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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SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 2:21 PM
It’s a fair analysis. Griff, Afolabi & Bayo have all been training lately. Afolabi has played for the development side and Griff has been off the bench for us.
Surely they were fit enough to give us 60 minutes at Hampden?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJbRURK3zWo
First verse only.
Easy adaptation.
eg. Frimpong in excelsis .
” I was a professional footballer for 16 years , I have been a professional football Manager for 15 years – he (Collum ) is the worst Referee I have ever experienced ”
Vladimir Petkovic _ Manager Of Lazio -after a very interesting performance from Collum during a Fenerbahce v Lazio game in 2013 .
Great leader Pablo.
Winning when it matters is key.
This team have not lost a meaningful domestic game in 3½ years (more than 160 matches)
Remarkable.
Could we have played better yesterday? Of course.
But I’d be surprised if we play as badly again all season.
These are the days. Enjoy
Hail hail
Hail hail
SFTB – great post. A CF must surely be high on the January shopping list.
Also, I just hope Eddy didn’t do himself any more damage yesterday. He didn’t look to comfortable towards the end of the game.
SFTB,
Leigh going to Hibs for 6 Months was suggested by a lot smarter dude than me.
HH
Shankland in and Griff to Dundee Utd on loan?
HH
I’m not in tune with those saying Morgan was poor, especially citing the time when he tackled at the point where he was going to release the ball.
Could he have played it sooner, yes. But I think delaying it was the right thing to do. He got caught by a tackle from behind him, legal, where the defender was running without the ball and able to make up the ground. On a good pitch Morgan would have been away.
For comparison, look at the Tottenham player (Dele Ali?) who delayed and got tackled inside the penalty box. An easy pass inside provides a certain goal. And he’s getting paid a heck of a lot more than Morgan.
Also, give Morgan credit for what he did do, rather than what he didn’t. Sutton, as is his want, had decided before the game that Morgan wasn’t a centre forward and remarked about it every time Morgan didn’t win the ball, or control it. But when he did, nothing was said. Nor was anything said when he came back to help defend our left hand side was a couple of good tackles.
It’s fairly normal for our number 9 to get little service in the game and for the player substituting him to look better / score the goals.
Whither the cash strapped scrofulous hillbillies the day?
David and Lauren have had to deal with another Loss.
The young 20 week old kid was named Bertie.
I dinnae know how to Support Lauren and Dave.
I know Love is the Ki.
@ SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 2:21 PM
Fantastic post. The result aside, yesterday was a car crash. Of course, the result is all that matters, but you can’t get away with that type of performance on a regular basis.
Thursday’s game will be instructive as to whether Griff has a future at the club. If he fails to start in a dead rubber, I can’t see how he will have any meaningful impact moving forward. At present he has to prove his fitness nevermind his form. The former seems hard enough for him so I’m doubtful that he will achieve the latter.
Given the mountains of cash we are sitting on, we should be making a sizeable investment in January for a striker. We also need to remember that we likely only have another 6 months out of OE before someone comes in with a load of cash and, even if he stays, he is likely to be away to the olympics in the summer.
SUPERSUTTON on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 2:50 PM
Completely agree.
I feel that Morgan performed his running and harrying role exactly as instructed.
If Lennie keeps picking him , then we can be confident that he did.
Neil Lennon deserves credit for his part in winning three of those 10 trophies from March onwards. That said, yesterday’s first half showed why he had never won the League Cup previously. To put out a team with McGregor, Christie, Morgan, Forrest and Frimpong across it on a rain swept Hampden suggested to me at least that he did not have a clue what he was doing. Thankfully I tend not to post during games because surer than sure I would have been banned sine die from this dear green space. Luckily he was able to bring on both Johnson and Eduardo, and that was enough to put green and white ribbons on the Cup.
Memo to Neilly; Ask Big Pete if it is okay to play all of the players some of the time.
SUPERSUTTON on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 2:50 PM
Tell me the positive things Morgan did during the game?
He didn’t win the ball. He lost possession almost every time he had it. He had a wild shot off target from an improbable angle.
He messed up the breakaway. Great tackle or not.
He didn’t intercept the ball with his harrying and I doubt he forced any mistakes.
He was an empty jersey.
I wonder what game people were watching… we were played off the park but you can’t criticize anybody?
MACJAY1 FOR NEIL LENNON on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 2:57 PM
SUPERSUTTON on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 2:50 PM
Completely agree.
I feel that Morgan performed his running and harrying role exactly as instructed.
====
Come on now, I know its nice to be nice etc but in no part of preparation for yesterdays match would we have been readying for one way traffic for as long as it was.
Part of the reason for that is that Morgan is simply not a striker.
And if all we needed up front was a harrying role up front we’d never have sold Kenny Misser.
Time to end the Morgan experiment and realise he’s not good enough for Celtic in his actual position or as a square peg in a round hole up top.
HH
One minute in.
Complete unadulterated joy .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhouuuvyWGE
Emilio.
Celtic Loves you more than You will ever know.
Up at Pittodrie yoo got a sair wan.
Emilio CELTIC
SIEMPRE CELTIC (FORMERLY TRADITIONALIST88) on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 3:10 PM
in no part of preparation for yesterdays match would we have been readying for one way traffic for as long as it was.
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Well maybe Lennie was , in view of the fact that :
Half of our defence was cobbled together.
Including a highly inexperienced 18 year old newbie.
imho Morgan contributed much more than either Calmac or Christie .
Actually Jeremie is 19 tomorrow.
79CAPS on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 2:03 PM
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.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Cant understand posts like this, try living thru huns winning 9 in a row and taking triumphalism to a new level. Who cares about the credit, they’ve been put back in their place and thats a cause for celebration..
Bojo quill unify lreland
Cant you see
We played 4 left wingers yesterday and 2 were not fit, we played an 18 year old at right back who was making his debut against sevco in a cup final and we played for 40 minutes with 10 men. We deserved the win pure and simple.
Sevco dominated the ball because we had no target to hit and hold the ball up top and were kept on trying to play out from our own area.
They battled hard and continually got men on top of our players in our half of the pitch, tellingly when we were down to 10 men they tried to change tactics and make the man advantage count. They did not make it count.
Take home message, dont start 4 left wingers or half fit players, always play players in their correct position, even if you need to go down to the reserves and academy
HH.
Siempe
Actually , wish we hadn`t sold Kenny , who was no Misser against us.
https://youtu.be/Vz85gmUk4Sw
Unique angle…..DD in dressing room after the game
MACJAY1 FOR NEIL LENNON
I wonder why Desmond and Lawwell look so miserable as the players are celebrating? Very odd.
IniquitousIV
Cant for the life of me think what Scott Sinclair has done to be banished from the first team, he should have been up front yesterday, it’s a role he played before under BR. Might not have made any difference but not even being in contention is a mystery, and now we just accept he’s on his way – without any explanation. Strange.
Nae 16 Roads
No party.
I meañ that.
MACJAY1 FOR NEIL LENNON on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 3:21 PM
Apart from the ball not sticking up top, yes McGregor and Christie can be considered lightweight and Brooney probably needs a bit of support from someone who likes to impose themselves, shall we say. Victor…
Conditions on the day favoured the less skilful team and that for me is another contributor to the game flowing the way it did. But it did show we cannot get complacent because theres a lot of days in Scotland like that!
All in all they had their best chance to beat us for a while and still couldn’t.
HH
THE HANDS CANT HIT WHAT THE EYES CANT SEE
The result aside, yesterday was a car crash.
A unique take on a day when we won our tenth trophy in a row.
Maybe Dermot and Peter were just freezing. Looked delighted in the changing room.
IniquitousIV
INIQUITOUSIV on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 3:24 PM
Didn`t see.
Can`t comment .
Celtic shine on and on.
For me the cup final winning goal was extra special yesterday – because it was offside. Ho Ho Ho – how that must hurt them. No ticket so had to endure Radio Shortbread – but only after full time. Not brave enough to listen to them live. It was more or less a post mortem on how unlucky sevco were not to win, the whole studio was in mourning, even big Packy sounded upset, at the end of the programme I was actually beginning to feel sorry for ‘the rangers’, until I managed to snap out of it and carry on celebrating! Oh how they must hate us.
SIEMPRE CELTIC (FORMERLY TRADITIONALIST88) on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 3:28 PM
I agree with all of that .
The work in progress has progressed , but is not complete but has progressed much further under Lennie.
Lennie and his backroom will also have learned from this cliff edge victory.
Playing Elyounoussi was an absolute clanger.
Especially when MJ & Rogic are on the bench. Sinclair is in the stands.
@ CELTIC40ME on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 3:31 PM
Not that unique given other comments on the blog today.
THE HANDS CANT HIT WHAT THE EYES CANT SEE on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 3:45
I’ve not seen anyone else describe the day as a car crash.
Wandering in city centre earlier and met/bumped into a couple o’ weel kent people. First, and I’m not trying to over-excite Bada Bing, was the Weather Goddess herself, Big Judith, looking all black and sleek in her long coat and boots marching purposefully along. Then I literally bumped into an EBTer, old snagglepus, frozen faced Walter the Loyal Cardigan (I couldn’t see if he was wearing one) himself. After the initial apologies between the pair of us it dawned on me who it was and I stuck on the widest grin I could possibly muster. I hope he got the message!
Emeraldbee- 😜