It was a hard shift for Gordon Strachan’s Scotland last night. Germany are on a different level, possibly from all other teams, at the moment, but Gordon’s been through similar tests as Celtic manager. What I liked about the display was that German were afforded few genuine chances, while the goals they scored, a deflection and two which hit the post before crossing the line, gave David Marshall no chance.
Scotland failed to collect a point as they found it impossible to concentrate at the level required for the entire 90 minutes. We’ve seen Celtic teams do this successfully in the past – and not just against Barcelona. We took Milan to a 0-0 after 90 minutes in the San Siro, while teams from Manchester and Munich, and lesser locations, chased the oxygen out of Celtic players’ lungs but could not find the space required to turn Celtic over.
During the previous two seasons Celtic recorded impressive domestic defensive records, but this was not due to imperious levels of concentration, we were simply better than the opposition by a sufficient margin. When that wasn’t the case, in Europe, we often didn’t display the levels of concentration which was on show, even from Scotland last night.
Great players can score wonder goals against you at any point, but don’t dive into tackles, watch what’s going on off the ball, make the right choices on how to press the ball, and even the greats will struggle to make an opening.
The biggest challenge we have ahead of the Europa League campaign is incorporating this season’s defensive arrivals into a coherent defensive strategy. It’s a concern that Craig Gordon looks like a better goalkeeper playing for Celtic in Europe than David Marshall did playing for Scotland against Germany. Marshall is a good enough keeper, but his defence didn’t expose him too often. Craig is called upon too often in Europe.
With all that’s going on in the world at the moment, in particular with the Foundation, Celtic sponsor, Intelligent Car Leasing, have offered us a fantastic auction prize: Corporate Hospitality at Celtic v Dundee, on 20 September, lunch and drinks in the Walfrid with great seats in the Directors’ Box for three people.
This is a very rare opportunity to enjoy a money-can’t-buy experience. All proceeds to raise funds for Celtic FC Foundation’s fantastic work to improve Health, promote Equality, encourage Learning and tackle Poverty. Get bidding and keep an eye on the auction here on ebay.
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I watched the match in a hotel bar in Frankfurt last night.
The germans I was with , where not impressed with their performance at all.
Their manager then took to the studio, with some presenters, who then picked apart mistakes rather than great passages of play and goals.
They think they let their standards slip conceding two goals, and individual errors.
And also some chortling about how lucky their goals eventually were.
I dont know if reported back home, but there was some discussion around offisde player at their third goal.
now having said all that ………………….
one guy asked me why i was bothered about the result, i thought you were a celtic supporter.
very droll the old german sense of humour.
on 8th September 2015 2:12 pm
BRTH
Do you think that PL and DD are aware of the benefits which internet broadcasting can offer Celtic? Surely failure to tap into this market must be a sacking offence for both?
=======================================
There are business men who advise Celtic on such matters and I know one for sure is very clued in on the risks and opportunities.
I put a note of a recent visit to Celtic TV on CQN which I repeat.
On Celtic TV what I came away with is what I went in with.
Those who can watch games live from overseas (including me) are getting the service far too cheap compared to ST holders.
The obvious answer is to raise prices but with streaming as a no cost alternative that would have a negative impact.
If something is not done to level out price to watch across the support base and supporters do not understand that if you watch for free (but can afford to pay) you are stealing from your fellow supporter not Celtic, then there will be no Celtic TV to watch.
That is my personal assessment not what was said to me, but I have more worries about the effect on Celtic TV of Kodi and an uneven price structure than I had about the millennium proofing I was responsible for delivering to the Government Department I worked for.
A Membership scheme seems to be the answer but its a huge project to get buy in and then develop.
Other things that came out: Although Celtic TV pump out the million of bits that make up the moving pixels that turn into Broonie on your screen that should provide a decent picture on a viewers PC, it is invariably a local issue that create difficulties at the viewers end. (Hence the need for a Help Desk).
Some difficulties are with the PC on the receiving end where it simply might not be able to handle Broonie arriving at a rate of knots at its graphics card decoder. Update the video drivers might help, getting a newer PC will.
This next one though is outside Celtic TV and the end viewers control and its local traffic management by your ISP.
Basically they own/rent only so much fat pipe to send the bits through to all PCS connected to them say normally 10 PCs via 10 channels in the pipe, each channel full to capacity delivering the bits Celtic TV pumped out for a smooth clear picture.
If you are in an area where there are 20 PCs and they are all wanting served at the same time (no one is off somewhere) then to do so the ISP will have to halve the number of bits delivered to each PC because that is all the fat pipe can hold over 20 channels . The channels increase in number but have to shrink in size.
This is where you get buffering and the answer is not to live in a neighbourhood with more than 10 Tims subscribing to Celtic TV if you like to rant at a screen on your own or cut their ISP cable.
best wishes philbhoy.
ps,
the happiest thing about the germans i was with is the complete capitulation of the Dutch.
they are loving that.
Great news Philbhoy
Ayrshire is Green and White
Well there you have it – a year on from the Neverendum nonsense and Scotland have now got independence ….of a sort
Wales going – England going – Ireland going – Nothern Ireland going – Scotland NOT going
Independent failures – Independently crap.
And… there would be no Scotland at Rugby World Cup if there was a qualification competition.
Cifti, Allan and Stokes start for development team tonight up at Dundee
Auldheid,
I disagree with most of what you say, far from the streaming being too cheap, the season ticket is too expensive.
I pay for the premium streamingackage and since I tarted subscribing I have managed to watch one game using the premium package.
I also think what your telling us or what you’ve been told about why we get buffering is a load of hogwash and piss poor excuses for providing a substandard product.
So they are sending a signal across the world at the speed of light and at the other end it is disintigrating becuase there are is no enough signal strength.
I wish you’d taken someone that knows a wee bit more about the technical side of things to challenge that bullshit, are the hamsters in the wheel being starved ffs.
The last time I asked the help desk why I was getting buffering I was told it was my broadband speed, I replied I’d tested it and I was getting 20Meg download speed, so it must have been my computer so I advised I had 16gig RAM with the latest graphic card from nvidia. The conversation ended after that and I’ve no heard from them again even asking repeatedly for reasons why my stream still buffers. I have to use the standard version which still buffers by the way. You might also note the chat board has been shut down this season because people were starting to use it to complain about the buffering. As usual there’d be about ten complaining and one would come on and say his was excellent and we should all stop complaining becuase I’m alright jack.
So next time you get such an invite please take along someone who knows more about the technical side that won’t swallow the shite you accepted and delivered on here as if it was unquestionable fact.
Great news for the Philbhoy family.HH God bless.
Are we on the telly yet ?
Andrew K@5.30
Had a great day/weekend. Initially had 4 tickets for the Davan stand. After your request got in contact with a friend who was going to an AIG breakfast and he turned up 2Premier and 2 Hogan tickets in Blocks 332. Great seats. Needless to say the Davan tickets were relinquished. 3 went to good homes. Left with one ticket which we gave away in Jones Rd.
Dublin were brilliant and blew Mayo away in 2nd half. Thought the black card for O Shea and the introduction of Michael Darragh MC Auley turned the game on its head.
Was opining to Wits last evensong that the Metropolitans could beat Kerry. Think and hope it will be a great final.
HH
In a follow up to my above post on CTV I had a chat with a couple of Celtic supporters on the price to watch and the risk of streaming by Kodi on our future abilty to watch from afar.
My core argument was this.
We all have to pay to watch Celtic. What we pay, less operating costs, puts a team on the park.
If we don’t pay, the quality of what we watch goes down or worst case scenario Celtic fold or that mob rule the roost.
Who Pays?
A. ST Holders pay around £25 for around 19 home league games (plus travel etc, drinks pies)
B. Overseas CTV watchers pay around £3.60 for 38 games No travel, no pies and even if they partake Celtic don’t get the money.
C. Watchers who watch on streams for free pay nothing.
If it wasn’t for A and B, C would have nothing to watch.
If the numbers at A continue to drop they and the watchers at B will have lesser quality to watch and results make it less enjoyable.
Clearly the watchers at A pay a lot more to watch than B or C per game and the point I made to the other two lads was that B have to pay more, and if enough do, then because Group A might be able to pay less they will be encouraged to keep attending and not become TV supporters.
Better say 60,000 paying £12,50 each to watch every game than 30,000 paying £25 to turn up to watch only home games with gates around 30,000.
The guys agreed with the logic.
They also agreed that if you were in Group C and could afford to pay to watch or go to watch but watched for free, then it was not Celtic that was being robbed but your fellow supporters.
The other risk though is that if prices to B get put up, some in B might fall into C, but my belief is that if we all see the dependency that A and B and C have on each other to have a team to watch at all, never mind one of reasonable quality, then what needs to be offered to supporters is a means to watch Celtic at a price equitable to all that reflects how they want to watch.
That is the real challenge here, not technical or licensing, because once you get an equitable pricing across the support base accepted as valid and fair and the need for it bought into, then the risks of raising prices, but with the flexibility that is already there in part in The Overseas Season Ticket , diminishes.
That is why I mentioned in my feedback from my meeting (all at my own initiative btw because I like to keep busy) the need for a Membership Scheme and why that is a huge project because it depends on us all realising just how dependent the Celtic support are on each other for having a team to watch and the quality of that team..
None of the clubs with SKY high TV income have this degree of dependency on and amongst their support.
That’s why we all need to pull together and in the one direction if we are confined to Scotland. If we cannot take the support to the game we need to take the game to our support,
Experience to lead Development Squad clash v Dundee
By: Martin Dalziel on 08 Sep, 2015 17:59
A MIX of youth and experience will take to the field for Celtic’s Development Squad tonight as the Young Hoops take on Dundee at Cappielow.
Five changes have been made from the side which thrashed Hibernian 5-0 in the capital at the end of August with the Hoops opting to merge a number of first-team stars with Development Squad regulars for tonight’s SPFL Development League clash.
Nadir Ciftci will start up front for the Celts with Anthony Stokes, Scott Allan and Callum McGregor all featuring in midfield as the Hoops look to get some valuable minutes into the legs of some of the key first-team players following the conclusion of the recent international break.
In-form attacker Aidan Nesbitt, who has scored two goals in three games this season, retains his place in the team alongside Joe Thomson and a familiar-looking young Celts’ defence.
Tonight’s game kicks off at Cappielow at 7pm and there will be live build-up and in-game updates via the official Celtic Twitter account @Celticfc
TEAM NEWS
CELTIC: (4-2-3-1) Fasan; Breslin, Kelleher, McCart, Tierney; Thomson, McGregor; Nesbitt, Allan, Stokes; Ciftci.
Subs: Wardrop, Hazard, Hill, Hendry, Miller, Lafferty, McIllduff.
Philbhoy, chuffed to bits for your daughter and all the family, it’s brought a lot of smiles to all on here. HH
PHILBHOY
Great news.
Best wishes to Olivia.
HH!!
Canman
I have to agree re Celtic TV
I have crap broadband, just over 2 meg, I can dodgy stream no bother with very little buffering, on the betting sites, there is no buffering, on Celtic TV it’s a waste of time and money for me, I reckon it buffers more than 60% of the time.
I wouldn’t be the most tech savvy, but I know that the Celtic end is severely lacking.
HH
Sorry Auldheid,
But the onus is on the Plc to provide a product worth paying for, you say I should pay more for a substandard product to be fair to someone who can choose to go or not to go to the games, you’ll need to come up with a better one than that.
If I got what I was paying for I might not feel cheated and start considering paying more but while I am expected to listen to bullshit excuses for a substandard product they won’t be getting any more off me, in fact it’s so bad I’m considering simply returning to illegal streams or the kodi thing.
I am being short changed, in the last few weeks I’ve switched off my CTV and went to illegal streams becuase they provide better quality, maybe the Plc need to be holding up their end of the deal people start trumping up ways to fill their pockets even further.
Sorry pal but no sympathy here until I get what I currently pay for.
Philbhoy
great news,delighted for you
health is wealth
cherish every day
any update on TCR lads
Derk not playing tonight?!
Imposter!
HH!!
Film 4 @ 10 pm, The Angel’s Share, worth a watch
TALLYBHOY on 8TH SEPTEMBER 2015 7:24 PM
Ball Boy…:)
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Philbhoy
The very best of news. Delighted for you all.
Canalamar
If what you say is true then other subscribers around the world with no buffering problems would have them.
That points to the problems being local not central and varied.
Bullshit thinking on your part.
Added to which if streams do produce a better reception, as long as you are paying for those who provide the stream at source then you are contributing.
If you don’t pay the original source it might dry up.
I don’t make excuses. That is why I wangled a visit I wanted to know how things work so that I can separate reasons from excuses.
Of course what Celtic could do is buy more broadband capacity which puts the prices up but signal might still choke at the local level.
Next time you are in the UK maybe you can talk to their techie.
WHITS.
Go to…
16 ROADS – CELTIC ÜBER ALLES… on 8TH SEPTEMBER 2015 3:40 PM
Gearoid that extra game will have done dublin the world
Of good Cian O Sullivan will be a big loss if he doesn’t make it
My son said to me on the way out -he’s 15 – “we should be able to get tickets
How do you work that out says I
Cos we’ve been to all the games this year says he
The innocence of youth ,the scramble for tickets is well and truly on Great to see the stadium full
Bonus point for getting evensong into a post
CharlesDickenscsc
Oops… WITS :)
TET
If you are getting a better signal on stream than CTV direct it is possible the stream is being boosted.
In fact it seems that is part of what they can offer.
https://www.reddit.com/r/cordcutters/comments/2yrrdh/pirated_tv_content_provides_better_picture/
My core point to auld grumpy stands. If the original signal source is not paid for then the risk is they stop being the source.
They being the pirates.
Sky Ch536 8pm Codes and Conspiracies all about the funny handshake mob,could be interesting!! Discovery History+1
Canalamar
Forgot to add that as an ex IT manager I didn’t need a techie.
PHILBHOY on 8TH SEPTEMBER 2015 2:59 PM
Superb news mate. Massive weight lifted from the family. Book a nice family holiday and enjoy.
Auldheid,
I was having trouble with buffering, I went to a boozer who has been subscribing for quite a few years, he was surprised to see me as I was telling him I’d subscribed to the premium and would be watching in the digs. It old him I was getting buffering, he told me he’s never had problems with buffering and shows the games in the boozer all the time, why is that ?
You call me out with the bullshit thinking as if you knew what you are talking about when we both know you have at best a lay mans understanding which is why you have been convinced that only what you think can be true.
As I said the chat wall on the CTV site has been shutdown this season because people are now using it to complain about the buffering and for your info bandwidth channels are and can be manipulated so that specific channels are given more bandwidth than others. It works the same way as different channels for premium and standard not all premium subscribers are served from the same channel and not all standard subscribers are served form the same channel so when you start having a go at people about their experiences of a substandard product because you don’t know how a technology can be manipulated I think you better find out and wind yer neck in until you know a bit more about what your talking about, rather than simply spouting the same excuses you’ve accepted.
Auldheid @7:53 ooof that was out of left field. Canalmalar do you have a similar IT background?
Auldheid,
iT manager means very little, it could be coding or data base it’s unlikely to be hardware, I know plenty of IT manager that know very very little about the the hard ware they simply got to the techs and ask for more speed the tech is left to rob Peter to payable and provide more speed to the specific channel.
So aye you do need a tech with you, you obviously don’t know as much as you think you do.
Hebcelt,
Tech side.
Young hoops now 2-1 up.
HH
Auldheid
I understand that the dodgy streams signal must be getting boosted, I have no idea who is paying for them to do this, cos I sure don’t, what I don’t understand is why Celtic TV isn’t boosted.
It’s not as if their overheads can be through the roof, so I imagine they are making money from the service, cos trust me, if it was in any way watchable, I would happily pay for it.
HH