Celtic got what they deserved yesterday. Alarm bells were ringing from the opening minutes when Newco Rangers created several chances. Their goal on 16 minutes was reward for their ability to get inside the Celtic box with remarkable ease.
So much about football is down to game intelligence, something which bypassed Dedryck Boyata in the move which led to the opening goal, as he clumsily barged into the back of an opponent who was running away from goal. After Dedryck went off injured for Erik Sviatchenko midway through the first half, Craig Gordon had little to do.
This fact illuminates the only positive aspect of Celtic’s performance – the defence. Sviatchenko and Charlie Mulgrew both played well, while Kieran Tierney would have collected the Man of the Match award, had his team-mates delivered near to his level.
Sviatchenko wasn’t in the starting line-up because he’d been out injured, but with extra time, he played (well) for 95 minutes. Leaving him out, presumably over concerns he would be unable to play 90 minutes, was a miscalculation.
From midfield forward we were individually and tactically second best. Scott Brown provided more evidence that he’s not regained top form after his injury lay-off. His touch and decision-making were both off. He had an opportunity to clear at the first goal but his contact wasn’t strong enough.
This is a real concern. Scott’s 31 in the summer, young enough to have several good years at this level, but my expectation is that we need to manage the remainder of his career carefully, in light of the cumulative effect of injuries. If this concern is valid, it will have a big impact on Celtic next season.
I did a fair amount of shouting at Nir Bitton during the first half. We were regularly overloaded 3-against-2 on the wing, while Nir remained in a central position, 5 yards away from being able to effectively press. If this was down to team orders they were complicit in a dreadful first half performance. If it was a personal reluctance to press, it was inexplicable. I could believe either scenario.
It was all too much for Gary Mackay-Steven and Patrick Roberts. Gary’s form has been underwhelming this season, but when I questioned his inclusion ahead of the game the point was made that he’s chipped in with a number of goals recently. Ronny Deila turned and walked to the dug-out to instruct Gary’s substitution after one inaccurate pass too many.
In the starting line-up, only Gary, Patrick Roberts and Leigh Griffiths had scored in our previous 7 league games. I suspect we were caught asking the wrong question here – who’s going to score the goals? Instead of asking how best to win the middle of the park. With Roberts, Mackay-Steven, Griffiths and Johansen occupying the advanced four positions we were lacking in kilograms – literally lightweight.
Contrast to when Gordon Strachan plucked Charlie Mulgrew from defensive cover to play left side of midfield at Ibrox; winning a game well against the odds.
Stefan Johansen was another unable to judge the weight or accuracy to apply to a pass, he was hooked injured after 84 minutes but could have gone earlier due to performance. His replacement, Tom Rogic, brought a considerable improvement to our use of the ball. Had we started with Rogic and Sviatchenko it would have been a different result.
The plan didn’t work for Leigh Griffiths. He was unable to hold play up, get in behind or craft a proper opening. He’s been our charm this season, but he’s no miracle worker.
More on the big picture stuff later in the week.
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Am I the only Celtic supporter who believes that Ronny Deila is still the right man for the job?
JJ
Let’s look at the potential in our squad
Keiron Tierney…
Erik svieychenko
Ryan Christie
Scott Allan
Stuart Armstrong
Gary mackay Stevens
Simunovic
Patrick roberts (for another year )
Add to that Leigh griffiths and craig gordon ahd we have a really good pool of talent
Bring in a smart and tactically aware coach … get rid of most of the deadwood and free up wages to pay for 3 or 4 good players in their mid 20s .
A good right back and a strong holding midfielder along with athe least one striker who can win the ball in the air .
Eff the bummer of a pitch. It was the same for both teams.
Don’t anyone even hint at an excuse. We were gubbed because over the piece they turned up full of fire and fight. We turned up full of wind and piss.
We got what has been coming for months.
So in 22 months in charge a Celtic, under Ronny, the club has signed 23 players
At what cost ?
How many were actually needed ?
Can I suggest no more than 10 ( very Max) – 2 or 3 Centre halfs ? A right back ?A holding midfielder, A left winger, a No10 ball player, and 2 decent standard forwards
Now if we had the correct structure and signed the correct quality how much would these 10 have cost, and where would our club be now ?
And some want to leave it to the current structure to continue blindly
It is costing us a fortune in imcopetence
Forgot to add big kris aker to that talent pool
!!BADA BING!!
Cheers , about time someone put these idiots in their place . Just a pity nobody at Celtic Park does .
Im amazed at the number of ‘non football’ fans who want to talk about the game yesterday.
‘Rugby’ fans, people who have no interest in football all of a sudden want to talk to me.
Jungle Jim Hot Smoked, you are not alone bud. He has the potential to be a progressive coach; but not with his hands tied by the likes of Collins, who has divided every dressing room he’s ever been in as far as I can tell, and Kennedy whose qualifications for the job were precisely nil.
I think the board are in catch22 of their own making as many have opined Ronny was gone long ago, but
if we had won on penalties which was part of the plan, Ronny would have been kept which was also part of the plan.
We lost a penalty shoot out, they now can’t dismiss him even though they should.
That there is a plan in place let alone a replacement picked is wishful thinking.
TT
I have heard huns call us beggars but did not expect that from you, when were we ever beggars?
TBJ-I’ve been saying for a while,if we got a half decent manager in tomorrow,he would make a better fist of what we already have. HH
And by the way if Ronny came in and found that he wasn’t getting the backing he needed from his players, no matter who they were – Brown and Commons, to name two apparently – he should have asserted himself there and then.
Bada Bing
From earlier, I seen you suggest Willie McStay through to end off season
I had been thinking that earlier, as a short term gap filler
Could bring back Srtevie Frail to help him, after all he was in total control of under 21team, before John Kennedy miracoulsy got the first team role – according to what I had heard
hear they are planning on making their first spl home game against us ‘armed forces day’
“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”
Real Madrid fired Del Bosque after winning La Liga in 2003. What are we waiting for?
Two Aston Villa board members have resigned after leading their once great club to relegation.
The Celtic Board could learn a lesson from them. No need to commit harikiri – just resign as your disastrous incompetence over the last 4 years has led to this latest capitulation and humiliation. Your relationship with the fans is at an all time low, with one appalling policy decision after another.
Your lack of self perception is astonishing. You have presided over a helper skelter downwards slide for a once proud European Club to one that is a complete non entity, with zero chance of even getting through Europa Cup qualifiers.
If Deila is still there on Sunday and selects Brown, Biton, GMS and Johansen, it could get ugly. That’s assuming there is anyone there. Too many assumed we would brush aside Sevco, and too many are assuming the league is in the bag. It is not. Look at Barca’ s form after losing to their greatest rivals. That is Barca. We are one of the poorest Celtic sides I have ever seen, so I am not counting my chickens.
JJ
The chap, lovely fellow that he is, is inadequate as a Football Manager at this level, and lets face it, this level is considerably below the level Celtic ought to be playing at.
I dare say there will be a handful of folk who share your view, but they’re sprinkled amongst the hens’ teeth.
Fieldofdrams
It will take a lot of courage and explaining from and by The Board to retain Ronny long term. Obviously, I hope they do but if money is the deciding factor and fans do not renew because Ronny is still there, then they may weaken.
Anyway, that`s enough from me for tonight. CQN , right now, has a shortage of the kind of Celtic supporters I want to read.
Cheerio for now,
JJ
FFS
See the posters who say Ronny should be replaced, but still kept on in another job, do they understand football?
Post of the day was however, Simeone as the new boss, was that the same poster who was predicting 7 – 1 yesterday?
Paul67
On your lead article
How many times now have we watched that movie under Ronny Deila ?
Not the 1st, 2nd or even 3rd,
Yet we are supposed to continue to accept his incompetence
Sorry had enough of it
Our club needs to act with immediate effect
TBJ
There’s at least two on your list that don’t cut the mustard with Celtic.
INIQUITOUSIV on 18TH APRIL 2016 7:33 PM
Real Madrid fired Del Bosque after winning La Liga in 2003. What are we waiting for?
Maybe we are trying to act with dignity and eff the consequences.
TBB
I don`t know if he is a lovely fellow and I don`t agree that he is inadequate at this level. I believe we are talking fractions and that Ronny Deila will deliver.
Definitely off now,
Cheerio.
JJ
Dessybhoy7.28
I deliberately used this hugely derogatory term as it is the one that I detest the most when the Hun refers it to us.
I was was told yesterday by several Huns that they are the people and we are the beggars.
I want us to rise above them .
To put them in second place and for us ,the Celts ,to be the top dogs.
If you have a disgust at the term ,then I share it.
My intent was to stir up emotion and get my fellow Celtic supporters to return in tens of thousands and renew and rebut season tickets.
TT
JUNGLE JIM HOT SMOKED on 18TH APRIL 2016 7:36 PM
Fieldofdrams
It will take a lot of courage and explaining from and by The Board to retain Ronny long term. Obviously, I hope they do but if money is the deciding factor and fans do not renew because Ronny is still there, then they may weaken.
Juist why in the name of God would they wish to retain him even in the short term?
JJ
Enjoy your night. When you gt the chance though, I’d like to read the evidence that Ronny is, but for fractions, the man to deliver.
TBB
TBJ
How you can rate GMS is beyond me.
I also fear that Ryan Christie will not make the mark either.
But hey ,everyone to their own opinion.
TT
IMO, the first thing that should be done is ditch the players who aren’t playing for the manager. They are the real disgrace. If they get away with it this time, who is to say the next manager won’t get the same response.
Play the guys who want to play till the end of the season. At least they will do their best for the supporters.
If we lost the league then, at least we would feel they had given it a go.
Bad enough that the Huns cheated us for years. This year some of our own players seem to have been cheating us.
Not sure about renewing next season. Nothing to do with Ronny, yesterday, the board or resolution 12 . I don’t want to pay to watch games involving Huns. If there is an opt out possibility, I will renew. If not, I have a lot of thinking to do.
JJHS
There is a few who back your view, Eddieinkirkmichake being 1 :-)
Just before you go though
Can you tell me what you see in the team, structure, management direction etc, which gives you hope ?
And it’s not a trick question :-)
Eddieinkirkmichael
If you doubt that is true you should have on our supporters bus yesterday, standing room only and half the bus hadn’t attended a game all season. Talking to others last night and they shared similar stories.
>>>>>>>>>>
I had to knock guys back from our bus yesterday, already have had guys I haven’t seen for 4 years saw they are coming back next year and fully expect with them ‘returning’ (aye, they are back so we need to deal with it) and the new manager and direction that we will be like the famous scene in Jaws….”we need a bigger bus….”
The financial loss of them was made clear, we downsized (I still reckon we overspend on the crap we watch), we took a gamble, it failed. We sold players we shouldnae have but would they have stayed for the contracts they were offered if we had a challenge in the league? We would we have got more seasons from hooper, vvd etc if that was the case?
The unfortunate answer is aye. Us and a form of them are box office. Today and yesterday is proof of that.
Aye, it sticks in my craw but after yesterday I canny wait to club them on a regular basis.
Work was a pain today right enough….
Has official website made any kind of apology to fans for yesterday?
Its admirable that some fans are clinging to the Deila methodology! sorry but as a coach he just doesn’t see what we have been seeing for years now. There were players who should have been hooked before half time. The decision not to play a fully fit Center half. Setting up a team who could not press their defense and midfield – they have shown all season they are vulnerable when pressed in those areas! he was complacent yesterday and has been complacent in europe – we led many a game in europe and he couldn’t coach us over the line.
There is a team at the club but he is not the man to mould it!
Another thing – the players are wearing those wearable systems under the shirt – i think they hate it – its certainly not helping the coaching staff identify how slow brown is , how much ground Biton doesn’t cover and how much useless running about johansen does.
Last post was daft.
Celtic apologise to no one.
——-
Didn’t The Promising Soutar From Dundee Utd. Not Sign A Future Bosman Deal For Celtic In January..?
Defensive Midfielder Lenny Can Sort Oot The Defense…..
Hunskelper And Former Hamburg Striker Marko McGhee Can Sort The Attack…
An’ Bring Through YOUNG TALENT…
As He Has Done At Other Clubs..
——
Lenny,As Caretaker Manager,Would Put Erchies Oan Seats For Our Remaining Fixtures….
But He Should Be REQUIRED To Live In Edinburgh…
Or Somewhere That Is Equally Gentile..
~~~~
Tiny Tim
May not mean much, but if you watched us play ICT last season a 19year old Ryan Christie totally dominated both our and his own team midfield on at least 2 of those games
out with John McGinn he was the only player in the SPFL last season worth a punt, and at a very good age
The season before, was similar with Stuart Armstrong
It is a worry, that will be coached out of them with or current management team
Any truth in the rumour that PL and DD were doing a tour of Glasgow workplaces today?
GMS is a decent SPFL player and so can do a job for us in certain games. He is actually symptomatic of our situation at the moment, good enough in some games, but nowhere near good enough when it counts, under pressure.
I was interested to read NFL comments when asked about the Manager’s position. Very non committal, to be honest i thought he would rule himself out.
The Donald
Lenny live in Edinburgh
Brilliant