Our two loan signings on the final day of the transfer window, Jota and Cameron Carter-Vickers, have been crucial to the (presumptive) outcome of the league title, the latter more so than the former; Cameron could easily have won Player of the Year. Despite this, it is Jota who is the more important to secure on a permanent deal.
Having watched Newco suffocate our midfield twice in a month and Bodo/Glimt do the same earlier in the year, to the extent that we struggled to build periods of possession, never mind attacks, we need to answer the question, why was this?
When our central defenders have the ball, they face options of either trying to find a full back or Callum McGregor, or hope that someone further up field is in space. Those options were snuffed out by Newco, causing a nervousness as players took possession with an opponent breathing down his neck.
What would Kristoffer do?
Kristoffer Ajer would step forward with the ball, drawing opponents off their markers and immediately creating space. He could then play a short pass or, if he was not challenged, continue a run through the middle.
It is reasonable to claim Celtic have the best two central defenders in the league, even the previously maligned Carl Starfelt is a model of solidity. The problem is, neither can carry the ball forward as effectively as Kris Ajer. We need at least one central defender with this attribute, preferably two.
Ange Postecoglou is not going to change the way we play. Next season you will see our central defenders in possession looking at man-marked team-mates. We either address an identifiable problem, or we are in for more of the same.
The first job of a defender is to defend, and we all remember the shambles of last season, even with Kris, but despite my fondness for Cameron and Carl in this respect, we need a rethink.
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Feck it.
Sorry Flashscore…. Feck allover.
Jammy bastards
Things I thought I would never say.
The Rangers deserved to win that more than the Germans.
God help Seville
Oh Dear, it’s the good folks of Seville I feel sorry for.
Those poor people of Seville
Pathetic effort from a team with almost as little history as the Govan franchise.
Perception is the reality of the self-deluded
Those poor seville folk.
oh bhoy. We’re gonna win the league.
God Help Seville……………….
Burnley 78 – I may have missed your update – but Best Wishes for your treatment.
HH.
I love Seville but it’ll never be the same. I hope the Sevs don’t behave as usual. They will be there in their hordes and I doubt it very much. Must be favourites now.
Murder she wrote. Seville will be destroyed. I hope its third time lucky for a German team. Rbl were devoid of ideas. 2 players nkunku and Kamfl. The rest shit themselves, goalie especially
Only positive to be found is that they could lose 2 finals in 4 days !
Seville on 18th May then Hampden on 21st.
Pains me to say it but they deserved that win.
If we’d played like that against them we’d have been booed off the pitch by our own fans.
Leipzig were dreadful.
Did absolutely nothing but score that one goal and failed miserably to turn the screw when they did score.
Team for Saturday. Joe, Greg, Carl, CCV, Tank. Captain, Tam, Reo, Jota, Kyogo, Gio. Hit them hard and fast.
So they are now 90 mins from direct entry to CL group stages.
Leipzig got exactly what they deserved from that game . 10 minutes of half decent football with an EL final at stake . Showed zero ambition for the other 80 minutes. I hope Eintracht show a bit more bottle .
Cheers Bankiebhoy.
Pot 1 as well
Goodnight all .
That’s the Huns in second Euro Final since 2008, and with a team cobbled together for peanuts. It just makes a mockery of our lack of ambition since 2003, and Bankier’s limp answer at the AGM, “We got a right few pastings in Europe.”
Leipzig were very poor.
Maybe that result puts the achievements of the Celtic Board into some perspective.
Horrible stuff……………
They’ll probably win it. In a season when all talk was of CL direct entry, it looks very much like both sides will be playing CL next season.
Bankier says Celtic will always strive to replicate that success, but concedes the disparity in resources with the continent’s leading clubs makes it a difficult challenge.
“You would never banish these hopes and ambitions from your mind,” he said.
“Right here, right now, it’s very difficult because of the economics of Scottish football. The only thing I would say as chairman of the club is you never, ever give up.
“Of course you want to go as far as you can in Europe, get into the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals. Whether we do is another thing altogether.”
thems deserved it , they wanted it more and defended as if their lives depended on it , very disappointed in the red bull team.
Condolences to the people of Seville.
A whole new level of ignorance coming your way.
Old firm deserved their win, RBL were poor.
On to Saturday v Hearts
Here is the harsh truth that we must deal with. We have not won a European knock- out match for eighteen years – the Ibrox brand, despite a four-year hiatus, have reached two finals in fourteen years…..or ten years if you discount the ‘hiatus’ years.
That is a quite astonishing statistic!!!……and after easily seeing-off numbers 2 & 5 in the Bundesliga, they now meet number 11, in the final….that’s also an astonishing statistic.
Wish Our Board had the ambition to go bankrupt
Sure we would have been treated with the same leniency that they were
Bankier is exactly what’s wrong with our club
To be fair, some really pish teams have made the Europa final over the years and generally lose.
Not sure who is pisher – The Rangers or Eintracht?
If it’s any consolation, Eintracht look a far better team in Europe than they do domestically.
Also, Sevco have relied heavily on the atmosphere of Ibrox to turn deficits around. The Final is neutral territory.
Really need Eintracht to win otherwise the advantage of our CL money will be pretty much negated.
still in shock , a team that was being presented with the 3rd division trophy 9 years ago is in a European final .
I’ve been thinking that ernie
“We have not won a European knock- out match for eighteen years ”
Qualifying matches are knock out matches
We also beat Zenit 1:0 in a match before losing the last 32 tie.
They have had a fantastic set of European results this season but we can do nothing about their winning Euro record.
We can do something about their league winning record and we did.
GIRUY Huns and pretendies