Celtic got what they deserved at Rugby Park yesterday. An inspired early goal by Ryan Christie limited the damage to two dropped points but that aside, Kilmarnock coped easily with everything Celtic could muster. After being caught out by Christie, Danny Rogers in the Killie goal did not have a save to make for the rest of the game. Who would have thought?
Post-match, Neil Lennon referred to Christopher Jullien’s slow start to last season. After a poor performance at Fir Park he was dropped for the infamous defeat to Cluj at Celtic Park. Chris got better then and he will do so again, but he lost Nicke Kabamba in dangerous positions three times in the first half.
He does not have problems with big stirkers, as was alleged on TV commentary; the significance of that goal by Lyndon Dykes at Livingston could not be more overstated. But he is a big lad who clearly needs a better preseason.
Crossing was poor, control cumbersome and the physical battle was often too much. The lack of physicality is a concern; we are small and light in several areas. One of the hottest strikers in Europe spent much of the game a spectator, despite our most valued creatives playing. It really was a team dropping points together.
The manager changed the shape of the team on 65 minutes but to no effect. Olivier Ntcham had the last 10 minutes but by then Killie were settled and Celtic, increasingly desperate. You know me and Olivier, I would have introduced him earlier. Or, had him on from the start.
Neil has dropped points at Rugby Park before and he knows how to build a response. No one was “thrown under the bus”, as he said later. Until then, we have to live like others, not at the top of the table, for a change.
We are going to face a lot of packed defences this season and play on a few plastic pitches. There can be no complaints, let’s just get better at overcoming both.
Given a choice of winning yesterday, or facing two away draws in Champions League qualification, I would take the draw with Killie and home times against Reykjavik, then either Ferencvaros or Djurdargens, the prospect we face after different types of draws yesterday and today.
Home ties until we are well into our season is a huge bonus. There is still work to do, but the prospect of a Lincoln Red Imps rerun is receding. Wish we could attend these games.
Sweden is Europe’s Covid herd immunity test case and the test has not gone well. It remains to be seen what travel restrictions visitors from Sweden are in place when the second round takes place on 15 and 26 August.
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Glad to see that a small trickle of emails have started to come in. Get it off your chest and vote for the 3 least bad players from yesterday’s game by 10pm tonight. Somebody has to get the points for this game! CQNPOTY@GMAIL.COM
Is it a first
67ECW
After we put Reykjavík on ice…
Lets flatpack those Swedes
Hail hail
My theory on plastic pitches remains, play 2 up front, and launch it,not very scientific I know, these teams sit so deep we can’t get in behind them.
I always thought Gallagher was excellent at Livingstone and now with Motherwell, good pro and handy for plastic pitches, having played on one with Livvy, and dealing with burly forwards. Wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg, this would be in addition to any other brought in, por cierto
I agree that Jullien did grow into his season last term but by God, he was awful yesterday. He’s such a tall lad but he seems to have no strength. We really do need someone in central defence who has the strength of Bobo not Bambi.
Celtic going shopping in the CL qualifiers then, Iceland then Ikea, por cierto
Bada Bing, the other trick is don’t give away stupid penalties
“There is still work to do, but the prospect of a Lincoln Red Imps rerun is receding.”
Ah yes, nice dig at BR. The prospect of another Cluj or Copenhagen has not receded I assume?
Let’s buy plastic pitch specialists?
Just no. Really. Just no.
Imo, plastic pitches are a lottery for those teams that do not play on them at home. They should be got rid of but that is not going to happen any time soon.
Added to that, teams like Kilmarnock when playing at home against us will play 10 men defence and hope to get a breakaway. Intricate passing is often unproductive. I would be all for buying a big forward like Fletcher, a good headerer (is that a word?) of the ball,
and hump it up to him.
We buy players for grass pitches as well though :))) por cierto
As things stand, the Reykjavik team will need to self isolate when they return from Scotland after the match.
The Swedes will need to self isolate for 14 days after landing in the UK before the match, given the extent of the virus in Stockholm, while the Hungarians should they qualify will need to self isolate when they return home. Hungary as a whole has fewer cases than Aberdeen.
I guess these complications will beset virtually all Euro ties, and we may see a lot of matches played at venues in the 4 neutral countries, rendering home advantage moot.
Were I a professional footballer with a match against a team from one of the current hotspots, I’d consider whether I’d be prepared to play at all.
Deflection r us
TBB
Totally agree. European competitions should have been postponed this year, yet again in football, Money Talks! por cierto
I had forgotten about Fletcher, great reason why we should be signing him, another option, totally different from the ones we have PCS, por cierto.
Sturgeon announces that young people must get the exam results they worked hard for, and apoligies for getting it so wrong, we concentrated on the statistics and algorithms rather than the individuals.
correcting a wrong. good
Poor display from the celts, but early days . My real concern is not only the twin towers at the back ,who are very shaky , but our two full backs too . Elhamed is the man for the right back slot ,where we bought him for . As far as I’m concerned left back says it all when we take off Taylor, and bring on boli . We have gone back defensively since 2 seasons ago .imho frimpong / Taylor are both too wee to play fullback. If Neil wants frimpong in the team its outside right he should be , but that would mean dropping forrest and that ain’t going to happen , only on occasions have we seen what this boy is capable of doing . On his game he is an asset , just doesn’t give us it when it matters .as for the twin towers its there to be seen . Unsure , unsteady unreliable . We can do better with some money being spent . Said before and I will repeat it , the only danger from us winning 10 is in our own back yard HH
Very valid point raised by Paul67
The Kilmarnock goalie, did not have a save to make in the full game
Defensively we were poor
We created nothing from the middle or out wide – nothing
And no penetration up front as our single striker for most of the game had 7 or players to beat and reach the 18 yard line
Ver poor performance from many of our players, no point in singeling any of them out
Poor tactically as well- many of us see us struggling, surely the management team see this earlier than the 80th minute
lenny talking sense. thanks neil.
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Paul the tim Retweeted
Celtic Football Club
@CelticFC
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16h
Celtic Manager Neil Lennon speaks to #CelticTV after the match against Kilmarnock. #KILCEL
https://twitter.com/i/status/1292537114949832704
@ STFB
Its a complete false equivalence to compare the current league season with this Sevco team to our title when the nearest competitor was Motherwell. There was hardly any level of concern or indeed, if there was, it was not sustained as it’s totally ridiculous to believe that anyone aside from Celtic could have won titles 2-5 on our march to 9IAR.
So please cut the nonsense that worrying about winning the league this year is in anyway comparable to any worrying (if it was sustained) during the initial NL/RD titles.
The desire to pretend that what happened 9 years ago or even 4 is of any relevance now is, frankly, crazy.
Notwithstanding where we are as a team now compared to where we were then, the main issue is where Sevco are compared to then.
They had an average manager, no players of any real quality and were getting dumped out of Europe by the 4th best team in Luxembourg; nevermind that everytime we played them we wonder how many we would score, not if we would win.
Well, now Sevco have gone further in Europe than we have since MON and have turned things around in the Glasgow Derbies quite comfortably.
Rather than addressing or considering risks we seem to be trying to swaddle ourselves in past achievements as a means to distract ourselves from the closing gap.
This is not to say that if things remained as they were we would not win the league, but there are clearly bigger risks at play and we have the means to effect change.
“All the time omitting to mention that we are at a much higher level in the 21st century in Europe than we were in the last 20 years of the 20th century.”
I’m sorry but what has that got to do with anything? We were very badly run then,so what?
Don’t pull the ‘well run club’ line but them simultaneously compare us to a desperate period in our history. Its about the here and now and we pay a CEO £3m a year for the privilege. It’s parochial to look back and compare us to that period.
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HWG TIAR
Rolling Stone, our CEO is in a Equallibriam Mind Set.
Paul67
Lost 2-1 under Rodgers.
Lost 1-0 under Rodgers.
Same pitch, zero points , zero football played, yesterday wasn’t good but wasn’t close to those two results.
Beating SPL teams in the same old way regularly might get harder as the season goes on, two attempts on target isn’t good enough.
Change the team Neil we need to sharpen the players focus.
Our CEO is more concerned about his heated Drive Way, & heated Garden Lawns, & Garden pathways.
Paul 67,
We have the two best players in Scotland rendered impotent.
Our style made Odsonne Edouard and Callum McGregor look very average indeed.
HH to all, the journey slows for a pitstop.
BournSoupRecipe, it was actually three atempts, inside the opposition 18 yard box yesterday.
However as you say, it was poor.
Any Paris Bhoys on? Got an airbnb en le Marais 14th -21st. Is going to a pub possible? Thinking of Celt Aberdeen? If it’s on!
GreenPinata, lets all hope, its a quick turnaround pitstop.
I’VEHADTOCHANGEMYNAMEBACKTOJACKIEMAC on 10TH AUGUST 2020 1:09 PM
Any Paris Bhoys on? Got an airbnb en le Marais 14th -21st. Is going to a pub possible? Thinking of Celt Aberdeen? If it’s on!
Have you heard of the website Celtic Bars?
That’s if it’s still up & running? To be honest, I’ve not checked it out for quite some time.
Google it, & good luck in finding a place, to watch the said match.
I’VEHADTOCHANGEMYNAMEBACKTOJACKIEMAC on 10TH AUGUST 2020 1:09 PM
Any Paris Bhoys on? Got an airbnb en le Marais 14th -21st. Is going to a pub possible? Thinking of Celt Aberdeen? If it’s on!
Also, with it being on a Saturday @ 3pm, & social distancing, this will restrict the amount of alternatives,
to watch the match, in other words one has to have Internet Access, & has to login using ones
Username:-Section/Row/& Seat Number, & Password, which is their Client Reference Number, to
Access Celtic TV for said Home Match.
Rolling_Stone
Gr8 post , Gerrand’s team has improved immensely and is going for strength and power just as Martin
did with us to stop them back in the day .
” See me, …………………..see r’at Liewell……
…..ah’ll swing furrim so ah wull!………..”
Gerrand’s team has improved immensely..
The evidence please? My counter evidence is to suggest it’s too dependent on too few first teamers, a moody CF and aging old Sevconians such as McGregor and David and Defoe.
It’s still the ragbag of freebies, perennial bottlers and quick signings nobody else wanted. Not being complacent but we do bam them up unnecessarily here sometimes.
Sort our Defence out, & we will do 10IAR.
We can’t afford to be complaicent, changes need to be made.
And God forbid, the scouse ned ever gets the same scrutiny from hostile hunned-up meeja lackeys that any manger of our Great Club ever has to suffer – not least Martin………..
Everyone’s allowed an Off Day…….(We drew)……..ours was yesterday on a “pitch” made of plastic…………