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Has this squad hit the ceiling or can we control, pass and move better

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

You and I both knew before last night that Salzburg are well ahead of Celtic, so a 3-1 defeat away to the top seed surprised no one.  However, the game itself provided positive, as well as disappointing aspects.

Odsonne Eduard looked a handful when running at defences.  His goal and the chance he created a minute before the break typified this.  For all Salzburg’s ability, they looked weakest in defence.  We looked like we could put the ball in the net every time we got near then, which, admittedly, was seldom.

That aside, Eduard’s distribution was as poor as the rest of the teams’.  There were two distinct phases to the game: before Salzburg’s third goal and after.  After this point, the home team did not press nearly as forcefully, which allowed Celtic to find men with passes and retain possession.  This merely demonstrated how poorly we did so earlier in the game.

Prior to then, passing and movement lacked the confidence needed to play out from the back.  For example, Salzburg did not mark defenders in front of or at either side of the box when Craig Gordon took goal kicks in the first half.  Despite having three options for an easy pass, Craig kicked long the majority of the time – by definition into areas with fewer Celtic players, as we had three back at the penalty box.

The goalkeeper just didn’t fancy the consequences of passing to an unmarked defender – the story of the game in metaphor!

Dedryck Boyata was the outstanding Celtic player on the park.  He won everything in his vicinity and I even noticed him chasing down a ball he had himself headed clear, before others reacted.  But, on one occasion, when Craig chose to send a goal kick straight to him, he panicked, lost possession and conceded a chance in a dangerous area.  There was an easy pass back to the keeper.

You do not need to be Iniesta to work the ball out from the back.  You need to be able to control and pass, while everyone in the team needs the awareness to move into space, ensuring no one is boxed in.  This takes lots of practice and confidence.  We are correctly working towards this kind of football, but we’re not there yet, even in the SPFL.

The pertinent questions is, has this squad hit the ceiling or can we control, pass and move better?  I’m sure we can improve, although perhaps only by degrees.

I know what you were thinking every time Salzburg got a corner kick, “Here we go again” – or was that just me?  Instead, we defended set-pieces well; in fact, it was the home team who conceded the two best chances of any type before the interval.

James Forrest tucked in well on the right.  He got unfortunate with the bounce at the penalty, which was correctly awarded.  No complaints at the red card either, although I could squabble that Dabbur, who was already cautioned, should have received a second yellow on the two occasions he displayed a Tshirt message after his goals, if the referee followed his guidelines correctly.  Pedants CSC.

The football business is all about the next game and right now there is nothing on the horizon more than St Johnstone on Sunday.  Lick your wounds and get a result, Celtic.

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  1. What is the Stars on

    GFTB

     

    I always want rangers to lose. Thats dead rangers and living rangers, rangers past present and future.

     

    However tomorrow i really dont care.

     

    Rangers win and we close the gap on hearts to 3 points

     

    A draw and we close the gap on hearts to 4 points.

     

    Hearts win and the gap remains unchanged at 6 points with the side benefit of the Stevie Gee express train hitting the brakes.

     

    All of the above of course presuming Celtic win

  5. Gerryfaethebrig on

    WITS 9.08pm

     

     

    Kind of the save sentiments, the original Huns I never wanted to even win the toss of the coin… this new mob are different (still same flies) but I don’t ever get as wound up as the originals…… although all my good thoughts go to hell in any handcart going when we beat “them” then and only then it seems like the Rangers are still the sane as the tax evaders (different from tax avoiders :-)

  9. ruggygman on

    What would severely hurt slippy G’s mob would be a Morelos suspension coupled with a long term injury to Arfield.

     

    Beyond that you are looking at Lafferty and Ryan Jack quality. Pure shite

  14. roy croppie on

    Chttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gnhXHvRoUd0

     

    Kings of Leon

     

    Use Somebody

     

     

     

    Pog

     

    Like that, love New Order. Could play them all night.

     

    HH

  21. The Raven on

    Roy C ,

     

     

    Great pics of the west enclosure at the death star ,

     

     

     

    Celebrated good few victorys in there before the tin man arrived and

     

    the bowlers and golfers got season books there .

  26. Dallas Dallas where the heck is Dallas on

    Roy Croppie, thank you again for cheering us up , again.

     

     

    Your post at 9.11 regarding the walk on in the 1983 4 2 game brought back great memories of the best , most passionate and uplifting walk on by our support.

     

     

    Our players came out early for the second half and to a man , stood and stared in awe at the backing of our support despite us having a very small chance of winning the league that day.

     

     

    All the Celtic end , those in the enclosure, main stand and the Govan Stand were giving it laldy to walk on. One of my most cherished memories of supprting our team.

  27. david17 on

    I want a Hearts win, i seriously dislike they jambo bassas and cant wait till they blow up. I want them to win tomorrow however but i think they will lose as they normally do at Ibrokes. We need to win tomorrow ourselves, games before international breaks make me nervous because there is nothing worse than stewing over a bad result for a fortnight. Juts get the win Celtic and let whatever else be what it is.

  38. Matt Stewart on

    Forget tactics, players, managers and board…tonight the truth has been revealed and left me gutted…hurt…heartbroken….

     

     

    Willie B, a drinking China has just said…”do you effin realise that ever since you started goin abroad to see Celtic we huvnae won the European cup…ya effin jinx”

     

     

    Dear Marge….I am in a quandary….

     

     

    Hail hail

     

     

    Matt

  40. Pogmathonyahun aka Laird of the Smiles on

    Tomorrow, sevco v The cousins will see one or two non-triers in the Jambo team. I would prefer neither won with each team fielding a ineligible player and being awarded a 3-0 loss against both teams. A draw for me all day long but if we must have a winner then the Edinburgh scumbos.

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