed penalty v Juventus on Saturday was just one more example of how badly affected he is by nerves . Zeman was right when he said that Ciro had a strong tendency to miss when he had the time to think about it . He is someone who could rattle them in all the way to the Final and then miss the sitter for the winner in the 89th minute . That done he’d be guaranteed to miss the crucial penalty in the Penalty Shoot Out . . it’s the way he’s always been -might be too late to change ”
Rai Radio 9 12 19..
As for Lazio v Juventus – a sublime goal from the mercurial Milinkovic Savic –
https://youtu.be/Y0LUPtYPze8
TURKEY JOY @12.41
Exactly my sentiments.They lost we won!
South of Tunis
Had the fortune of being at that Lazio game at the weekend with little Wavy.
Terrific entertainment – VAR, red cards, missed penalties, Ronaldo goal and Ronaldo playacting and a great 3 on 1 breakaway at the end.
Stadia didn’t seem too fussed about health and safety or taking on the Ultras with their standing, flagwaving…..
TURKEYBHOY@12.41
YOU KNOW!
South of Tunis
Indeed a fabulous goal, set your VPN to Italy if you want to watch it Bhoys and Ghirls
BIG WAVY –
” health and safety ” — In Italy ?????
Years ago I fell out with a Napoli supporting electrician who was doing a homer in my house . . I wanted to put the power off before he did something — he didn’t – I mentioned Health and Safety and he said — ” that’s for women “
BHOYJOEBELFAST on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 12:59 PM
TURKEY JOY @12.41
Exactly my sentiments.They lost we won!
======
Not according to Bournemouth FC, their on-loan star Jermaine Defoe ‘won’ a runners up medal!
HH
Paul 67,
I was happy to win the cup and really couldn’t care less about our ” offside ” goal.
However having seen the video footage numerous times I’m convinced it was actually onside and a good call by the officials.
It should also be noted that two ” Rangers ” players encroached the 18 yard box before the penalty was taken. Big FF was still on his line when the kick was taken.
To any lurking huns. GIRFUP
SoT,
Yep. The answer to “I can’t see the game” seemed to be allowing everyone to sit in the aisles.
The answer to “I can’t see a thing with these Ultra banners in front of me”…was a shrug from the stewards who didn’t fancy tapping a large goon with a death stare…..
Great result, but let’s be realistic, if Sevco had been a couple of goals up at half time we would not have had many grounds for complaint. Yesterday underlined the importance of Eddy to this team as we do not have an able deputy or anyone to provide competition.
I also think yesterday was a failure in tactics from Neil (notwithstanding the multiple mitigating factors). Looking at the performance for the first 60 mins, it’s difficult to determine how we were attempting to play. Morgan rarely got into the channels or ran behind their defence. Sevco made a couple of chances by getting Morelos out wide and in behind; we failed to do that once before Edouard was introduced.
While I believe the game would have taken on a different guise had we had the opportunity to play a fully fit first team, there is still food for thought as to how we approach games with Sevco. Gerrard has them organised and hounding our players out of their rhythm. Twice within the last year Sevco have absolutely battered us; thankfully it was to no avail yesterday.
Goldson wasn’t even cautioned for that tackle.
BIG WAVY –
Indeed .
Figures re deaths at work for 2018 –
Italy – 786
UK – 147
Last week I walked past a guy doing some welding on the terrace outside a bar in Sciacca . No gloves ; no Goggles . . No protection whatsoever . Another Italian regular is the petrol pump guy filling your tank – lit fag in mouth , smartphone in the spare hand .
Celtic won and showed their resilience to not concede. The team defended well and Forster was world class.
I would rather we won with a good performance rather than a rearguard action. It was a blow to the Huns.
I am still concerned at our team selection and the poor performance. Why did Elanoussi come straight into the team? he was not up for it and we were a man short. Morgan was not up to being striker against Rangers. What about Griffiths?, he looked ok in the last 2 games coming on as a substitute. Why was a tried and tested Striker not in the squad?
We need to improve before our next game. Cluj should be for our fringe players and those that need a game
Cracking article Today Paul.
We shall not be moved.
TIMALOY29 on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 11:03 AM
Valid points about the absence of Leigh and Morgan failing to get the pass away on the break.
The great proviso :
Perhaps Lennie did make personnel and tactical mistakes yesterday , but the fact is that he is in a position to know about individual players , their attitude and their physical and mental condition .
We only know what we have ben told.
Often by our ” friends ” in the media who are known to play us , usually to suit their biased agenda.
I thought our defending yesterday was abysmal, so much so that we needed Big Fra to be man of the match.
Part of the problem was being serially unable to complete the second pass in possession, part of it being unable to get the ball beyond their midfield, and part of it just group anxiety. In sum, we gave them the ball time and again and they created chances to score with it – 16 of them if the stats are correct, plus a penalty kick denying another chance.
As a comparison, Lazio created 24 chances against us across two (2) matches.
As a performance, yesterday’s was the most perfect crock of sh@te I’ve ever seen from a Celtic team. Pure, beautiful, uninventive sh@te.
You have to laugh.
Lenny can’t take any credit for that win IMO. That was bad team selection, as it was in the CL against Cluj. But he did bring back the Wall, so perhaps he does deserve some credit.
Macjay1 & TBB….
The 29th is gonnae be Special.
Thumbs up.
Time for an annihilating rhthym.
CELTJC
glasgow
CELTIC
Sorry.
I don’t know Willie Collum. But he ticks every box for a modern Scottish referee. Deeply conformist. Slavish attitude to now discredited figures of authority like ‘Hugh’. Painstaking care taken to ingratiate himself with the establishment . Predisposed to penalise the innocent in favour of the guilty if the guilty have influence. When necessary he will victimise victims.
Apart from that he is an absolute shocker of a referee. The very fact that Morelos remained on the park till the end of the game is ample testimony to that. All over the park the slightest nudge resulted in a Sevco free kick whereas they could commit similar and worse with impunity.
Test
“Frimpong Merrily in High”
Got a nice ring to it😀
I hope the Bhoys enjoy their day off. In fact, I hope some of our key players enjoy a rest mid-week.
Starting 11:
———–Gordon
Bauer, Jullien, Ajer, Hayes
——-Ntcham, Bitton
—Shved, Rogic, Johnston
————Griffiths
Bench: Bain, Taylor, Dembele, Morgan, Robertson, Coffey, Sinclair
Back in Glasgow getting much-needed recovery: Brown (suspended), McGregor, Christie, Edouard, Forrest, Forster, Elyounoussi, Boli
I’ll be Dani B…..
29th,
Noone will be Louder than me
Neil Incredible. John Kennedy . Thank You too.
Normally- I would indulge in the celebration mode for a bit longer before attempting analysis but it looks like we are getting a bit blasé about our success, even when it has the novelty of being undeserved success.
So?- Morgan up front.
It worked to an extent against Rennes, in that he scored a goal and he buzzed around with his supporting front 3 to upset a re-structured and unfamiliar Rennes defence. That was a strange Euro game that lacked the intensity and threat of our prior 4 group games. Lewis did not do brilliantly in that game either but he did well enough. He is 2 footed and he does have skill but Derek Riordan and Scott Allan were pretty nifty too but did not, ultimately, make it. He is a footballer but not a no.9 and our style of play needs to change to accommodate him. Lewis worked really hard on Sunday but he got no effective support from Elyanoussi, Christie and Forrest this time or from Calmac coming forward. We could not retain the ball or sustain attacks; it was a story of constant break down of moves and the ball being recycled to the Sevco attack. Lewis Morgan was not solely responsible for that breakdown but he contributed his share to it.
We have got used to an effective target man since Moussa Dembele came. Previous attempts to do so involved carthorses like Chris Killen or Daryl Murphy until Moussa showed us how it should be done. A wee honourable mention to Giorgios Samaras for doing a fair version of the role- his only trouble was linking up with team mates as they never knew what he was up too. (Strange how a kind and generous guy like Sammi was a bit of an individualist on the field whereas guys like Antony Stokes were great team mates in link up play.)
Anyway, when Moussa left, we turned to Eddy and, initially, Eddy could not recreate this style. He kept drifting left to run the channels, in the same way that lighter players like Griff and Jack Aitchison did. However, he has become much more confident of his ability to protect the ball in all areas, and though he still rolls left mostly, he has much greater variety to his play and, most importantly, the ball sticks with him.
So Eddy is the gold standard for us. No other player lets us play like this, not even Griff. Griff can harry and disrupt guys- he can win possession but he does not operate back to goal , feeding oncoming support runners. Neither Bayo nor Aitchison do this either. We have not seen enough of a fit Bayo to judge his full potential (no- you really haven’t) ; we have just seen cameo sub appearances or an occasional start in a shaken up team against lesser opponents. Mostly, we have seen him injured unfortunately. The man did score a barrowload in the Slovakian league and that is really not a million miles poorer than the SPFL. If he can recover from injury and if he can get a run in some continuous games, we might see someone who can , at least, be an effective understudy to Eddy, if not challenge him. Jack Aitchison is doing nicely at Forest Green but his attributes seem less tangible. I know Calmac benefited from such a spell at Notts County but I think this IS a level way below Slovakian League One and Jack still has a chasm to cross before his early promise can be fulfilled with Celtic. He will have a good football career somewhere else I fear.
So, at the start of the year we had 3 Centre Forwards- Eddy, Griff and Bayo, and so we let Aitchison go on loan. How did it get to the stage where we were reliant on Lewis Morgan to lead the line and where we think the club did not invest enough in having 4 players available (Afolabi replaces Aitchison as 4th choice)?
Well, Griff’s return from his Mental health issues has been lengthy and delayed. I was proud of my club in giving him the chance to turn his life around and there is a lot of love for Griff around CP. However, there will come a time, if it has not yet been reached where we will be wondering if he is helping himself with his opportunity to recover. We have given him two sub spells recently to encourage him to get back to the level he was. Yet, when it came to our time of need, he was not able to be considered capable of even an effective bench spot. I hesitate to speculate on the reasons why but I cannot believe that Neil Lennon would be vindictive on this matter and that , in some ways, Leigh must have let himself and his club down recently. That is a great shame, if true. A loan spell might be enough to wake Leigh up to expectations but it is a high risk idea. Would Leigh respond positively and competitively or will he see it as confirmation that he is slipping and not being helped. Let’s hope that he can recover- Professional Sport, with all its hoopla and OTT criticism is not a great arena to be dealing with self worth issues.
In contrast to Morgan or Griff leading the line, we have used 2 other options when our main Centre Forwards have been injured at the same time. We have use Forrest or Sinclair as CF. In essence, it is the same tactic, using a converted winger who can score some goals. Of the 3, Sinclair is the most prolific scorer so why is he not considered? In contrast to Griff’s position, we are not aware of any performance deterioration. Yes, Scott has never been as good as he was in his first season but he has continued to play and score as his rivals have failed to better his average form with us. There is no hint of physical or mental deterioration leading to him being sidelined and he’s barely been given a chance. The viewpoint is that he is being prepared for/ persuaded to exit the building. This looks to be more about shifting a senior player on larger wages than about tactical selection issues. I am not Scott Sinclair’s biggest fan but, in the aftermath of yesterday, I think he is being badly treated by our club and management.
It is beginning to look a little Boboesque in that giving too many more appearances to Scott might trigger some kind of bonus payment. If my speculation is true, and I confess readily it is completely uninformed by inside knowledge, then yesterday, I think our club gambled with League Cup final success. I am not saying that bringing Scott out of the cold for one game was, in any way, a good idea, but, seeing the way injury was affecting us, he should have been given a couple of team slots as a sub to help him get back into contention. Throwing Elaynoussi back in too soon and asking Lewis to go again in an uncomfortable position, clearly did not work well enough for us.
I have been telling a gun in work that it was a Mourinho-esque, defensive tactical masterclass from Celtic yesterday.
He is spitting feathers.
I don’t usually rub anyone’s nose in it but he’s always the first to mention if we have a bad result.
Tremendous stuff
JINKYREDSTAR on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 2:16 PM
“Frimpong Merrily in High”
Got a nice ring to it😀
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Absolute cracker.
Combined with easily remembered repetitive lyrics , a winner .