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Lessons to learn against Newco

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

You and I often discuss that teams learn lessons from failure; less so from victories.  So it was after the League Cup Final in December.  Celtic took home the trophy after a penalty kick decider, but whatever plans we had to control events were thoroughly subverted.

Two weeks later, Celtic went to Ibrox with no learning whatsoever from that final.  Philippe Clement, who was deep in job-losing form at the time, bossed the battle.  It was a chastening experience, one which remains in the memory ahead of Sunday’s game.  We need to learn lessons, not only when they are obvious (Dortmund), but also when they are hidden by a result.

No less than Jose Mourinho got it wrong against Alloa’s 11th best manager of the 21st century.  This Newco team remain dangerous, they have the muscle memory from their last two games against Celtic and have a sense of grievance over the loss in December.  Celtic will need be far better prepared than the last twice we faced them.  We will be allowed lots of the ball but will be subject to synchronised presses.

Newco will defend their box, play on the counter and largely live of misplaced passes as Celtic try to build.  Whenever they get into the Celtic penalty area, they will crumble to the deck.  A grab of a jersey will be magnified (looking at you, Auston) and there will be plenty left on each challenge.  In possession, their most potent player is Cerny.  Jeffrey Schlupp and Trusty will have the job of showing him down the line.  His fondness for cutting inside is almost compulsive.

Your confidence will be fortified by Celtic’s attacking options.  Daizen Maeda has thrived against Newco since before his recent run of free scoring form.  Newco have no answer to his speed and power.  When playing on the left, they doubled up on him, as does every other Scottish club.

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Memories of Jota against Newco from his first spell in Glasgow, his goals and the way he controlled play, remain vivid.  What’s your favourite, the Scottish Cup semifinal headed goal, the goal when he rounded Allan McGregor and rolled the ball into the empty net, or the deft control and lob over keeper Jon McLaughlin?  Your other memory of Jota in these games was how Newco doubled up against the Portuguese winger.

What Newco could not cope with in this season’s League Cup Final was the dribbling of Nicolas Kuhn.  The German was Celtic’s fulcrum on the right, scoring what should have been a late winner.  Nicolas went into that game favourite for the Player of the Year award; Newco doubled up on him in an attempt to inhibit his craft.

There is a theme to how Newco defend against Maeda, Jota and Kuhn; they double up against each of them, but they have never faced all three in the same game.  I am looking forward to seeing how this plays out.  Celtic need to move the ball quickly to drag opponents across the field.  This will result in misplaced passes; live with it.  Passes reach their destination 100% of the time when you slow things down; that outcome would be a poor indicator of our play.  This is particularly true of Reo Hatate, he needs our support to misplace the odd one when trying to expose a defensive stucture.

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  14. TheLurkinTim on

    Ren-Hi Ren

     

     

    Is a story of miss-diagnosis, leading to psychosis…well worth a listen

  15. David66 on

    Gooooood morning all Tim’s across the globe, from a mild and sunny Garngad.

     

     

    1 more sleep.

     

     

    D. :)

  16. The hand of God on

    Some talk of R2ngers being “tired” , remember the 95/96 season when we only lost one league game but still finished 2nd , we played cup winners cup games on a Thursday and played again on the Saturday. If my memory serves me right we dropped some unexpected points , Motherwell at home rings a bell?

  17. Burnley78 on

    So regarding the race for CL play off seeding things are getting interesting going into the final 10 or so games across most leagues this weekend.

     

     

    Greece is almost done and dusted as it moves into the final 6 game stage with 4 teams playing each other home and away for the CL spot. Olympiakos are 7 points clear so almost home and hosed.

     

     

    Bodo

     

    Olympiakos

     

    Red Star

     

     

    All virtually certainties to be seeded

     

     

    The 2 remaining places will be between the winners of Austria Hungary Croatia Scotland Ukraine and Denmark.

     

     

    Only Zagreb, Shakhtar, Copenhagen Ferencvaros and RB Salzburg have higher co efficient than Celtic from these leagues.

     

     

    None of these currently lead in their championships.

     

     

    Copenhagen trail Mitdjyland by 1 pt

     

    Ferencvaros trail Puskas Acad by 2 pt

     

    Zagreb trail Hadjuk Split by 6 pt

     

    Salzburg trail Sturm by 8 pt

     

    Shakhtar trail Kyiv by 10 pt **

     

    Celtic lead by 16 pts

     

     

    ** With a game less played.

     

     

    In reality it should come down to Denmark and Hungary being the ones that really matter and neither top teams have significantly tough fixtures this weekend so I don’t expect any movement.

     

     

    There is still an outside chance of Zagreb pulling it back in Croatia. The big game is Sunday 2nd v 3rd at Rejika where the hosts play leaders Hadjuk. A win for Rejika really would open it up for Zagreb to get back in the hunt. Zagreb have an easier home tie tomorrow.

     

     

    If RB Salzburg are to mount a challenge then they are in must win v 3rd placed Wolfsberg on Sunday.

     

     

    NB Some Good News

     

     

    One emerging additional opportunity is if the CL winner this season also qualifies from their national league for next season this would allow Olympiakos or Bodo to qualify automatically. So an extra seeding space would be available for us. With Feyenoord PSV and Lille dropping out there is only Dortmund and Villa to worry about re winning the CL and not qualifying domestically. Neither is likely.

     

     

    I think everyone recognises the benefits and level of CL vs Europa and Conf football on a Thursday. Being seeded and with a settled side could make a huge difference to our chances come August.

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  19. The hand of God on

    Think we played Rangers (1872-2012) on the Saturday after a European tie on the Thursday , our only league defeat.

  21. Burnley78 on

    Clunks

     

     

    Some mention by posters last night that Brendan would not be too concerned about a financial basket case rangers going 3 games in a row without defeat in normal time v us with a rookie manager and a depleted squad. That the Cup game was more important to him and a bigger focus.

     

     

    I understand as much as anyone the value of winning the treble. Of course it is important. If we cannot beat the team anchored at the bottom of the league at our second home then we don’t deserve it. Whether we focus every ounce on winning tomorrow or don’t won’t matter to the semi final. It could be argued winning tomorrow will see us go into that game in good fettle.

     

     

    For me (and maybe 56000 others lucky enough to be there tomorrow) winning is massive. Not winning would be a worry. Not just because we would witness 2500 of their number celebrating in our stadium but because of the momentum and energy it gives them. A platform to go into next season in the back of potentially 4 games unbeaten v Celtic over 90minutes. 4 games where they might have shown they have our number (they will play us at Ibrox when we have already won the league and history shows they often win these). The first game after our CL play off next season will be at Ibrox.

     

     

    Personally I would rather see us focus 100% on winning well tomorrow v a physically drained and poor rangers team managed by a one dimensional group of bitter wee soccer dad’s.

     

    I respect other posters, who seem to know our managers thoughts, may have a different view. I think most going to the game will feel similar to mine. We can worry about St Johnstone when it comes around.

  22. Burnley78 on

    The Hand of God

     

     

    Of ever a season challenged our faith and that of our manager it was that season.

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  25. jackiemac on

    had a dream I was going to the match and sharing a guesthouse with huns (they were not good looking people). wtf

  27. Maestro on

    5:30 am awakened by the cat oh the joys need to find a new hobbie to do and start going to my bed earlier.

     

    It is pity the gym is not open till 8am at the weekend and scrolling and coffee is my weekend morning habbit.

  28. The hand of God on

    B78 ,yes it was a strange season ,played some fantastic football but as always happened at that time just came up short.Have been keeping an eye on the leagues you have mentioned regarding our potential seeding , thanks for the updates.On your post about games against R2ngers, what you say could come to fruition but they have only beaten us once so far this season and not at all last season so not too worried about losing that game in January. Hopefully we will be up for this one tomorrow, not sure what was wrong with the team last time out , a bug sweeping through the squad ?

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  31. Celtic Mac on

    So, winning a Cup Final no long counts as a victory in the eyes of some on here?

     

    How convoluted must that type of thinking be in order to find some kind of stick with which to beat Brendan Rodgers? That is not how football works, no, if our ribbons are on the Cup, bona fide Celtic supporters would probably be of the view, that we actually won damn thing! Something Brendan has done time and time again as our Manager.

  32. Fassreifen on

    Morning all, dumb question here: will we have just one qualifying round for next season’s CL?

  33. jackiemac on

    the David Low interview was very good MAestro – thanks for posting.

     

     

    we gotta do something to the stadium

  34. Maestro on

    Jackie it’ll pay for itself so the sooner it’s happier the better for all it’s a no brainier and I’d prefer to be within the stadium footprint prior and after especially on the very good days. 💰 💰 💰

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  37. Greenpinata on

    jackiemac on 15th March 2025 8:51 am

     

    had a dream I was going to the match and sharing a guesthouse with huns (they were not good looking people). wtf

     

    ———–

     

    Orcs appear as a brutish, aggressive, ugly, and malevolent race of monsters.

     

     

    HH.

  38. bournesouprecipe on

    In Scotland the ‘old firm’ is the next instalment of Rainjurz news following their ‘ dramatic night at IBrokes ‘ where even their victories, are 0-2 defeats. There has to be something for the media to cover that includes them, in a season where they fake some ups to cover the downs.

     

     

    ‘Away fans’ otherwise known the animals in this instance, poor lambs, have to get in to see their team in that world renowned amphitheatre they call ‘Parkheed’s a pigery’. Doesn’t sit well with the natives, but they must find a way for old firmest polemics and deflect from the sporting gap, anyway now is as good a time to slip in your own favourite referees along with the away allocation.

     

     

    Misreporting or slip of the tongue ‘ nets that prevent things being thrown on the pitch ‘ take careful aim they haven’t been invented yet, they divide the us from them only. It’ll all pass off normally, it normally does in Paradise sometimes with a hump along the way.

  39. bournesouprecipe on

    Chairbhoy @ ages ago

     

     

    Yes, Brendan’s gap, Brendan’s Celtic (especially if it goes Pete Tong)

     

     

    You are totally correct, much more critical games to come than an ‘old firm’ skirmish when our club has built in, 16 points.

     

     

    Queens Park didn’t lose much sleep over a derby.

     

     

    Enjoy the match

     

     

    HH

  40. Chairbhoy on

    TAURANGABHOY @ 6:58 PM,

     

     

    My deepest condolences on the passing of your uncle – surronded by family and going peacefully is as much as any of can wish.

     

     

    Hail Hail

  41. Chairbhoy on

    CELTIC MAC @ 9:02 AM,

     

     

    “So, winning a Cup Final no long counts as a victory in the eyes of some on here?

     

     

    How convoluted must that type of thinking be in order to find some kind of stick with which to beat Brendan Rodgers?”

     

     

    Exactly…

     

     

    Since Brendan Rodgers returned we have played them in two finals and won both.

     

     

    We have played them a total of eight times and won six, drew one and got beat once.

     

     

    In his two tenures here, Brendan Rodgers has lost by more than two goals in only two occasions – one at Tynecastle and once at Ibrox.

     

     

    That game smarts not because of any new normal, it starts because it was an outlier.

     

     

    The usual suspects trying to make this game out to be something it’s not.

     

     

    They can’t lay a finger on our manager so they trump up ways to portray him as a failure.

     

     

    No doubt secretly wishing his Celtic team fall to a Barry Ferguson R2ngers team to prove their twisted point.

     

     

    Poor Barry’s Club has no money (for the first time ever) and all his great Galaticos are unavailable for the tie – their names escape me at the moment.

     

     

    BOURNESOUPRECIPE @ 10:00 AM,

     

     

    Yes, really looking forward to the game – our sixteen point cushion with another three up for grabs puts a rather worrisome look on our “old firm” rivals faces – Barry’s up against it, things could get ugly.

     

     

    Can’t see this being saviour’s day.

     

     

    Hail Hail

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