Gameplan: drop to the floor in the box

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I get why Derek McInnes was so animated in claiming for a penalty on Saturday.  For the second weekend in a row, we watched Kilmarnock players put body between ball and opponent, then drop to the floor.  It was a tactic that broke play up, won them possession and provided the ability to push forward into Celtic territory.

None of this constitutes foul play (see this fine example by Lint on Twitter).  It was also not an incident VAR were able to get involved with.  The referee saw it and made his decision.  VAR is only able to get involved if a clear and obvious error has occurred.  It wasn’t, it was just a decision the Kilmarnock manager didn’t like.

There are lots of caveats available when assessing the Celtic performance.  The conditions were awful, which contributed to the pitch cutting up early on.  We are clearly missing Greg Taylor on the left, Alexandro Bernabei looked to be a long way from Rosario under the Hampden lights.

A feature of our play the week before against Kilmarnock was low cross balls into the box, which eventually paid dividends.  These were forgone at Hampden for high and aimless crossing that was never going to be productive.

We were fortunate at the first goal – fortunate that Aaron Mooy’s cross fell to Kilmarnock’s Kyle Lafferty.  He chose not to attack the ball and instead let it drop before clearing into the net off the chest of Daizen Maeda.

After that moment, Kilmarnock made more of an attempt to play football, but their best chance was always going to be convincing the officials to award a penalty.  It is not exactly an honourable plan, but given the disparity in quality between the squads, you see why McInnes went down this road.

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  1. CONEYBHOY on 16TH JANUARY 2023 7:05 PM

     

    I agree with Ernie that the plc set up at Celtic is strange

     

     

     

     

     

     

    In my company , we have a process which ensures that 99% of deals passed through to the board by the execs get blessed by the board

     

     

    ————-

     

     

    is that not exactly what happens at celtic plc.

     

     

    DD wants something a certain way, he gets michael to propose, everybody on the board and the 7 people and institutional investors (bank of new york) who own 78% of the share vote it in.

     

     

    same as any other plc really.

  2. TET – easing in gently mate.

     

     

    BRRB – Still too early for me mate, need to lose my final crutch and get on 2 feet unaided

     

    Otherwise I’d turn up looking like Long John Silver with Captain Flint on my shoulder squawking “VAR! VAR! VAR!”

     

     

    PS The real reason is my wife won’t let me. Lol

  3. Coneybhoy, ‘for whom the Bell tolls’ lol.

     

     

    When they finish at 8, does the Bell-end?

  4. DALRIADABHOY on 16TH JANUARY 2023 7:13 PM

     

    SAINT STIVS on 16TH JANUARY 2023 6:22 PM

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The controversies in Dermot Desmond’s business history might indicate that Desmond is good at subverting the relevant working practices.

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Did you read the blog videocelts done about Peter sons CV?

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Were we buying and loaning players from Man City so Peter’s son could hit his key performance indicators?

     

     

    ——————–

     

     

    How many “Man Ciry stable” players did we actually loan or sign ? who was succesful ?

     

     

    Sammi ? Guigetti ?

  5. TB

     

    25m was his release clause and it was a shrewd move by Newcastle, debilitate your relegation rivals for relative peanuts and it worked, they stayed up, Burnley didny, he is worth less than GG IMO right enough.

     

    I have no clue about GG transfer fee, hopefully just pish smsm talking us down as is their bent, I suppose it’s all depends on how Ange sees things, well I hope it’s down to him anyways, he maybes doesn’t inspire him, who knows, we won’t lose on him so sometimes you just have to suck it up, I imagine if he does leave Ange will have a replacement lined up.

  6. TURKEYBHOY on 16TH JANUARY 2023 7:58 PM

     

     

    Newcastle had loads of cash, were desperate to stay up and had to pay well over the odds to persuade another team in relegation trouble to sell their main striker. He had scored a lot of goals in the epl, he turned out to be worth it.

  7. AOW,

     

     

    I did mention Cammy Bells appearance on Sportscene last week.

     

    “How deep in the Hun barrel are they now scraping”.

  8. Sammi (I think before Mark Laweelss time) Boyata, Paddy Roberts, Guidetti, Deneyer , Arzani, Frimpong.

     

     

    Only 3 became permanent deals.

     

     

    they made us £16m in transfer fees.

     

     

    aye that relationship with city and the two lawwells, insidios so it is,

  9. THE EXILED TIM on 16TH JANUARY 2023 8:13 PM

     

     

    Wood scored ten or more in his four full seasons with burnley in the epl. He was a proven goalscorer.

  10. BSR,

     

     

    Timbhoy is 79 years old.Haribo !!!!!!!!!!.A nice Werther’s Original,I would think.

  11. ET ,

     

    definitely, if only we could get a sheriff to investigate it .

     

    Then again , may be not .

  12. CELTIC40ME

     

    I am probably wrong but I can’t recall him scoring against many decent teams or top half teams, a decent championship level player IMO, most of the EPL is championship level again IMO, there is a handful who are very decent, but for the money most spend, top handful down, FFS, I dream of us having a fraction of what they waste on absolute pish.

  13. Woods scored 10 or more,because Burnley pumped high balls into the box at a rate around 1 every 10 seconds,FfS. LOL He was very ably assisted in this by his striking partner,forget his name ,who was a carbon copy.Newcastle deny this.They did not have a CF at the time

     

    Wilson was injured,and non scoring Joelinton,was useless,as was Almiron.

     

    Who knows?.

  14. Man City Ins –

     

     

    Jeremie Frimpong Manchester City U23 Man City U23 €380k

     

     

    Daniel Arzani Manchester City Man City loan transfer

     

     

    Olivier Ntcham Manchester City U23 Man City U23 €5.00m

     

     

    Patrick Roberts Manchester City Man City loan transfer

     

     

    Dedryck Boyata Manchester City Man City €2.00m

     

     

    John Guidetti Manchester City Man City loan transfer

     

     

    Jason Denayer Manchester City Man City loan transfer

     

     

    Georgios Samaras Manchester City Man City €2.50m

  15. like referees, should Judges, Law Lords and QCs be made to declare which team they support and which secret societies they are mebers of ?

     

     

    copyright big nan

     

     

    thes Nimmo, Finlay and that new one now.

  16. TET and TB

     

     

    I don’t make the rules! EPL teams, especially relegation -threatened teams pay silly money for players who get goals in the division. Danny Ings has gone for the same fee twice, most recently when he was nearly thirty

  17. My friends in Celtic,

     

     

    I am very sorry to see GG go, especially for the figure being touted.

     

    I love Celtic having the option of a big strong striker who can mix it and hold the ball up. On the face of it these attributes should be coveted by most clubs.

     

     

    However the reality is that he is not a first choice striker for a club playing in the SPL. This is what his fee will reflect.

     

     

    In the bigger picture; We cannot hold players against their will. We need to attract players with the incentive that we will improve them and let them go to bigger and better things.

     

    GG is 28 and no stranger to travelling. Understandably he wants more game time and renumeration he feels applicable to a former top scorer in the Dutch league.

     

     

    I’m sorry it has come to this and its never good to have all your eggs in the one basket.

     

     

    HH.

     

     

    PS : Good to see more recognition from the host and posters about the value of European football. It is not luxury for us, it is fundamentally vital.

  18. SAINT STIVS

     

     

    Could you steer me to what our club are doing to ensure our fan, staff and player safety?

     

     

    What age is your granny Saint Stivs🤣🤣

  19. CELTIC40ME

     

    What gets me about the english set up is the money that is wasted, take us as an example, we don’t have a very much in comparison to most of the top two divs and yet we could give most a of the top six a very decent run for their money, jeezo, just imagine employing Steve Bruce as your manager FFS, says it all for me.

  20. CONEYBHOY on 16TH JANUARY 2023 7:05 PM

     

    Cb-I agree with Ernie that the plc set up at Celtic is strange

     

    At-worthy of investigation it is.

     

     

    Cb-In my company , we have a process which ensures that 99% of deals passed through to the board by the execs get blessed by the board

     

     

    At-Does your company have 2 shareholders,whose combined holding can minoritize all other shareholding(DD & Lindsell)?

     

    And within those bulk shareholdings where does the power nexus ly?

     

    Have a passing interest after94 for me :-)

     

     

    Cb -a rogue in the boardroom vetoing decisions is seen as bad practice in most companies, plc or private.

     

    At- cant imagine PL goin rogue. :-)

     

     

    Cb-I designed the process and promised 100% so I suppose i failed😎

     

     

    At-oh dont worry do you know a corp governance system that does anythin but !:-)

     

    Hampdens a dreich dump eh.

     

     

    HH

  21. Changed internet provider today, so far so good, fast as eff, not buffered once all day, three times the speed and a third of the price, like a fool been throwing money away for some time now, lessons hopefully learned, and the two mobiles and house phone are included in the price, pity we can’t use the mobiles inside the cave, but can’t have everything, I am sitting about ten feet from an open door and no signal, it’s weird, the cave walls just suck up the signal, it’s what is called a phenomenon.

  22. Champions: 2000/01, 2001/02, 2003/04, 2005/06, 2006/07, 2007/08, 2011/12, 2012/13, 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2021/22

     

     

    Scottish Cup Winners: 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

     

     

    League Cup Winners: 2000/01, 2005/06, 2008/09, 2014/15, 2016/17, 2017/18, 2018/19, 2019/20, 2021/22

     

     

    Could do better!

  23. Funny how the blog is so negative when we have just qualified for another final and are looking pretty good for the League.

  24. I know, let us resurrect the Cambuslang project.

     

     

    Cambuslang, Kevin Kelly and Space-age RoofsCeltic Park – Cambuslang site plans – The Celtic Wiki

     

     

    In the 15th April 1992 edition (number 1167) of the ‘Celtic View’ the old board of Celtic announced bold plans for a brand new stadium to comply with the Taylor Report, which by then was less than two and a half years away.

     

     

    The ‘Celtic View’ newspaper ran with various hyperbolic headlines like ‘Paradise Found’ and (the incredibly patronising) ‘World’s Best Stadium for the world’s best fans’ – it all sounded too good to be true, but no, here it was – Celts’ £100m dream home.

     

     

    Our spiritual home at Parkhead was to be no more, we were moving to the new found land – Cambuslang.

     

     

    The plans revealed in April 1992 included:

     

     

    A 52,000 all seater stadium

     

    Two Park & Ride rail stations from Glasgow city centre

     

    A retail village including major stores and car showrooms

     

    Parking for 4500 vehicles

     

    A Celtic Heritage museum

     

    Integrated Sports and Leisure facilities

     

    A permanent performance stage

     

    Mobile acoustic curtain enclosing up to 15,000 seats

     

    An eight-screen cinema complex

     

    A 30-lane ten-pin bowling alley

     

    Drive-through fast food restaurants

     

    Petrol station

     

    Office units

     

    Room for further expansion

     

     

    Total cost, we were informed, was £100m and initially 32,000 seats (the two touchline stands) would be built with the rest to be added later.

     

     

    Chairman Kelly said “For far too long, the Celtic board has faced a non-stop barrage of ill-considered criticism from uninformed people of dubious motivation“. Quite an impressive array of adjectives, I’m sure you’ll agree. Indeed, “ill-considered”, “uninformed” and “dubious” could rightly be used to describe the antics of Kevin and his merry band of acolytes.

     

     

    He went on: “Our goal has always been simple – giving the very best to the most faithful fans in the world. We promised that they would be told of our plans first and we are now delivering on that promise. There will be further announcements as the plan develops in stages, with planning permission and funding of the scheme the main areas in which we have to progress“.

     

     

    That last sentence summed it all up. Whilst these plans could be viewed as exciting, that’s all they were – plans. Kevin and his cohorts weren’t “delivering” on anything other than blowing some more hot air. No details of how such a project was to be funded had even being addressed never mind finalised. Kelly was happy to have a little snipe back at his critics (and there were many) but he seemed content to jump the gun somewhat. Accompanying this spectacular prose were some rough (and it has to be said, rather poor quality) drawings of what the arena would look like.

     

     

    “They thought it was but it never was a realistic prospect. At the end of the day they never had any money and the club would have ended up as a tenant of some anonymous City investors. It’s the sort of desperate thing you dream up when you’ve nowhere to go.”

     

    Celtic ‘Rebel’ Advisor David Low on Cambuslang stadium proposals

  25. Melbourne Mick on

    Hello again all you young rebels.

     

     

    From another very hot Melbourne peninsula morning.

     

    Fabulous Sunday down in Mornington with our CSC, and really

     

    gratifying to see all those local Aussies coming in and enjoying

     

    our songs, particularly with the hard work oor prezzie,Paddy ,

     

    puts in to keep our club alive.

     

    Think we’ll make him the Mayor of Mornington. 🤣

     

    On reading back, GG will go, no doubt about that, it’s his want.

     

    I’m pretty sure another hero will be in place for us all to debate

     

    about lol.

     

    Watched a great wee video on utube ..The English Celtic.. it’s

     

    about a group of Irish miners who started off the English soccer

     

    club CLEATER MOOR CELTIC playing in the hoops as well.

     

    I knew about this club but I learned a lot of new facts when

     

    watching, including the fact a Lisbon Lion opened their place of

     

    residence.

     

    Wonderful stuff. 👍

     

    H H. Mick

  26. !!BADA BING!! on 16TH JANUARY 2023 9:55 PM

     

    A floating pitch as well….

     

     

    :-))))

     

     

    Theres no place like Gefinor,….repeat:-) .

     

     

    HH

  27. THE EXILED TIM on 16TH JANUARY 2023 8:58 PM

     

     

    It’s obscene. I thought Covid might have changed things but they’re spending more than ever these days. That lunatic at Chelsea seems to have totally lost the plot.

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