This was a defensive and tactical failure. Efe Ambrose was slow to follow his man for the first goal (Fraser was the beaten easily, though redeemed himself later). Efe was also brushed off the ball at the second goal. Strength in the six yard box is imperative for a central defender.
Mikael Lustig was caught underneath his man for the cross which led to the second goal, a feature of our defending all night. All he could do was attempt to block the header back across goal, instead of challenge for the ball. He was also in the wrong starting position, and therefore, unable to stop the cross which led to the fourth goal.
With Lustig and Ambrose already culpable at the second goal, Virgil van Dijk was caught napping. He may have expected better from his team-mates, but he should have remained alert with the ball inside the penalty area. The space afforded to Radovic, Virgil’s man, should never have existed.
I’ve no idea why Emilio, our only left back, was omitted from the starting line-up. He offered balance when he came on, until his late horror show when he was turned inside out, then inside out again, at the third goal. It was like watching a clip from the 50s, when full backs didn’t know to get tight and close-off one option for the attacker.
Charlie Mulgrew had a nightmare beyond the level of the others, which is saying something. Two penalty kicks, failing to attack the ball with his man, who headed the third goal, failing to track the run for the fourth, and the debacle which led to possession being lost when Efe was red carded, was a calamitous return.
I’ve heard transfer rumours about everyone who played in defence last night apart from Lustig and Izaguirre. It looked like the defenders had been listening to them too, and had minds on other things.
The squad’s weaknesses were exposed by Legia.
It’s probably too late to lament the absence of Wanyama, but with Brown again out through injury, we’re short of bite in central midfield, exactly what we needed when the defence was comatose. Stefan Johansen and Charlie Mulgrew had the senior combative roles, it just didn’t work. We need to fix this gap as soon as possible.
Ronny got things wrong.
I agree with the manager’s assessment in his post-match BBC interview, the back four didn’t defend as a unit, which is fatal at any level of football, and we didn’t press as a team. I’ll make no excuses for the defenders, but playing this specific 4-3-3 away from home in Europe was asking for trouble.
If we’re short of bite with Johansen and Mulgrew, we’re shorter still if the third man in the middle is the creative Kris Commons. Love him, though we do, he is neither a tackler nor a box-to-box player. The middle three in this formation need to be mobile, covering as much ground as four, sometimes five, opponents. Johansen, Mulgrew and Commons was wrong on all levels. As a result, the Legia midfield probably had their easiest game of the year.
Callum McGregor delivered a goal, as much as anyone could reasonably expect of him, but this was his first game against top-flight full-timers. He needs people to ease him into the role. Jo Inge Berget hasn’t trained with the club, has played only twice since January and there’s a reasonable chance he didn’t know the names of all his team-mates.
If you want to know why we didn’t press as a team as soon as Legia got in amongst us, the clues are everywhere. Of course we didn’t press as a team.
On top of this, we ran the same Pukki experiment as last year, with the same outcome. We’ve seen a lot more of this Celtic team than Ronny, who might now be on the same page as the rest of us.
“Anywhere but Warsaw” was title of the CQN article on the day of the draw as this one was entirely predictable, and that was before Legia won in Dublin. The new manager has yet to get his feet under the table. The squad are in a state of flux. We are short of experienced, reliable, players in several positions, and football in July is often a lottery. There was a chance Legia would capitulate but it was more likely that they would be fitter and better rehearsed.
Seven days is a long time in preseason terms, and as you don’t need me to tell you, we’ve been here before. Don’t think this is over.
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Morning all. Brightish down here. Could go either way, weatherwise.
Can the tie go either way? Still haven’t even looked at the game on Celtic TV, far less read back the comments on CQN. I gave up on them at H/T.
LB
Second pick non runner.
Turkeybhoy
Pretty much agree with all of that. Stop talking sense!!!
LB
blantyretim is praying for the Knox family
Not sure if the guy will replace it. If he does I will fire it up.
LB
Dunno if it’s been mentioned, but big Hangeland just signed for Crystal Palace. Would have been superb alongside VVD. Missed a trick there Celtic.
NatKnow @ 11:09
Aye, cheers pal. If you’d been lucky enough to see how fine my Tim looks are, you’d never make that mistake again ! Not one to blow my own trumpet, but I’m so handsome, I would if I could.
#creepingbackintotheclosetandtouchingthebordersof21stCenturyNarnia
Kittoch
11:11 on 1 August, 2014
____________________
Putting on my cynical hat….do you think it would be, poetic justice for the board if, we didn’t get any type of run in Europe this year as, when you think about it, nobody seems to know what the plan is?
We are periodically told about how financially astute the board members are or even, DD and yet, the recruitment policy that is continually pursued seems to be down the foreign car boot sale rute?
Strange.
LB
I’ll probably miss it but cheers anyway..
Busy afternoon
I can’t believe that some people on here want to sack the manager already. The manager picked the team and set them up but he wasn’t the one who lost possession, gave away penalties, got sent off, couldn’t pass to a team mate. The players need to take responsibility for their poor display.
I also think Neil Lennon shouldn’t be in the papers giving his opinion, he didn’t like it when it happened to him. He should take a lead from Gordon Strachan who has never criticised the team or the manager since he left.
SydneyTim – I think we get where you’re coming from, can you change the record please, you’re becoming a scroll on by poster to me as it’s the same mantra every time
madmitch
11:14 on 1 August, 2014
The vision is to consistently qualify for the last 16 …..
My vision is to join another league, and get to feck out of this league (where we are detested)
Progress ? …10 in a row, consistent trebles, and qualify for CL which, on our finances, would be an awesome achievement
In 5 years time, I see us struggling on, unless we can get out of here, away from the bigots…
BUUUUUT……. Win, lose, or draw, I will still love every minute of being a CELTIC SUPPORTER (faithful through and through)
MadMitch @ 11:12,
“As noted above it is not critical to PL’s business model.”
For me this is what needs discussed. It’s baffling, and true. Yet it seems a difficult subject to discuss here openly these days.
Why are we not making a little bit of investment to get that CL money??
Mibbes we’re so used to being raped by hunnery that it’s just not a comprehensible ambition anymore.
MadMitch
11:12 on
1 August, 2014
In terms of it no longer being a guarantee of profit I agree that was a bit of conjecture based on a poor CL performance and costs rising at the current rate. I’d also forgotten about the increase in prize money from 2015. So I agree it’s a lot less likely than I’d envisioned.
However as a general rule our surplus is CL revenue – £10M. So that’s probably the limit of any additional spending to ‘guarantee’ getting there. It might not have been worth it for this season. It definitely will be next time – there’s around £500M more in the CL pot to be grabbed.
Good Morning Timland.
I don’t seem to be taking the result on Wednesday as bad
as some on here,is my love of Celtic on the wane,don’t
think so…..I survived the 90’s and was rewarded when we
stopped the hun 10….I survived the 77/78 season and was
rewarded the night 10 men won the league,so I take a
setback in my stride and look forward to the next great
day/night watching Celtic.
crisiswhatcrisisCSC.
Nye Bevan’ rebel soldier
I admire your loyalty. Good on ya.
For me the difference this time is that there is no external factors within Scotland loading the dice against us, there are no meaningful competitors to beat.
The damage this time is being done by those who are managing our club…self destructing…
NatKnow @ 11:18
“What are Peter Lawwell’s KPIs? Where are they documented?”
Why is his weekly rate better than most of the Celtic 1st team players, at £19000 per week? Could we do better -eg, get someone in who can perform better under pressure, be clinical enough to finish the huns off in the endgame, rather than wait for them to come back into it, while booing the supporters paying his wages.
Football analogies and finance are never funny eh.
CultsBhoy
If losing to Morton is not a concern then I don;t know what is. Sure a freak result can happen but they got pumped almost weekly last season and we couldn;t hit the net after 120 mins against them. Some of the players who played that night should already be gone. That was the night I knew Derk would never be a Celtic player.
LB
Nat … @ 11.18
I don’t know What PL’s KPI’s are.
Just a bit of conjecture from me.
One thing is for sure CL qualification isn’t in the Top Three.
FFM – I’m the only conspiracy theorist in the village)
PL’s weekly rate is so high because he is delivering what the board ask him to. I am not sure what people don;t get. Peter Lawwell is keeping his employers happy and is being rewarded for it. It’s really that simple. The board clearly have a different mindset to the fans. I believe the board are all Celtic supporters so they have to share the long term strategy or risk losing punters through the turnstiles because there are a fair few out there who are not happy and I am tired of ready Lawwell out and all that sort of nonsense on here.
LB
Jungle spy ghuy
Is it the boards policy not to sign big names to secure Champions League football?
Or is it, as Neil is stating, the talent won’t sign until the CL is secured?
Chicken or Egg.
The only way we would know for sure is if, by winning the League we got guaranteed entry to the league stages, we would see who we were able to attract and how much the board would spend?
But it may just be convenient for the board to say they won’t come until we are qualified!!
who know’s, many on here will look cynically at it, other’s accept it, but I would not look forward to a season without European football, unless we get a strong challenge from the likes of Aberdeen and Dundee Utd.
Kittoch
Probably no chance here but worth a try.
if anyone has any spare tickets for athletics tomorrow night please contact me on bobbypetta@sky.com.
I have 2 tickets but we have unexpected visitors coming tomorrow and would like another 2 or 4 if possible.
HH
CultsBhoy
11:39 on
1 August, 2014
Not looking for a fight pal,but can you remember the
old board back in the day?,talk about self serving rank
amateurs who treated the support like shite.
JungleJim
happy birthday.tonight just for you BBC2 programme about DUKE ST.
wonder if they will mention THE MUNGO and AULDEID’ s hat-trick on last day in first year.
maleys bhoy: ‘we have unexpected visitors coming tomorrow’
============
…Using that crystal ball what will the score be next week vs Legia??
;)
HH
Agent Green
11:22 on
1 August, 2014
Dunno if it’s been mentioned, but big Hangeland just signed for Crystal Palace. Would have been superb alongside VVD. Missed a trick there Celtic.
———————
How did we miss a trick?
Did he want to sign for us and we didn’t talk to him?
If that’s the case he needs to sack his agent.
Isn’t it far more likely that the wages that EPL club CP can offer him immediately take him out of our price range by an insurmountable difference?
I see Real Madrid signed James Rodriguez.
He’d have been great alongside Griffiths.
Did we miss a trick there too?
FFM – I’m the only conspiracy theorist in the village)
11:40 on 1 August, 2014
NatKnow @ 11:18
“What are Peter Lawwell’s KPIs? Where are they documented?”
Why is his weekly rate better than most of the Celtic 1st team players, at £19000 per week? Could we do better -eg, get someone in who can perform better under pressure, be clinical enough to finish the huns off in the endgame, rather than wait for them to come back into it, while booing the supporters paying his wages.
Football analogies and finance are never funny eh.
—————————————————————————
I assume you’re taking £1m and dividing by 52 weeks to get the £19k per week figure?
PL’s Salary for 2013 was £507,625. He was also paid bonus payments of £398,500. So his weekly wage is only circa £17.4k. :-)))
Why is he paid more than some 1st team players? Becaue the Remuneration Committee decided that’s what he’s worth. Why are you comparing his remuneration with the first team wages? Why not, say, the Ticket Office staff?
Could we get someone better? Possibly. Will one of their Key Performance Indicators be “finish off the huns”? No.
PL isny the problem, he’s DD’s pawn.
Getting fed-up banging the same old drum for the last 5 years on here but, I’ve come to the conclusion that…DD, the ‘bored’, PL and anybody I’ve forgot must have a collective wet-dream when it comes to SB renewal time.
The only power that the fans have, surrendered meakly without a whimper and, yeez have cheek to wonder why all this sh#t comes down on top of you.
Fu#kin grow a pair and stand up for yerselves. Until yeez do, tycoons will continue to shaft yeez.
Another thing before I take the dug out to chase away local huns –
If EPL clubs are getting so much money from SKY that their ticket sales are of little value to them in comparison, then why is their treatment of “customers” so opposite to our own?
They seem to value their supporters and treat them with respect.
“Please come back”. And they invest a lot of money in doing so.
So it confuses me when the spin I read is that EPL clubs don’t particularly need gate money, it’s all about TV revenue and sponsorship.
Why at CP can we not achieve this simple important value – treating supporters with respect. Instead we have lifelong ST holders telling their children not to go, to protect their futures – sorry son, you might get arrested.
Just a small issue that doesn’t seem to get a lot of airtime on ole CQN amidst all the board sycophancy Just as well there are organisations such as the CSA to help out in such scenarios.
I remember one of the funniest propaganda comments I saw on the BBC – royal wedding a couple of years ago – the BBC Royal Correspondent: “Not a lot of people realise, that the Queen sponsors the Internet”.
I’ve actually been waiting to read that here one day when we hear another story of unlawful arrest. Lionsroar’s post on Tuesday morning of the rag story about the rozzers sending a crew over to keep Celtic Supporters out of trouble didn’t get a peep of a response until about 8 hours later, where Canamalar expressed concern about the lack of response.
That to me is very concerning, and worries me that the sanitisation process if near completion. Because, outside of CQN and some other sites, what else do we have to make us realise we need to rally together? The Scottish rags? We are heading into very difficult waters, when it is all so avoidable. Is the Captain of the ship mental?
MadMitch
11:42 on 1 August, 2014
Nat … @ 11.18
I don’t know What PL’s KPI’s are.
Just a bit of conjecture from me.
One thing is for sure CL qualification isn’t in the Top Three.
——————————————————————————————
Fair enough. I had a look at the last Annual Report and can;t see anything in there. Would be nice to know that all the directors KPIs (not just PLs) are aligned to footballing success rather than just financial metrics. That said, I wonder how many directors would sign up to something that is so arbitrary and relies on players and team manager. Not many I’d imagine.
Livi
I was less concerned by Morton as I reckoned Lenny had built enough stock to absorb a freak result.
Agree with you re Derk..same with quite a few of our recent £1-2m purchases. Griffiths is the only recent purchase who I feel is an ‘exciting ‘ game changer.
One issue of concern is the appointment of Ronny and Johnny.. If they were the best candidates it makes me wonder how attractive we are as a proposition. It is significant that our goal scorer this week is a home bred player.
I don’t know anything about PL’s KPI’s etc but I would take a guess and say if he wasn’t doing what DD wanted him to do and , as some seem to be suggesting , operating as Chief Exec of Celtic and , on the contrary, running the club with the primary motivation of enhancing his bonus , he would be out the door with DD’s bootmark on the seat of his pants sooner than you could say “bonus schmonus”
KevJungle is a Celtic fan…not a supporter.
11:56 on
1 August, 2014
Let’s say the fans do withhold the money. Do you think that’ll make DD pour millions in to take us where those fans want us? I don’t. I think at best it’d make him put in enough money to keep us where we are. Which is where he wants us.
Nye Bevan
Decent observation but we are in a new era with new possibilities and opportunities… The old Board were a joke no doubts no doubts.
This lot have open goals that they keep missing …
MadMitch
PL’s KPIs…
I asked the question of Tom Allison – chair of the Remuneration Cmtte – at the AGM 3 years ago when the club’s stated KPIs had all bombed over the previous 4 years, yet the Exec Team got full entitlement via the LTIP.
The KPIs are noted in the Annual Report of 2011 as:
• Football success
• Match attendance statistics
• Sales performance per division
• Wage and other costs
• Capital expenditure
• Profit and cash generation
The answer was of the fudgey variety because over the qualifying period, every KPI was down and substantially at that (Lenny disputed the football success bit, but we had gone from last 16 in 2007 to papped out of Europa League qualifying in 2010).
There was simply no justification to pay the LTIP against the KPI criteria for the 5 year period in question, but that of course could not be acknowledged by the Board.
Essentially the LTIP was put in place as a salary compensation device rather than a ‘bonus system’ as we would ordinarily understand it. It was designed following the Arsenal approach to PL, and I think the crux was to enable the club to match Arsenal’s offer without making it all headline salary.
That’s my sense of it anyway.
Of course since then the LTIP has matured, paid out and been replaced with a new bonus system across the business described thus:
“Performance conditions cover corporate financial performance and personal objectives. Corporate financial performance includes performance against budget and
against the previous year’s results. Maximum award levels depend upon seniority and contractual entitlements, ranging from 20% of basic salary to 60% of basic salary. The Committee reviews the bonus scheme structure and the corporate performance conditions each year.”
In addition to above, PL was awarded a further bonus last year for “the scale of incremental value delivered for the benefit of the Company through fulfilment of the objectives set for him.”
Now, every CEO is measured on Income, Profit and Cash. That’s the game. In football of course, there are further aspects which influence all of these, primarily football success – between gates, media and merchandising, a huge proportion of our income is football performance related.
So what were the objectives set that he over-delivered against? they aren’t disclosed, but we can hazard a guess.
While he is not responsible for the first team’s results, he is impacted by them from a performance perspective. Equally he is impacted by the balance of gains and losses on player trading. Add Champions League last 16 to massive gains on player sales, and you have a considerable over-delivery is my guess.
The balance of course is to maintain and improve football performance while trading smart, something I think we agree needs adjusted.
And quickly at that.
LiviBhoy
11:42 on 1 August, 2014
____________________
The team for the Morton game, more or less, took two games to scrape past Arbroath in the SC the year before. These games were supposed to show our depth of squad.
For about three years we have amused ourselves mocking a group of people who we reckon have been taken to the cleaners by their club owners.
Maybe it is time to look nearer home at folk being taken to the cleaners.
In Celtic’s case it is always a case of jam tomorrow.
THEIR temporary demise gave us the chance to make the decade of domestic dominance a reality.
Instead make do and mend policies mean that we are going backwards at such a rate that there won’t be much between TTHEM and us when THEY return this time next year.
CultsBhoy
12:02 on 1 August, 2014
____________________
Yes, and they’ll continue to miss the open goals until the screw is turned on them.
That will only happen when the fans take them on but, there are too many snobs amongst the support these days who would rather just hand over their oney then, not go.
And they’ve cheek to say that, I’m an eejit :)
Traditionalist1888
5-1 to the hoops after extra time.
If NFL did indeed say privately that the club lacks football ambition then he is singing from the same hym sheet as a large swathe of our support.
A club with the stature of ours should have the ambition of progressing further in the last 16 of the CL , not merely qualifying for the group stages.
The board need to ditch the flawed strategy that they are currently seduced by and get the quality players that the club needs to challenge in European competition.
This can be done other than by splashing out over inflated fees and wages.
They must see that they are currently wasting millions on tubes that are on salaries vastly disproportionate to their limited ability. That’s why we have great difficulty in getting anything back for them!
And who in the name of god deems this endless stream of sub standard ordinaries as worthy of playing for Celtic ??
Has to be a corporate decision as anyone with a tad of football nous would recognise immediately the limitations of most of these over hyped signings.
I am a fan who wants my club to succeed on the park, that is my priorities.Play good, entertaining football the traditional celtic way!!
We fans deserve a board with the same simplistic ambitions and not put corporate skinflint strategies ahead of this.
Whether intentional or not the team are in decline year on year!!!