You know what happens when you fail to defend properly, so watching Celtic be punished for Izzie failing to stop a cross, Efe allowing a man to cut in front of him, and Izzie getting into a mess, allowing his man to get behind him and run into the box, will not be a surprise. Defend like that and you don’t deserve any more from the game.
There was a vastly more interesting aspect on display.
Commons invention for Griffiths’ 2nd minute goal was a treat, four minutes later Commons shot forced MacDonald into a save. Then on 8 minutes Rogic forced a save and 60 seconds later Griffiths shot from distance was saved. On 11 minutes Forrest’s shot was saved and on 17 minutes another Commons shot was saved.
In making that last shot, Commons grimaced in pain and that was that. Celtic didn’t have another shot on target until Nir Bitton’s spectacular goal. Kris retired to the bench soon after that grimace to pack ice on his thigh, and Celtic’s game fell apart.
What price that Malmo manager, Age Hereide, underlined the words Stop Commons in his notebook?
The remainder of the game was a lottery. We should have won, on the balance of chances, but we weren’t good enough to make sure. When Kris Commons gets that ice off, Ronny had better replace it with cotton wool.
Nice Panenka from Higginbotham.
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In patches we played very well last night – and remember we were a fair few players light of our strongest team too. But we failed to kill the game off at 1 – 0 , just as we did against Thistle in the first half. We need a bit more ruthlessness – in boxing terms we need to knock teams out when they are on the roes rather than give them time to regroup.
The Malmo game will be a very different affair. Hopefully we will have Lustig, Boyata and Brown back to give us a much more solid look.
Against a pub team we didn’t have a striker to take the chances or too inflexible to go with 2 strikers.
When we consider the projects Lawwell has sponsored Rasmussen, Scepovic, Balde, Pukki and pushing Hooper out the door.
If we fail to reach CL Group stages Lawwell will sell VIrgil and start the downsizing of the defence with projects. We will not buy the boy from Bruges.
Lawwell has a track record of systemically downsizing the Team while securing his bonus.
CL failure will see pay at the gate at all ends of Celtic Park.
Everybody knew we needed a left back and a striker ( Ciftci looks like another dud ) ….Mr Lawwell had 2 things to do in the transfer window to help secure CL and didn’t even try as he has a financial straightjacket.
That would be £50M Lawwell has cost us in 2 seasons. When will he be sacked for gross incompetence ?
Latchford
And WHEN we qualify for the group stages will you suggest that Big Pete gets a bigger bonus or will it just suffice not to sack him?
thomthethim for Oscar OK,
If teams are not watering pitches as a ‘leveller’, surely this increases the potential for injury.
We won’t be hearing from the players union or SPFL on this. I suspect that had Sevco’s predecessors made a complaint years ago when they were stealing titles, a rule would have been brought in.
Paraniod CSC.
Árd Macha
Three games in and the towel chuckers are wailley wailley hand wringing board blaming already. Enjoy yerselves while you can because the hoops will be in the CL and will win the league again. Only one game in town this week and it wasn’t killie who were trying to cripple Scotland’s European pedigree. Ronny giving away nothing before the Malmo game. Hail Hail.
Taurangabhoy,
Couldn’t agree more.
Cheers lymmbhoy
Were the players who did not play last night injured or rested?
I thought the midfield was lightweight last night and couldn’t cope when killie pressed us in the second half.
ICT are no shrinking violets either, so expect a tough game on Saturday, especially if no Broony.
As far as i’m aware Boyata was just rested, Lustig can’t play 3 games in a week (probably ever again) and Broony still not fully recovered.
Wee question re our reported interest in Brandon Mechele of Bruges.
They play Man Utd in CL qualifiers shortly. Will that cup-tie him,or do qualifiers not count for this?
Latest from Phil…
http://www.philmacgiollabhain.ie
I believe that we have been in need of a striker for a some time now
But apparently having opinions along those lines would make me some sort of sevco sympathiser
In future, I must remember to check the official Celticfc website to get my opinion before posting.
The bottom line is that some of our fringe players thought the game was won and took their foot off the pedal ……. and Ronny will know the culprits
Flew into Jo’burg this morning from Dubai. When I left Dubai, we were 1-0 up and Killie were lambs to the slaughter. Imagine my surprise etc…watched game over breakfast.
My take – without Brown we fragment, players get isolated and the sense of purpose is diminished. Without Commons we are toothless. Griffiths makes his goals but sklaffs chances around the 6 yard box as he lacks anticipation. Can it be coached?
There were Positives – Nirlo, Forrest, Commons Potential – Janko Pretty – VVD and GMS who need to concentrate on being effective instead and Probably not good enough – Izzy, Rogic and Ambrose. Johansen form has deserted him but he will be back.
It’s a long season, this match is a blip. Malmo is what counts and a reminder like this should up the attitude level.
Best news is that CelticTV streaming is hugely improved, even on the crap internet available here. Chapeau
SAMRAHUN
Aye,definitely needed a striker who has opponents wondering how they stop him.
To be fair,I rate Griffiths highly in the SPL,but he hasn’t really had a chance in our Euro games. Time will tell on that front. But a striker that makes the fans go-Wow!-on signing,been a while.
We pushed Hooper out the door, I must have missed that in his haste to leave to secure his England place !
I watched the game on TV last night and like a few others, I enjoyed it more than I did the Partick game. I started reading back on here after the game and gave up when even before a ball was kicked we had posters blaming players for imaginary goals, getting the boot in early enough so they could come back later with an “I told you so”
As far as I’m concerned, we’re still at the start of the season and teams we meet will be up for it at this time of the season, as the season progresses our fitness and squad will come into their own. The players who played last night should learn from the mistake of not killing Killie off when they had the chance.
Celtic might be in the market for another striker, but we’ve already bought one who can’t play until next month in league games.
Hopefully we’re seeing the benefits of Ronny’s handling of James Forrest, his best game for a long time. It was James who signaled to the bench that he wanted to come off, nothing to do with tactics, same with Bitton & Commons.
It was a draw against Kilmarnock, it happens, we are not entitled to win every game….
Makes me absolutely sick that Stoke City can afford a genuine world class player like Shaqiri and Celtic can’t. When I was a Bhoy I think Stoke were in the 3rd Division or something.
Good luck to their fans. They should enjoy a very good style of football and some excitement. Shaqiri is a special talent IMHO.
The Stoke City ticket office has been inundated with requests to purchase season cards and tickets for upcoming matches after the club-record £12m signing of Switzerland winger Xherdan Shaqiri, 23.
http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Stoke-City-Shaqiri-fever-takes-hold-fans-flock/story-27596777-detail/story.html
LB
I dislike the constant denigration of our opponents in the SPFL. Calling them Pub teams & sh*te is both wrong and disrespectful. They are full time athletes with the same level of fitness as we have and in most cases play with a stronger motivation. Pitches & poor referees are also a great leveller. Yes we have more money then the others and by and large our players are more skilful but this does not give us a divine right to win every game.
We need to concentrate on our own shortcomings and treat all opponents with respect.
The performance last night was mixed. There were a lot of positives and some negatives. Personally I think James & GMS playing together doesn’t work. When Kris went off,I felt Stokes would have been the right man to replace him. The substitution of Bitton by McGregor on 85 minutes was inexplicable.
Latchford – your post @ 9:59 was one Mystic Meg would be proud of , long on opinion, short on facts. If indeed you have evidence to back up your opinion let us see them, you are certainly entitled to your opinion as are we all but at the end of the day that’s all it is – an opinion. H H Hebcelt
Morning bhoys
We should have beaten killie up….but every time we go ahead in a game, we then go to sleep.
We huff and puff, sklaff wildly, miss loads of chances.
I feel we need something different….a goalscoring striker.
LG and NC…..will not do for Europe.
Improve….or go out of Europe.
HH
Yes we drew when we should have won,it happens,to a lot better teams than Celtic.Get over it.
More positives ,Forrest terrific,Janko gets 90 minutes,Nirs goal,more game time for Rogic,surely RD now knows that Efe is a liability in centre of defense.Broony,Lustig,Boyata,Armstrong,all back for next week,letting Jo Hansen move forward.
ICT next up.COYBIG.
corkcelt
I tend to agree but the constant focus on pitches is becoming an achilles heel for us.
Teams are wise to it now. They are going to make the pitch difficult for us.
If you expect teams to make the pitch flat, slick and perfect for good football then you are just not thinking straight. We have 20 times the budget of our nearest rivals teams like Kilmarnock are even further behind. They will take every advantage they can to squeeze a result.
The pitch is the same for both teams and we must learn to play players to suit the conditions.
Yesterday was a blip. Frustrating because Killie are dross and Dundee pumped them 4-0 at home.
We move on. The focus is ICT but the big money games are Malmo. Ronny is not taking any chances with the CL.
LB
I’m hearing that the Scott Allan deal is all but done
He would not be my choice
HH
corkcelt – Not sure if you heard the interview with Ronny after the game, he was asked if the 3 players who came off injured were ok, his reply was that they should be…So the sub was for an injury, agree with you that I would have had Stokes on instead of McGregor but then I’m not seeing them every day in training….
Corkcelt @ 10.46
Couldn’t agree more it brings the Celtic support and this Blog down.
There is not one paying Celtic supporter that buys a season ticket to go and see Celtic beating so called ‘pub teams’ and ‘crap’ this and that.
These posters live on the Internet and will be as good as a million miles from CP at 3.00 pm this Saturday.
Efe may not have needed to make that tackle for the 1st goal if Virgil had dropped two yards and cut the cross out on the six-yard box (ala John Terry).
Watch it again, Virgil is completely uninterested.
Árd Macha
Imo….when you ask players like LG and NC to become CL players…..somebody is living on wishes and dreams.
Basically…..its lazy to think you can mould average players into CL superstars….it might work once in a while, but to keep believing that you can transform cheap players into class players, is in my opinion, ridiculous.
That kind of thinking is holding us back.
Stop the projects, and buy a decent player.
If we fail in the CL again this season….PL needs to take responsibility.
If you are not up to the job….move on.
No rewards for failure.
HH
Please….tell me we are not doing it again….Scott Allen, give me peace ffs
But….we all know how PL works.
Not impressed at all
HH
The green man
Making the journey up tonight , will be in touch.
HH
Bognorbhoy
Hail Hail
The biggest contributing factor in my opinion was poor attitude.
I notice that whenever I think we are going into a game that I expect us to win comfortably, that if the players are of the same mind it never goes that way.
An early goal and a series of missed chances as we carved Killie open at will afterwards fed that attitude. We got sloppy and when Killie started to mix it we got intimidated.
Broonie would not have allowed the intimidation and made sure we did not wilt under it.
That takes me to the referee and John Collins.
Last night we saw a James Forrest who was too quick of foot and mind for Killie players to cope with. So what do they do but resort to blatant fouling that the referee allowed to go unchecked.
Collins was right about our players, what he did not say, and it is probably just as well, is that to bridge the gap the opposition are not adverse to hammer throwing and last night at least, the referee allowed it to go unpunished.
This came up on Twitter with Gerry McCulloch so don’t be surprised if he raises the issue tonight on R Clyde.
The problem is that will be seen as us whinging and I’d rather that when Broonie is unavailable we had someone else of his attitude to step up to the plate.
The more SPL dross we sign….the more we are going backwards.
When you begin to replace multi million pound players with cheap SPL players, the end result is obvious.
Now, if you think the likes of NC and Scott Allen are CL players, you need your head examined.
But obviously, PL thinks differently.
If we keep going down this SPL route, we will not improve, we will get worse.
We are expected to pay top dollar to see SPL dross…….Well, that isn’t going to work, is it.
Somebody needs a severe talking to.
Wake up.
HH
Is it just me or does the wording of the SSN breaking news about Scott Allan not smack of a Level 5 leaked story. The ‘rangers target’ part lends itself to rangers beat Celtic to Allan storyline if/when he signs for them???
Árd Macha,
I’m convinced that most of the subs last night were due to injuries induced by the pitch.
Between that and the uncontrolled tactics of the home team, some of our players were perhaps holding back, due to self preservation.
I reckon JF was taken off for his own protection.
We have many backers of Phil Mac on here, and of course, the sub-title of this blog is “not lazy journalism”…so
Why in his interview with Jim Spence did Phil not ask the $64k question – Are you actually leaving the BBC in order to become an SNP list candidate for Tayside in next year’s Holyrood elections?
The follow-up question would then have been – How important was your spat with The Rangers in your decision to ditch sport and get your nose into the SNP trough?
Then a further question – Will this interview and association with me ingratiate you with the SNP-voting, Irish/Catholic/Celtic diaspora in Dundee, thus assuring the SNP continued success in that area?
Another thing – what experience do you have of politics, have you ever been a councillor, for example and, would you like to confirm that the £70k/year plus expenses on offer from the SNP, dwarfs anything that you could hope to earn at the BBC?
Finally Jim, is it the case that you are using the ‘freelance’ thing as a ‘cover story’, in order that you were not seen to move directly from the BBC to the SNP?
Phil Mac slays the Scottish media, often quite rightly, for not asking the right questions – he ruins his credibility in his interview with Spence.
Paul, I respect you, and agree with the vast majority of your interesting and insightful blog-writings – so don’t be lazy – ask Spencey the above questions.
Gary67
I’m really hoping its all BS….Scott Allen….give me peace, he is hopeless.
But no doubt….there will be a few posters on telling us how good he is.
HH
We need a LB,LW,CF,DM and a CB if VVD leaves, not another powder puff midfielder.
KTF
Surely all good expensive Champions League type players must have started out as cheap up and comers themselves?