Celtic got the early goal which should have seen them comfortably into the Champions League by burying whatever momentum LASK brought into the game, but instead, our intensity dropped, opening the door for an historic collapse.
Superficially, this looks like a one-off bad result after an encouraging start to the season. Look deeper and you will see signs it was coming. Dundee United (one point from three games this season) hit the woodwork five times, LASK created 20 attempts on goal last week, neither scored. Stats like that regress to the mean soon enough and we caught the meanest mean last night.
Despite Martin O’Neill’s pre-match rhetoric, the nature of three of the goals indicated Celtic did not take the threat seriously enough. An unsighted pass back into the defensive third; trying to allow the ball to run out of play instead of clearing it; trying to dribble out of defence (good grief!). These are not goals Celtic would concede if they were playing Bayern Munich.
Goals like this happen when you think you have enough in reserve to take chances. The difference between rhetoric and the attitude on display was stark. Evidenced by the fact that Viljami Sinisalo was our best player.
The game opened well enough and Celtic were worthy of their lead. But after the ‘Job Done’ sign goes up, it is very difficult for a team under incessant pressure to bring it back together.
The recruitment pattern this summer has been different from other campaigns. The managers and many players are different too. What never changes is that our Champions League qualification opponents are always better prepared. Always. Our summer speciality is being knocked out by clubs with significantly less resources. Considering the stakes at play, I suggest that structural weakness must be addressed.
Martin O’Neill’s post-match reaction was to take all responsibility for an embarrassing result (compare and contrast to the Honda Civic Man a year earlier). Martin knows he needs to pull this squad and the entire club together. He has his hands full this morning.
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Anyone notice just before Donovan went off, he was on the by line of Lask supporting Duran as an overlapping full back? Time and again he was up there when we were still in the lead. Why the hell did Martin not tell him to stay back? We were not chasing the game. I saw Scales doing similar when he came on.
Time and again we were ripped apart by a counter attack while having half the defence at the wrong end of the park.
“Considering the stakes at play, I suggest that structural weakness must be addressed.”
How many years has this been said?
(compare and contrast to the Honda Civic Man a year earlier).
FFS….
Honda civic man had us structured last year – we’ve conceded 60 shots over two games to effing LASK !
If that ain’t on the manager and his coaches then what is ?!
But at least the structural questions are now being asked about our club – last year this was all ignored for some reason…
Paul has totally morphed into comical Ali
Welcome to the party P67.
You’re only about 20 years late.
We all know why MON was appointed. Human shield for a failing board.
Wish he had decided to say goodbye after last season….then again they would have appointed Maloney……
Shambles of a club from top to bottom.
Mine from 10:23 on previous blog (and looks as though I was correct)
************
When Martin said, post match “We know that we are a million miles from the finished article. That’s absolutely true. I think we thought that anyway” I wondered whether those who were incandescent with rage over Honda Civics will be equally outraged.
I suspect not.
Last night’s complete and utter shambles had absolutely nothing to do with Brendan Rodgers.
Honda Civics! Nobody could have predicted that one!
Always going to be a tall order to make up all the lost ground from a series of timid windows in one go.
Never mind, we can watch the other teams in the Champions League and laugh about what’s happening Across The City at the same time if that’s your thing.
https://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/the-new-klopp-set-to-loom-over-celtic/
Maybe one of these days another team being rubbish will magically improve Celtic, although somehow I doubt it. Oh well, there’s always next year…..
Everybody and their granny can see we are lightweight and defensively weak.
Nygren is a luxury. He can’t do the graft and shouldn’t have been near a starting place last night. Yang also.
The formation, team selection, tactics (did we have any?) and substitutions were wrong! Plain wrong!
This isn’t only about not preparing and recruitment.
“Martin knows he needs to pull this squad and the entire club together. He has his hands full this morning”
——–
Yip.
His leadership skill and calling will be tested to the full.
Starting with restoring physical and emotional energy levels for Saturday then Tuesday,
.. all the while overseeing some fairly serious horse trading until Wednesday afternoon (2 out, 4 in?)
… not to mentio
Physical an
Structural weakness… simply describing the problem. What’s the solution?
The reality is we don’t have one.
Makes you wonder about that recruitment infrastructure so heralded previously.
Bring back Brendan !!! What do you think Paul 😂
Fug zake Paulo… yer cognitive dissonance is quite chronic, my friend.
You write: ‘What never changes is that our Champions League qualification opponents are always better prepared. Always. Our summer speciality is being knocked out by clubs with significantly less resources.’
This is essentially what successive managers have been saying (incl yer nemesis!!)
All he wanted was oven-ready quality in early ffs.
Yet you’ve long insisted that getting players in early is for mugs and that the only sane transfer business is done as the windae slams shut – the latter leaves little room for better preparation. As you now accept
‘Always’.
Yes, we could lay it at the door of whatever manager to ‘pull it aw ragither’ or we could tackle the systemic and structural issues that fail to empower the manager, in favour of punting we should have enough to beat Euro diddy teams, the ranks of which we currently top.
JistScunnered CSC
CP is going to be toxic.
What are the structural weaknesses, Paul?
Sinisalo? He sold a couple of goals IMO
Valeboy
Yup and what a 20 years. 16 league titles.
Sinasalo ain’t at the level required so he’ll probably be our number 1 for years…
Sinasalo, Ralston, Murray, Scales at left back, McCowan…
The side that finished would struggle against SPFL sides.
It’s a pity Brendan Rodgers didn’t stick with Kwon and Oh..
We were second best last night,of that no doubt.Nothing has changed in recent times regarding our stature in europe as a force to be reckoned with.We were shoved aside last night with relative ease and lucky to escape with a five goal defeat.What is the answer to our woes? We do not have the spending power that others have.On to Saturday v Falkirk three points required …..
P67 spent all summer ignoring the squad weakness but the morning after acknowledges undefined structural weaknesses 😂
Burnley 78
The past is the past ,we are living in the present .
Just be grateful he didn’t need to use his obsessive word “newco” in his post.
That’s progress, for now.
#smallsteps
PLB
I totally agree. Pointing out weakness is what everyone is good at. The solution in a bonkers imperfect market is a lot less so.
If I was DD I would be getting my ‘sell’ deck ready right now. Even more so with the stupid investment money piling into sport right now.
There is not an easy solution for an insanely successful club like ours playing in a backwater. The restrictions are there and clear.
A new buyer / owner may not see these so readily and would always see the upside potential. Personally not thinking it is the best option but it may just be optimal. Sadly.
An Dún
Robocops 4th Directive, prevents CQN from criticising those in charge
Damn you, Omni Consumer Products!
The “finished article” in football doesn’t exist. Setting yourself a glass ceiling means you will certainly under achieve which we repeatedly do in Europe under this board.
Lots of bloggers and the like talking about structural change but no specifics stated by any of them.
It will be the same with the Celtic collective. Meetings about meetings.
Radical change is needed and so that means a clear out of people running the business. Or certainly most of them.
We are an embarrassment every year.
It will go down as one of the most infamous nights in our history. Years of failing to invest and prepare properly came home to roost in what is surely the final straw. This cannot continue. Continual failure at this level can no longer be tolerated.
Martin has the capabilities to steady the ship. I expect a strong response over the coming weeks.
Too much deadwood in the squad and it needs removed. Ruthlessly.
Luke McCowan has spent his life being a professional footballer and living his boyhood dream. Last night will go down as one of the worst performances in history. Astonishingly bad.
Get rid of him and deadwood like Ralston and start acting like a serious club.
We can only play the one way, the Celtic way attack attack attack, the players are coached that way every day, we can’t defend that’s why fullbacks are overlapping all the time but being honest we don’t have the quality of defensive player to play a defensive mentality at any level our defensive attitude is to try and keep possession of the ball by passing sideways and back to where it came from until we pass it to the opposing team , we don’t have defenders the entire back line and the goalkeeper are done finito not good enough all need replaced and that includes favourite child
Fanadpatriot
The poster had mentioned the problem had existed and he had been highlighting it for 20 years. Henry my reply was these had actually been the best 20 years ever for our club in trophies won etc.
I get that we are currently only league and cup winners but we are also a solvent and successful entity unlike many others.
It is easy to highlight problems when you are not in the game and responsible for solutions.
I’m not going to reinvent the wheel so will post an extract from TBB’s post this morning that sums up my giew perfectly:
“Regardless, being 4-0 up with an hour to play should be routine, rote, regular for any professional side in any context. That implies a professional failing. Where to look?
I’m looking at you, Martin. And Shaun and Fozz and the rest of the coaching team.
Why? because it’s been screamingly obvious for months, reinforced week after week, that our midfield as currenty set up does not provide meaningful cover for our defence. I’ve been boring anyone within earshot about this for donks.
We give the opposition more chances to score than we create ourselves, and it’s been like this for a long, long time and it was like this in our more recent matches.
Last night we lost goal after goal from the D, the LASK players free to take the shot absent any concern that a Celtic midfield player might trouble them in the process.
Time and again when our play broke down (some of the errors hit the profanity-reflex) our midfield was the wrong side of the ball and the opposition ran down our throat.
I have to conclude – because it’s a feature of our play over many months – that this is what the management team instruct our players to do.
And for that, I’m afraid, it’s all on them.
Sure, legacy squad limitations, board dysfunction, executive incompetence.
But 4-0 up with an hour to play and a known weakness willingly exposed and unmitigated is not a professionally adequate position to take.”
The only stat that matters today,
2018/19 AEK Athens ❌
2019/20 CFR Cluj ❌
2020/21 Ferencváros ❌
2021/22 Midtjylland ❌
2022/23 Automatic qualification ✅
2023/24 Automatic qualification ✅
2024/25 Automatic qualification ✅
2025/26 Kairat Almaty ❌
2026/27 LASK Linz ❌
BR knocked back the Honda Civic as this was unacceptable downsizing. MO’N has been handed a fifteen year old Fiesta with no MOT “nice little runner”
So , Martin is excused where Brendan isn’t , simply because Martin took responsibility?
With the players available last night , BR would likely have seen us through . Might have been somewhat boring but I’d rather be bored than horrified . I like Martin , and he’s certainly less arrogant and more personable than MON but these qualities alone don’t get him off the hook . Same applies to Maloney.
Tangbhoy
I don’t know what you understand about football but there is a solid glass ceiling which any club outside of the top 5 leagues is against. It is not made up by Celtics owners or leaders it is driven by tv revenue first and foremost.
Rightly or wrongly the club lives within its means and has done for 22 years. Only Red Star and Zagreb come close to Celtic in domestic dominance outside of the big leagues. Neither has done significantly better in Europe.
That is the nub of the problem. Bodo Ajax Feyenoord Brugge Salzburg etc. None have achieved anything noteworthy in any sustained way whilst also dominating at home.
Ps. there is an Arne Engels shaped hole in midfield.
Brendan Rodgers played his part in last night, unfortunately.
Trusty, Tounetki, McCowan, Nygren, Tierney. Even Balikwisha made the trip.
The two marquee signings Idah and Engels have left both at EFL clubs.
€60m spent, KT apparently on 50k per week.
Staff costs at a record of £75m.
Two years of Europa League football and Not Another Penny is going to eat into the cash reserves.
Would Dermot sell?
Look at the growth in the value of Newcastle and Villa over recent years :
Aston VillaThe Surge: Aston Villa registered a massive 56% valuation growth in the last year alone.
This makes them England’s most valuable club outside the traditional “Big Six”.Revenue Explosion: Villa achieved a league-high 112% revenue growth
Newcastle United, The Takeover Effect: Since the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) acquired Newcastle for £305 million in October 2021, the club’s baseline value has skyrocketed. PIF’s internal assessment of £2 billion represents a ~550% total increase in value in less than five years.
Commercial Gains: Newcastle’s yearly revenues reached a record high of £335.3 million, seeing a 44% spike in commercial revenue from new front-of-shirt and stadium sponsorships.
Is there too much money to be made if some form of structural change comes?