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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Here is the invite code to the EPL CQN Championship Fantasy Football League, we now have over 20 teams entered.
296638-123206
You have 16 days left to register your team & join the league.
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/
As an added incentive I’ve decided to offer some prizes for the top 3 come the end of the season. The winners will each receive items of their choosing from the Official Celtic Webstore to the tune of
1st £100
2nd £75
3rd £50
Or alternatively, winners can choose to donate any winnings to a Celtic charity of their choice.
Also if by some miracle I end up in the top 3, the winnings will be passed onto the next placed team.
HH
Pretty sure Legia will score next week. Means we will need 4 to force Extra Time(surely we would beat them on penalties).
That said we only managed 4 against Reykjavik when it should have been double.
last night was certainly no freak result.
no left back on the park.
defenders looking at moves away.
no backbone in midfield.
charlie was woeful…return of the boo boys favourite.
toothless up front.
no wide players.
its an embarrassment to be in the position we
are in with the money our club pulls in.
the guy radovic turned us inside out. now that
would have been 1.5m well spent instead of the money
wasted on balde, pukki etc etc. oh wait but hes
not a project….aye that’ll be why hed have improved
us as a team then….jeez its no rocket science.
our present policy of being the eternal feeder club
for the epl pish clubs by buying projects in to sell on
is killing us and building our apathy towards our club.
and apathy leads to loss of love…lets hope it doesnt
come to that…it couldnt could it?
oh and for the formation techies…4-3-3 will never work for
us. why?
cos we couldnt/wouldnt/cant spend the money needed
to fill the 3 midfield and 3 front positions with the level of
player required to compete in europe at europa level never mind CL.
I wouldn’t blame Pukki. He scorned one chance but never saw the ball again. Pukki and the new bloke were isolated. McGregor dug back a bit couldn’t get the ball from The midfield 3.
Pukki could have made things better by Joining the midfield pack at taking some attention away from the midfield as they tried to find gaps.
Next week will take care of itself but the manager needs to decide what he will do and say between now and our next European away game.
It is only vanity to berate your club for Losing to a polish side if you think we were good enough to go there and be as open as we were. Most agree that our open tactical formation was daft not that the quality of opposition were poor.
DBBIA
Congrats on your retirement. Enjoy.
cork celt
Ronny was saying all the right things?? Like “I dont fear a C L catastrophe”?? He must be asked to explain that one!!
Pukki getting it in the neck today is bizarre. If Henrik had played he would have had as much influence in the game. Same for Messi.
Pukki may or not be the standard we need, but last night was caused by us getting caught on the counter after repeatedly losing possession in our own half when our fullbacks were making forward runs.
He only played 45mins too, when we were still well in the game. It was either him or our star man who had to go because of the sending off.
I’m not saying he was good, but some of the scattergun attacks just come across as malicious.
There always has to be a scapegoat. Shame he didn’t have Sammi and Brown with him to share the abuse.
DBBIA,
see from a couple posts that you have retired.
Enjoy it thoroughly and to the full big fella!
Well deserved it is too im certain.
All the best.
HAIL! HAIL!
Token
jude, I’m on the same page as you. I was having a wee dig at the lads on here who were lapping up every Ronny statement as if he had done something rather than just saying it. However I am equally having a dig at the guys going in over the top today.
seanoc
I agree. The only forward player who made the ball stick and created chances was Pukki. He was the link man to the midfield. He may not have been outstanding but he was performing. Our chances of scoring left the field when he did.
LB
weeminger
13:16 on
31 July, 2014
Statistics can lie in judging a player, i seen a bit of Tony Watt in the youths, and obviously when he burst on to the first team stage, we had a striker with great potential, very disappointed we were unable to release and fulfil that potential at Celtic, cant see anything other than a wee tidy player in Pukki, no great physical attributes, never looks happy on the pitch, i am sure our scouting system has been given the task of replacing him already
lionroars67
Look at Leigh Griffith’s statistics. I would wager he is the most potent striker we have and his shot to goal ratio is very good. Also has a bit of fight in him. Least he didn’t just roll over when he came on. He went toe to toe and stood up for himself. We need more fire in the belly in others.
LB
DONTBRATTBAKKINANGER
Enjoy and congratulations.
Also congratulations in order for Mike in Toronto and his soon to be boss (I mean bride) I hear :)))
till later all
Assuming there is no redemption at Murrayfield next week, I wonder how the plc will attempt to sell the Europa League qualifier to the increasingly disgruntled supporters. Doubtless we’ll be fed the endless diet of planted stories about us looking at various quality players (which will come to nothing) then the official PR machine will go into over-drive to dress the match as a great opportunity to support the bhoys in another fantastic European adventure. In reality, I think Lawwell will be very worried about this match which carries the real risk of being played in front sub 20k home crowd. If this happens, I think this could very well be his Jock Brown moment. He couldn’t survive that and doesn’t deserve to.
The Aberdeen strategy is interesting. McInnes buys in the main British and Irish players. When it comes to the heat of a battle I know who my money would be on.
They may not challenge us too hard for the league but the games against them this season will be our toughest test at home and away.
Should Celtic adopt a similar policy? Should we have 1 or 2 foreign players and the rest from the UK and Ireland?
As the years go by a team full of foreigners is not doing it for me. A small percentage and the rest made up of home grown or players from the British Isles would probably give us just as much success as we are having now. Just a thought.
LB
m6bhoy
If you want to watch Celtic you will. I have never attended a game because of PR. I am a Celtic supporter and go as much as I can.
LB
LiviBhoy
13:34 on
31 July, 2014
LG is unproven on the European stage, however on a straight choice between Pukki and LG, i would have went for LG due to his unpredictability allied with a bigger heart desire than Pukki
For the first time ever, I don’t give a f*** about an upcoming Celtic game. This tie with Spurs on Saturday actually annoys me. I don’t know why but I wish we didn’t have a game this Sat. At the moment I just want both the Spurs and Legia return game to be over and to restart our season against St. Johnstone.
Italiabhoy
I reckon the biggest risk to not qualifying is our state of readiness to qualify. Change that and we qualify at no added cost.
Qualifying comes at a time when we have lost players ( some worth keeping) and are not at full fitness.
The answer is summer fitbaw! If title is won by December we can afford to trade in the winter window as we did with Ledley and Johanson.
The season starting in March gives time for new guys to settle in -three months not three weeks and of course we enter qualifying at full fitness.
It’s such a no effing brainer it only proves that as oil is to the oil industry so stupidity is to football.
Of all the things PL should push for at SPFL and SFA it’s a move to summer football.
I doubt it would cost Scottish football anything, in fact I think it could increase income. Imagine a Scottish Cup month in July played out over a month. Sat Wed Sat. Look at the turn out for the CGames. It would not be as big of course but it would be an attraction.
Then sell it to TV looking for summer football content. World Cup or European Nations Cup? So what? The SC is a bit of a lottery so does it matter if we are a few players short – an opportunity for the youth to step up to the plate.
I think we really need radical thinking to save the game in Scotland and despair at the lack of leadership to lead us out of our stupidity.
Oh and midweek summer games at CP with picnic benches on the Celtic Way, a few beer tents and Gazebos for rainy nights and barbecued sausages on soft Scottish rolls. Get to the game in the light, travel home in the light. Save money on the floodlights. :) Folk would turn up even if there was not a game!
Summer fitbaw puleeeze!
traditionalist88
13:23 on 31 July, 2014
Going into extra time, jings folk were complaining about getting back home for mid night the last time……………………..
prestonpans bhoys. I dont think that will be a worry some how. H.H.
More and more supporters are waking up to the fact that the boards current philosophy of buying young players on the hope they can be sold for a profit is simply an unsustainable method for maintaining and enhancing a winning team.
This model is going to cost us in the long term and has to be supplemented with real quality acquisitions when needed, like now, in the short term. We will go backwards if we don’t.
HH
Rt rev davie hay…….
Well said
Celtic is a pure emotion bet – it’s either in your blood or it’s not. It’s in mine.
£550 a season is a lot of money, many of our support pay this plus European tickets at the expense of a holiday or a car. We can’t help ourselves it’s what we do.
However there comes a point every so often where you take stock.
Last night was one of those times.
I am going to list 3 teams :
Douglas, Mjalby, Balde, Valgaeren, Thompson, Agathe, Petrov, Lennon, Lambert, Larsson and Sutton. Manager Martin O’N.
Forster, Mathews, Ambrose, Wilson, Lustig, Commons, Ledley, Wanyama, Miku and Samaras. Manager Neil L.
Forster, Mathews, Ambrose, Van Dyke, Lustig, Commons, MacGregor, Mulgrew, Johanssen, Berget and Pukki. Manager Ronny D.
If ever there was proof of downsizing look at those teams.
Seville , Barcelona, Legia.
OK the Seville team was not sustainable at the time, however the lack of investment in qualifying rounds for the Champions League means that we are playing Russian Roulette each season. We just simply do not replace players we sell with anything other than another reach and a prayer. It almost got us last year and still we didn’t learn.
The fans who spend a considerable percentage of their net disposable income deserve something in return. Honestly apart from Commons how many of the Celtic signings in the last 5 years have we ever heard of ?
I am reasonably aware of world football but I hear name after name of who ????? Lustig ok I give you that one. Are we really at the level of signing guys who can’t get a game for Cardiff ? It would appear yes so let’s collectively reassess or expectations of ever playing in the champions league again. You don’t qualify based on your name and a great support.
We are being short changed. The fans are now praying for a break just to be given the chance of spending more money on tickets. It’s madness.
No doubt we will be turn up again this season come what may but time must surely be running out on this policy of taking the fans for granted.
Seville67
One of my biggest concerns after last night’s abysmal showing was the attitude displayed by certain players. No aggression, no will-to-win, no playing for the jersey, accepting a real doing and displaying a could-no-care-less attitude. I think that there should be a closed, in-house inquiry about these players and their attitude. To me, it seems plausible that there has been/is a negative reaction to the new approach that the managerial teams is taking. If so, it must be snuffed out and heads must roll.
Celtic desperately lack an on-field leader and some jersey-players.
lionroars67
All players are unproven in Europe until they are played there. McGregor was unproven until this season and has two away goals in his locker already. Can’t afford to drop him now. 2 goals in 4 games makes him the most potent European goal scorer at the club.
LB
For those who may be interested;
FOOTBALL is FIXED @footballisfixed 4h
We will release a blog post on the Legia Warszawa v Celtic match this evening at http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/
No further communication until then.
LiviBhoy
13:51 on
31 July, 2014
============================
Sami would have helped last night.
Mad Mitch
With respect my analysis is more grounded than your theory that all Celtic’s ills can be placed at the door of a mad dictator hell bent on amassing a personal fortune by killing off the means of amassing said fortune.
It’s mad.
I hope I never see Efe Ambrose in a Celtic shirt again. I hate myself for wishing that but he costs us so much so many times. How he has maintained a first team place for so long is beyond me. Virgil carried him the entire season last year, covering his mistakes. Our team needs better and I’m sorry Efe is just not a good player. Time to sell him.
Lets stick to whats important, can we wear Magners on our shirt next week?
Seville67 – “Are we really at the level of signing guys who can’t get a game for Cardiff ?”
Yes, that is exactly where we are and it will only get worse once the obscene prize money in the EPL starts filtering down to the lower end of the Championship and upper end of League 1.
Celtic are in the aspiration business. They rely on us pinning our hopes on something so much that we put our hands in our pockets to be a part of it.
A sharp shot of reality isn’t good for business.
RogueLeader
13:57 on
31 July, 2014
Yep. Ross McCormack – £11M. Anybody that doesn’t think that kind of fee affects the whole transfer market is being incredibly short sighted.
Auldheid
Summer football – no, kids would inevitably choose an English side for the traditional calendar year and gradually would move away from our own game.
People have too much going on in the summer.
Stick to the current format in line with the major leagues and do all we can to disassociate ourselves from the also rans.
HH
Paul,
Can I take it that you were not too chuffed. Your comments are spot on I’m afraid.
However, out new man is well, new and he’s trying to sort things out to prepare the team to play the style he wants, and to me that’s fair do’s. I’ve never been a fan of these pre-qualifying games as they come so early in the season most of the team are no where near match fit, but that’s the league we are in sadly. To my simple mind we need to be up to speed and match fit and that means getting the players back a lot earlier pre-season. What I witnessed last night was a very rusty looking set of players, players who last season were very good.
So, we need to win the return game 3 -0, simple and we cannot allow Warsaw to score.
After that, we go all the way,OK
KINGLuBO
traditionalist88
Don’t kids already have an English side anyway?
Achhh!
What’s all the worry about?
Leigh Griffiths has got new sannies. All’s well that ends well.
congrats DBBIA on your pending retirement. now that is what I call JIT GMTFOOH doctoring with Ebola on it’s way. (That is Just In Time Get Me The F Ooot Of Here)
MWD says AYE
Som mes que un club
When I was young some did as a 2nd club but was more of a fad which you grew out of pretty quickly. We can’t have it become the norm though.
HH