We dropped points at Pittodrie on Saturday but should have buried the home side in the first half and then our two January signings combined to produce a goal. There were enough positive signs to have me relaxed ahead of last night’s game against Hibs.
What’s more, we scored with a penalty kick awarded after four minutes. Hibs fans, who have watched two consecutive 0-3 home defeats, must have feared for the worst. Almost two hours later they left the ground feeling robbed.
Before the equaliser our play was poor. Forward passes were very low percentage efforts, often trying to find Daizen Maeda who was marked and could neither catch a long ball in front of him or find space to drop deep and control. “We need a second goal” was doubtlessly mumbled by each of us, despite the fact that Hibs had not made a single attempt at goal.
After they equalised from the second ball at a free kick, Celtic collapsed. Hibs piled forward through shredded lines and would have made the points safe if they were more competent in front of goal. Celtic also made chances but just like Hibs, each move was poorly executed and often ended without an actual attempt being made.
A defending block on Kyogo in the 90th minute failed to stop the shot, but caught the shin of our Japanese striker. VAR reviewed the incident and referred referee Nick Walsh to the monitor. I know what you would all have been saying had this happened elsewhere!
At the risk of jinxing him, Adam Idah has a 100% career conversion rate from 15 penalties, good enough to win Celtic three points last night. He’s worth a fortune to us for that quality alone. After the game Brendan Rodgers was able to point to various excuses for the performance: disruption in the team being the most valid.
Alexandro Bernabei had his best game for Celtic – the boy can tackle – but he and Maeda on the left looked like they had never met. Bar those opening four minutes, the defensive line had only one of our first choice starters, and was further disordered when Stephen Welsh went off.
Nicolas Kuhn and Tony Ralston may actually have said little more to each other than “Hello”, so our unstructured right wing was no surprise. When Luis Palma arrived on the left we were at least able to hold onto possession in an advanced position, a quality Maeda was unable to deliver before him. Again, Joe Hart did enough to add to our points tally. These reasons sounded plausible until I remembered that disruptive new arrivals at Ross County were an excuse for helping them at Celtic Park.
Brendan, any one of us reading this could have done as well in the dugout last night. You need to put a team on the field that can dominate and win against Premiership sides with 10% of your financial resources and who would be embarrassed by the money you spent.
Against Ross County, Aberdeen and now Hibs, teams on terrible runs of form, we are a soft touch. Enough with the self-fulfilling excuses for failure, you have the resources to comfortably win these games. It is your responsibility to get it right, or just own up if you can’t do the job without Chris Davies.
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Chairbhoy – I struggle to undersand what points you make here, or how they are relevant to this seasons performances – are you measuring the calander years rather than the seasons played.
Other than the one obvious disasterous season, every other in the roaring 20s has brought successes and records. So you have lost me tbh,
I was going to list the acheivements, long unbeaten runs, very few shock defeats, even cup knockouts,
and the use of the “hibs 4 celtic 2 result” as some sort of benchamrk when the reality was we had won the league 2 weeks earlier, had just lost 3-0 at ibrox, and indeed ange made muliple changes in those 3 games (st mirren 2-2) , but i cant be bothered.
anyways to day, in Brendan I trust, I dont often critisce P67 commentary, but todays really is beyond my ken.
in brendan i trust.
—————————-
Celtic had a real golden year in 2022, Angeball flying, yet we still struggled in the UCL, we still felt we needed to strengthen.
Yet consider the year before, 2021, losing out in the League to Rangers and remember how chuffed we were when Ralston scored a 97″ Angeball winner at Ross County in December that year.
What about the year after, 2023, instead of strengthening that team, many first team players went and we were a much poorer side, both under Ange and Brendan.
We lost 4-2 at Easter Road in May 2023.
The fact that these attacks from lawwel’s blog are now in a daily basis proves the total disconnect running through the club.
At least rodgers in his defence at a press conference said we all have to take collective responsibility.
It would be appear Thats not the case and some are hellbent on deflecting flak from their own failings. Almost like its a race against time before the next home game.
and to think we laugh when the msm’s tadgers are allowed off of the lead to go after their managers….
What’s this with the “Paul 67 doesn’t get to diss Brendan Rodgers” stuff? (a few of it from new monikers on here too)?
We’re in the midst of an outpouring of criticism against the players, the manager and the suits, but Paul’s consistent criticism is not genuine, somehow, but everyone else’s is?
By all means point out the failure of those of us who stood by Neil Lennon’s management too long (I am guilty there too- BTW- I still stand by Neil Lennon the Celtic man).
I think Paul is too critical of BR’s management faults but that does not mean I think BR has been perfect for us. I have said regularly an dearly this season that I was not convinced we had the same Brendan back because he looked humbled, less cocky and less confident. I think he needs to rediscover some of his lost appetite and confidence to avoid giving the notion that he is slumming it in a poor league, which we are this season.
I don’t doubt Brendan’s coaching ability. I just want the old Brendan back- I don’t want him to be more likeable, I just want him to be ruthless with this team. We need coaching as much as we need better player performances.
The recruitment has been abysmal. BR accepted this because he fancies himself as a great coach who can improve players. It now seems he has coached the heart and soul out of the team.
SFTB – He can criticise who he likes, but then so can we.
sftb
imo, you’re either missing or deliberately avoiding the point…
Perhaps today’s leader is P67’s reaction to other bloggers , a considerable number too, who criticised yesterday’s missive by him. 🤫🤔🙄
I don’t think I missed any point.
I’m just asking you to treat Paul 67’s views as his own, the same way I would hold you or me responsible for what we write.
Yes- criticise the views but don’t go for the man as a puppet.
I beg the Rodgers fans to take off their blinkers seriously, and have a look at our style of football. Have a look over this season please.
Crab like, so slow, devoid of any forward thinking or vision. Wingers who, are supposed to beat a man then play crosses into the box for our forwards, and what do they do ( under instruction obviously, ) play the ball backwards. The the managers fans blame Kyogo, ffs , get a grip and open your eyes to what is happening. Then the slaggings start on our wingers, jeezo , canny make it up.
BR is a busted flush and shoukd be booted out asap, imo
KINGLubO
Wot SFTB sed at 1.07 👍
King Lubo
I have never been mistaken for an uncritical Brendan Rodgers fan but Mourinho had a lot of success as a dour defensive manager. Supporters on here have been talking about liking Steve Clarke for the Celtic job and his approach would make this Celtic team look like Brazil 1970 compared to the current Scotland team and Killie he managed.
Brendan has a proven record in management, rising from a humble start. he knows how to do this job- none of us feel he is doing out to his best ability as yet but Aberdeen first half was promising and that wasn’t so long ago.
Sonsoferin and 79caps
Both spot on
RC,
“The players we brought in only worth about a tenth of what we paid”.Really?
What bloody markets are you shopping in.Absolute nonsense.
Gibberish that helps no one.
RC
RC on 8TH FEBRUARY 2024 12:24 PM
very poor defending at there goal last night , nobody marking the 2 or 3 hibs players just outside our box , all our players backed off into our box giving them a free hit, schoolboy stuff once again , who is coaching these guys.
Probably the same guys that coach every team in the world that loses a goal from outside the box.
|Wow if you think the manager bought these players you haven’t been watching for the past 20 or so yrs
Another board plant or love in or both
RIEPERMAN on 8TH FEBRUARY 2024 12:44 PM
Chairbhoy,
Some quick back of a fag packet maths:
Kuhn £3m
Palma £3.5m
Nawrocki: £4.3m
Lagerbielke: £3m
Yang: £2m
Holm: £2.5M
Tilio: £2m
Kwon; £1m
SAINT STIVS @ 1:16 PM,
Well, the points made have been backed up with examples and the vast majority of us are supporters for 10 years plus, so know what happened and can see the “facts” and agree or not.
To reiterate my overall point.
Since Rangers died there has been various strategies introduced into the Club from the executive without any “ownership”, within the organisation.
The moneyball recruitment
The 4-2-3-1 performance strategy
Mixed results, yet when it goes wrong it’s excuses and the blame game, the “owners” of these strategies are invisible so Ronny Delia, or Lenny Mk2 or Brendan Mk2 get the blame.
The Executive are quite happy to sit and take credit for the mythical Generation of Domination while playing the blame game and excuses for the overall failure of their approach, strategies and application.
Here’s the Fact, the only time we have succeeded is when we’ve had a quality manager left to do their own thing.
BR Mk1 and Ange = record revenue, record profits, record growth in squad value.
They are the exception not the rule.
Any success has got much more to do with “sliding doors”, than planning and preparation and senior leadership.
That’s why we’ve consistently underachievement
Have a grand day…
Aff oot
Hail Hail
MOISEY17 @ 1:40 PM,
Truth…
Great Post earlier BTW…
Aff oot, oot
Hail Hail
BR has been handed young players who have no experience of having to win every game, it’s also causing McG to wilt under the responsibility, we are a small weak team who arent good in contact or tackling, pace in our game made this unnecessary under the previous manager but now every team has sussed how to play us get close barge battle we cant cope with it too well.
The recruitment has been pathetic what the manager has to do is put out a competitive squad who will battle first so we dont get put under so much pressure, those responsible for the recruiting need sacked for all we have spent on those at the club and those on loan, we have wasted fortunes on crap. Abada doesnt look remotely interested so if he gets away with this others will do likewise, Ralston’s tackle set up that winner, no surprise he is a Celtic fan who wont be lacking in fight. Big decision for BR but I feel for him in what has been foisted on him in terms of players/staff. Yes I was raging at him leaving first time but he stands between us or a treble for Sevco.
We also have some amount of long term soft tissue injuries which needs solving as to the cause and prevention.
According to ACSOM we have spent 56m in fees alone (not counting wages) before this season on players who haven’t played the equivalent of a full seasons games with us.
Our transfer strategy is a disgrace. Constantly relying on young inexperienced guys trying to make their way in the game in a foreign country away from all their pals and family. In the hope one of them comes good and nets us a sell on fee.
One season we deviated. Ange signed experienced pkayers in hart jj gg mooy kyogo starfelt all to fulfill particular roles and was then able to supplement these guys with 3 great prospects jota ccv abada and Matt all of whom played regularly.
Young lawwell comes in and the strategy reverts to inexperienced projects whether we need them or not.
Utter shambles.
“Some are bringing in young ,inexperienced ,guys away from their families,friends,in the hope they come good.”
Yes,a tactic used by every team in the world.A tactic used by Ange when he brought,5 or 6 players in from Japan,and more from S .Korea.
Dear God the nonsense that is getting spouted is unbelievable.Not worth reading anymore.
I know we failed in the CL however in my opinion we played by far our best football this season.
Those games show that this squad and manager can play good football, create chances and score.
Every week we watch the other SPL teams barely pass the ball to each other, yet when Celtic face them we make them look like competent.
Oh dear. Somebody’s pram is missing a few toys today!
what a daft dream i had last night,
in my dream my wee football club had won 11 of the last 12 league titles, in one season going unbeaten, in another season scoring 114 goals, and another time going undefeated for a total of 69 games, and you know your dreaming when they actually won 4 trebles in a row, ND THEN AN EIGHT TREBLE IN TOTAL, EVEN ONE TIME WINNING THE CUP FOUR TIMES IN A ROW ANOTHER RECORD.
and then i woke up and realised it cvould never happen
in ither news –
A letter from Aberdeen, Motherwell, Livingston, Rangers, St Johnstone and St Mirren to the SPFL.
Clubs hold ‘serious concerns’ over the independence of the Governance report.
Doncaster and MacLennan under the spotlight once again.
https://twitter.com/Chris_Jack89/status/1755534666923201014?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFzpeVDXQAAkvJ_?format=jpg&name=small
What a weird blog today by P67, not least as he felt relaxed going into last night’s game, what positive signs….based on what exactly?
That Hibs scored so easily was a surprise to no one at all , not was our near collapse. Yet, somehow, we found the spirit to keep going and eventually win the game.
That , for me, is heartening, if not then performance.
P67 blog highlights just how divided our club is from top to bottom and how much certain individuals want Celtic/BR to fail.
However, this is not the time for petty wars, there’s a Title to be won and we need everyone pulling together over the coming 3 months or so. We can do this, but only if we believe in one another.
Somehow, some folks won’t be happy till they see blue ribbons adorned on every trophy. Sadly.
Nonetheless, the day after the night before, I’m delighted with what was a huge win.
HH
Watching the game last night I was impressed at the start we made with crisp one touch passing and looking as if we were about to give Hibs a doing.
We have a target man playing centre forward so use him as that.
We slowly morphed back into the predictable laboured approach.
Ball from full back to winger, ball back to full back, played inside a couple of square passes and the back to full back and repeat.
I understand the possession game but not every phase of play.
Vary it as we always do in the last minute or 2 when we need a goal.
Not Wimbledon tactics of old but more direst please.
If we are playing with wingers then they need support.
I thought that last night our 3 in midfield were all over the place.
Callum used to be the one that would sit deep and receive the ball and build from the back with one twos and his speed of thought could unlock the best of defenses.
If not dropping back then looking to constantly get on the ball.
That is missing right now.
Bernardo and O’Reilly are both lovely quality players but positional sense when we lose the ball leaves us wide open if we are to stick to 2 wingers.
Maybe the full backs need to do more but they have enough on their plate.
Physicality in the middle of the park is sadly missing and I do not know that the midfield know their shape with or without the ball right now.
Tactics and formation must change or we the guys at the top end to take maybe 50 per cent of their chances.
We have the players that do not become bad overnight so Lennoxtown now becomes crucial.
More direct and use our target man more, get the ball wide and swing crosses in first time to build that understanding between him and the others.
Either that or beat your man and get the ball in to the penalty area where bodies need to be sniffing around for the 50/50 that this often becomes.
We keep saying that teams shut up shop against us.
When they go at us our shape recently has been rotten.
Goal change games and we need to find a way to start bagging a few to get the average up as we know what happens when a certain team needs goals et the end of the season as we have been there before.
Just my opinion as I hate to see my team look so lost at times with the talent we have,
I do think not having his own backroom staff is an issue.
https://x.com/hooliganscz1999/status/1755489976626679892?t=xIGRfZqpgDKBswytS5Hi3g&s=08
The stupidity of pyros……
I think if you control a Blog then you are not on an equal footing with the rest of the Contributors.
You have a responsibility to use your position in a fair and responsible manner.
Paul gives the Board a free pass, I think almost every Supporter was deeply disappointed with the recent Transfer Window, Paul glossed over it and it is now all Brendan’s fault.
I hold no torch for Brendan Rodgers, I think he is a decent Coach but if he leaves at end of Season so be it.
However, it is patently obvious that he wasn’t backed by the Board this window.
It is a huge Season with the new Champion’s League set up , we have the money sitting in the Bank, the Aberdeen Striker was an obvious potential buy, we wouldn’t have lost money on him, the failure to buy a Left Back was absolutely criminal.
Does anyone here for a moment think it was Rodgers who just decided naw we don’t need strengthening.
It was a Board Decision or a Desmond Decision, play fair Paul, address the failure of the Board.
Never really happend with Brendan this time. We are top of the league by skin of our teeth, but if we win the league with that team, it will be testimony to how poor the opposition is,
They do say never go back in football.
At this stage, it looks like BRreturn was ill advised,
I wonder which club had input into this report?
Honest to God, by far the worst timed article ever on CQN. Undermining the manager in this way at this time in a neck and neck titke race? Absolutely dreadful.
Perception is truth as they say.
You’re doing little to dispel the perception that many people have about your relationship with Mr Lawwell.
A real low for CQN.
A cynic might interpret recent blogs as attempts to build pressure on an employee to walk away from a job. When the stakes, football wise are so high, that would be disgraceful.
Maybe you’ll do me a favour and ban me for saying so.
If we don’t win the league then it will in part be at the door of those who undermined the manager.
Explaining poor performance is different to making excuses. It’s just a fact. We’ve been disrupted throughout. And Lawwell junior has been wanting in the provision of suitable understudies for the leading men.
I’ll support the players that put on the jerseys regardless. At this time setting aside negativity is a must. Online, at the stadium and elsewhere.
Deary me.
Anyone who thinks a new coach could make a better fist of it with the players presently at the club are mistaken, huge recruitment mistakes have been made then repeated, the like of which I have never seen and i’m in my 60’s.It makes Ajeti Barkas and Boli pale into insignificance.
DESSYBHOY on 8TH FEBRUARY 2024 2:45 PM
I wonder which club had input into this report?
it was aberdeen
Did we win last night? Are we still top of the league? I know we didn’t play well, but how many of us would have taken the points over the performance before hand, I know I would have. There were times last year when the team wasn’t free flowing, but I can’t remember the vitriol directed at Ange. Yes I was as upset as anyone when Brendan did a moonilt flit the first time, but I am willing to give him a chance and a break. Being Celtic manager is a double edged sword. You are adored, and then hated, and then blamed for every loss of form. Folks are entitled to their opinions and fair play to them, but I have never read as stinging a criticism as that last one by Paul. Hopefully we get a full breakdown of the workings of people on our board and the deserved criticism that is coming their way gets some air time as well.
I think I need to take a break from this place as it is taking the fun away from being a Celtic fan.
Take care all and all the very best.
Sean
Breandán Rodgers is not to blame for the current malaise surrounding Celtic Football Club.
Those on the board should remember that this is first an foremost a football club, and that we, the paying customer pay their wages. If those on the board do not have the best interests of the club at the forefront of all their wheeling and dealing, then those on the board need to be removed and replaced by those who will.
I think it has been rather apparent for quite some time that those currently on the board and Nosferatu on the stairs, do not have the best interests of the club at the forefront of all their dealings.
It’s high time for those who have been thieving from the club for nigh on two decades to be removed, and replaced with those who put the football club first.
They can count their lucky stars that a dubious penalty was given last night, but sooner, rather than later we’re gonna run out of dubious penalties, and it won’t be the manager that the fans will be gunning for no matter how much you attempt to deflect Paul.
We see you.
We all see you.
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/webimg/b25lY21zOjk0MGM3NzIxLTMxYWMtNDNhNC04Y2JiLTdjOTBkMWU3MzE4Mjo0ODdkNzNjOS0zOWNmLTQwMjgtODMyNC0yZGY1Y2ZlOWE0YjE=.jpg?crop=3:2,smart&width=1200&auto=webp&quality=75
nosferatu on the chairs
SS
Thanks and why just them?