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!!
203 Comments- Pages:
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Emeraldbee
Did you not ask him if enjoyed the game…🤣🤣
he
MACJAY1 FOR NEIL LENNON on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 3:42 PM
Yes – January will be interesting to see if any additions
HH
My goodness we have just won our 10th domestic trophy in a row – and we have posters on here not happy, only wanting to discuss how poor we were. Quite incredible. Nobody apart from us has won anything in this country since Hibs beat Sevco in the Scottish up final in 2016. Surely we should all be happy bunnies – but no not us – always looking for a bone.
Stoic as their performance was yesterday, and it was brilliant from that perspective, we surely cannot play that badly again, surely. So the old adage is true then better being lucky than good.
So chuffed with a real sense of togetherness throughout this team, highlighted when wee Jeremie was surrounded by hiis team mates, fantastic.
It’s the hope that kills thems, oh dear, how sad, never mind,eh
KINGLuBO
I see Tom English has another piece out today bemoaning poor Sevco’s luck.
Bottom line is if you’re not good enough to convert your chances, your not good enough to win.
I wouldn’t be too concerned from our point of view, yesterday was down to a series of injuries and lack of match practice for some pivotal players.
No el hamed, no Boli, Taylor cup tied, Elyounoussi playing for the first time in a month, Edouard not fit.
These things get rectified for the 29th and we’ll beat them for the third time this season.
@ CELTIC40ME on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 3:49 PM
People have commented on the poor performance in various ways and all of it’s pretty fair. Swap car crash for abysmal if you prefer?
I’m delighted with the result, delighted that Morelos missed a penalty and that we did it with 10 men. Still, that doesn’t detract from the first half performance. We shouldn’t be complacent. Who would have thought a year or so ago we would have seen such a performance in a Glasgow Derby?
ROCK TREE BHOY on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 4:08 PM
My goodness we have just won our 10th domestic trophy in a row – and we have posters on here not happy, only wanting to discuss how poor we were. Quite incredible. Nobody apart from us has won anything in this country since Hibs beat Sevco in the Scottish up final in 2016. Surely we should all be happy bunnies – but no not us – always looking for a bone.
___
It’s great. I celebrated winning and was very happy.
It was still a very poor performance and we rode our luck. We won a game with one shot on target. Do you expect us to pretend we didn’t watch the game?
Here’s your positives:
– Fraser Forster once again proved himself a matchwinner
– Frimpong was given his biggest test and passed with flying colours.
– Jullien is a leader and a matchwinner
– Ryan Kent is the most overrated player in Scotland
– Morelos clearly cannot handle these games mentally
– At 1-0 with 10 men our game management was excellent. Nobody panicked.
We won, end of story. Enjoy it.
I can assure you all I couldn’t care less if we played poorly. I have way too often seen the reverse.
PCS
Me too!
Loving every minute of the hun suffering!
Looooong may it continue!!
ROCK TREE BHOY
Agree with your post too!
If you read some of the posts in isolation you’d think we had just lost a cup final to the huns.
ROCK TREE BHOY @4.08.
Agreed.If we won five some fans would complain that it should have been six.Milk it for what it is worth,perhaps the bemoaners should give Clyde a bell tonight….I am delighted we beat them,delighted!
Paul
Have been trying to log on all day.
Ffs get a grip of this website before it disintegrates. No wonder people are leaving in droves. So many adverts, who is getting paid for them? Who controls the constant movement of the pages ?
We should be told before the blog dies.
Yesterday was a Pyrrhic victory and we will take it. Tommy Burns (RIP) suffered the reverse, now we know how a true Tim really felt in those cheating days!
TIMALOY29 on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 4:24 PM
When we beat Aberdeen 1 nil to win the League Cup final last season we were quite poor, not much better against Hearts in the Scottish Cup final who were beating us before Eddie sorted them out, I dont see the point in looking back when you have won the final and saying yeah but….
Anyway, glad you can see some positives :-)
Some fans simply need to have an Escape goat. I don’t understand it. They always seem to add a few spoonfuls of negativity into their analysis. Lewis Morgan, James Forrest, Callum McGregor are the current billygoat bhoys…recently, big CJ and Bolingoli were said to be ‘pigs in a poke’…and it’s not that long ago our captain was considered a headless chicken…imagine being James Forrest, having done what he has over the past decade and then reading you are chicken-hearted, a coward and the invisible man…Oooof! I hope Lewis Morgan makes them choke on their negativity…
ROCK TREE BHOY on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 4:42 PM
I disagree. Neither of those sides battered us like Sevco did yesterday. We might have played poorly but we weren’t dominated at any point.
Heres your stats:
Aberdeen Final
Possession: Celtic 52% Aberdeen 48%
Shots: Celtic 17 Aberdeen 7
Shots on Target: Celtic 7 Aberdeen 2
Corners: Celtic 6 Aberdeen 3
Hearts Final
Possession: Celtic 56% Hearts 44%
Shots: Celtic 7 Hearts 6
Shots on Target: Celtic 2 Hearts 3
Corners: Celtic 5 Hearts 4
Sevco Final
Possession: Celtic 50% Sevco 50%
Shots: Celtic 5 Sevco 16
Shots on Target: Celtic 1 Sevco 7
Corners: Celtic 1 Sevco 11
TIMALOY29 on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 4:56 PM
Mate – we never got battered yesterday – we won – try just to enjoy the victory – it’s a great time to be a Celtic Supporter – honest!
Etims summary of Lenny’s performance yesterday:
Manager: 5
Won a watch and he knows it.
A wins a win but we had no clear tactics yesterday whatsoever and no clear direction from the Manager during the game until Eddy arrived and changed the outcome.
Lennys talk off “a flat team” is all well and good but he has to ensure they don’t flat-line like that again .
The Squad selection was interesting for want of a better “WTF” word. No Griffiths and no Bauer yesterday raised a few eyebrows. Be interesting to see what happens with Griffiths especially. The Manager will need to consider quite a few options and rotations to deal with the run up to December 29th and then comes a big January window and hopefully he can stand up to any dilly-dallying attempts from Peter Lawwell.
At the very least we need a back up striker and a centre half as we are going to the Well with Ajer, Jullien and Eddy far too often. I doubt Bayo and Jozo are the answers that Lenny seeks but hopefully Elhamed at least isn’t too far away from a return along with SuperMo and Bolingoli hitting peak fitness sooner rather than later.
We won yesterday and that was great but we probably used up all our luck so its now back to the Manager to get the results the old fashioned way with the proper tactics and personnel. That can start tomorrow though, he can enjoy his day off, he has earned it.
job done
Re the “offside” goal
Helander’s arm is a part of the body he can score an own goal with and is therefore in play. The Celtic players arms are not. The offside rule is based around what parts of the body you can score with. Jullien was well onside.
Tell them that. It worked well for me 😂
I liked that BT commentator referred to the Glasgow derby not o.f.
I thought the underfoot conditions did our style of playing no favours but we continued to try to stick to our style even though it wasn’t working.
Elyounoussi was obviously unfit and Morgan was isolated.
Calmac seemed out of sorts also.
The bad luck for the ricochet for the penalty and sending off seems to have been ignored.
As has the fact we played for half an hour with ten men.
Big Fraser had a stellar game but that’s what he is there for.
The fat Colombian should have been sent off. He wasn’t even booked. The fact that a half fit Edouard contributed more in 30 minutes, in terms of ability and class, than el duffulo did in 95, will not be lost on any potential suitors, imagined or real. Him missing the penalty was brilliant.
Celtic won the cup. Sevco weren’t good enough to.
Having lived through the Tommy Burns years, the Cadete and Hartson disallowed goals, Di Canio 3 penalties in the one move with Goram and Gough, etc etc, I’ll gladly take a hint of good fortune for once, against them.
Add in the ICT semi, Killie and Hearts cheating finals, then you could argue we were due a turn.
We won, they didn’t.
Part of me wants the goal to have been offside.
My broadest smile for the hurting huns at the golf tomorrow.
Hail Hail
Eurochamps67
ROCK TREE BHOY on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 5:05 PM
Mate – we never got battered yesterday – we won – try just to enjoy the victory – it’s a great time to be a Celtic Supporter – honest!
___
We scored a goal offside from a set-piece and created one good chance across 90 mins.
I can be happy with the result but unhappy with the performance. I think the Etims quote expresses that well.
We have the players to play better than that. We will need to.
Once more into the breach once more stepped the mighty Fraser Forster with a display almost reaching the heights of his performance of yesteryear against Barcelona. Fraser better be careful not to overdo it or Southampton may come looking for him at the end of the season or slap a huge fee on his head, but thankfully Fraser is really enjoying his football here.
Yes Celtic won this game despite being played off the park for most of the match but have to be at least commended for a stout backs to the wall display of the ten for the last half hour. Rangers mark 2 can have no excuses they did not deserve to win this game fluffing a penalty kick and against a tiring Celtic ten man team. So well done Hoops surely we cannot play as badly again and better in yesterday’s fixture than in the next meeting with the same opposition in the coming weeks. What’s the problem with Griff? he looked lean and fit when he came on during the week.
Of subject.
This season we have knocked out of the Europa cup the team sitting third in the Italian league and the team sitting fourth in the French league. Last season we knocked out the team who are currently sitting second in the German league.
Rennes, Lazio and Rb Leipzig.
Three very good scalps. Well done celtic.
Opinion expressed as fact.
” We scored an offside goal ”
Fact expressed as fact.
We scored a goal.
Player to ref : ” That wis never a goal , ref ”
Ref to player : ” Aye it wis. You can see the score in the papers tomorrow. ”
Large smiley.
Bada Bing……….. good footage of DD and Pl joining in the post match mayhem in the dressing room. No champagne for Dermot D or Peter L , probably pints of stout men.
I know it’s not everybody’s cup of tea ..
SSB now starting … love it
SETTING FREE THE BEARS FOR RES. 12 & OSCAR KNOX on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 2:21 PM.
That was a tremendous post. You have covered almost everything perfectly.
We have mentioned Scotty Sinclair’s situation many times on here. Unless I am missing something, I think it is shocking.
HH
For me, in important games, all of these players should play:
Forster
Jullien,
Ajer,
Brown,
McGregor,
Christie,
Forrest,
Edouard.
The other three spots would be contested by:
Elhamed/Frimpong;
Taylor/Bolingoli;
Johnston/Elyounoussi.
Leaving two class player like Ntcham and Bitton out and still having Hayes,Morgan, Simunovic and Sinclair ( plus whoever I have forgotten) to call on, shows just how difficult it will be for Sevco to keep up their challenge. Provided, of course, we don`t produce too many performances like yesterday`s !
I have read a few posts in here today about Scott Sinclair by all accounts he has a great relationship with Neil Lennon … Neil had a sit down with every one of the first team in the close season… by all accounts (the bhoy who told me this :-) Neil wants his wingers to beat the full back and get the ball in the box, Scott thought this wasn’t a big part of his game these days … again this is just rumour and I would have Scott Sinclair in a starting 11 everyday of the week, especially in a game like yesterday … again who knows some managers like certain players or players to play in a certain way … until Neil starts losing games & trophies am afraid we will need to “suffer” his selections :-)
Timaloy, we played the game with 4 left wingers and 18 year old right back. 2 of those had not played for about 3 to 4 weeks and were clearly not fit. Sevco targeted our left hand side all game long from the very start. They hurried us in our own half and we played poorly because we tried to play out in conditions that simply made it impossible. We actually played better when we went down to 10 men.
I would suggest that Mickey’s opportunity one on one was the best chance outside our goal. They had about 10 long range shoots and contested headers, all their other shoots were from tight angles, where defenders force strikers to go because it makes it easier for the keeper to save. They have a striker who is rarely able to demonstrate good decision making when better options are on for his team I.e. no cutbacks etc…
Given the conditions and the problems we had with team selection due to injury and ineligibility i think it may be harsh to be overly critical. We should have abandoned our attempts to play out from the back and we should have stretched the game and forced them further back.
If the shoe was on the other foot and celtic just got beat in a cup final against a team playing with 4 left wingers in which we had 40 minutes to score no amount of noise about bad luck would make me happy. I would not come away with hope or pride.
Hopefully the next time we play them we will be able to call on our first choice right back, left back, fit again left winger and the second best centre forward in scotland.
HH
Why are we playing one more league game than the Huns are in December?
Hot Smoked 6.22pm
We are playing Hearts (who we were meant to be playing at the weekend) midweek in December … the Sevs have a Friday night game so they can’t play their game that midweek … I think
DONTBRATTBAKKINANGER on 9TH DECEMBER 2019 2:53 PM
Whither the cash strapped scrofulous hillbillies the day?
———————–
Hopefully ole DBBIA makes same post Thursday night and on 29th December hh
Lenny interview today explains a few things
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MgnAcnKx_Q
MacJay from earlier
I think we could take on Lennon and MCartney with our Frimpong song .
More lyrics tomorrow 😀
Listening to radio Snyde and the Rangers are back now…. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Back as runners up. Ffs these guys are clowns.
D. :)
Supersutton – Agree with you, Morgan was right to wait. He had to wait on James catching up and he was delaying the pass to try take the last defender out of the game. To be fair it was a great recovery tackle by their player.
The two key things that went against us yesterday were the weather and the application of der hun. This was everything for them. The rain and heavy pitch made it a game of strength, not skill. We are not set up for that with Lenny. Morgan, Johnston and Forrest are all lightweight up front . Asking Morgan to lead the line in these conditions had no chance of success. What surprised me most was how our midfield was out-muscled for the first 70 minutes. By contrast I thought Ajer and Julien were outstanding and big Fraser was of course unbelievable. When Odsonne came on it did change the balance of power on the pitch.
What this highlights is that we need more power in the midfield and upfront for these types of game. I think Lenny will sort this out in January.