I know we had nothing up front, but Odsonne Edouard has looked more of a passenger in some games this season than Patryk Klimala and Moi Elyounoussi this afternoon. The game was lost elsewhere.
Newco’s shape allowed them to dominate space whenever we had possession. They were able to swiftly double up on Jeremie Frimpong and Diego Laxalt when the ball went wide, while they were compact enough in the middle of the field to keep Celtic from penetrating their final third.
Games are won and lost on mistakes and yet again we are talking about the defensive line at set pieces. Connor Goldson’s ploy of standing offsite in the hope that a defender would break the line and play him on, was not subtle, but it was effective. It was an excellent cross from the free kick (which wasn’t a free kick, but no excuses), Duffy was an enabler and Valarie Barkas could have done better. Questions remain for both.
Culpability was less clear at the second goal, which was well worked. With so many Celtic players in the box, you would expect one to get in the way of the drilled cross, but it fell to Goldson; teams who create chances get these breaks. It was a deserved goal (again, no excuses, but the handball!).
The last time we dominated Newco was two years ago in a 1-0 win at Celtic Park when Olivier Ntcham controlled the game and scored the winner. Stephen Gerrard learned from that day as Olivier has not had a sniff against them since.
Being ineffective up front and shaky at the back are worries enough, but the biggest concern is that we were unable to do anything to change the flow of the game. An inability to control the any part of the game is more worrying than poor defending or not attacking. It is more worrying than the result.
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FAIRHILL BHOY
Treasure her, which i know you will!
All good here!
My wee yin will kill me for posting this, but, she has been constipated for a couple of days.
She had been in the loo for about half an hour last night and then texted her Mum as follows.
“I think I’ve just ripped myself a new areshole!”
I thought she was well brought up too!
PB @ 9.17
Who decides — the results of games decides.
The performance on the park decides.
The crowds in the stands decides.
We have been shocking from the start of the season.
I fear DD wants to keep the TFOD2 credible so that we can get into the EPL as one of a pair.
Either that or they are trying to rig the 20/21 SPL winners betting market.
We are that bad — if it doesn’t make sense then it doesn’t make sense and you have to ask why?
Page 7, 8 and 9 page Podiums!!!
Surely a first?
I’ll sign off with a quote from ‘The Sun Also Rises’ by Ernest Hemingway.
‘“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.
“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”
Unless things change quickly, the 10 will be gone.
TIMBHOY2 on 17TH OCTOBER 2020 8:33 PM
Stop with the John Terry nonsense. Most folk on here, I would imagine, know what he is.
MAD MITCH
It won’t be the crowds in the stands this season.
If we lose the league this season, vst’s/ season books may well be down next season, but far enough to influence the owners.
I don’t know.
Surely if rumours are true ,that Lennon doesn’t participate in training up in Lennoxtown why is he getting away with that ,sitting up in his office looking out the window watching the players train,no wonder he has put weight,also I heard O Neill was never at Barrowfield Training Ground ,left it to all his coaches.
DAVID17 on 17TH OCTOBER 2020 9:02 PM
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Did John Kennedy distance himself from that team selection today for no good reason?
GDT – personally I would have “twisted” after CL elimination but PL and DD probably thought we had enough to secure the league just by showing up. By spending 15-20 million, perhaps they hoped quality would tell regardless of any coaching or personnel issues. And we do have quality, I think.
In the meantime Sevco have improved beyond all recognition from the laughing stock they were a couple of years ago. They may have done so by spending money they don’t have and breaking all sorts of business rules and regulations again. But tonight none of them will be caring one jot because their team is doing it. The rest of it is background noise that we get distracted by. We have Celtic bloggers who have been howling at the moon for 8 years that Sevco were moments away from going bust again. In those eight years they have gone from 4th tier football to top of the SPFL, and on merit.
Most of us, me included, assumed Gerard would fail. We mocked him constantly for lack of experience and, cruelly, perhaps lack of intelligence. We guffawed at the idea that he will get a move to a decent club in England.
Well he and his staff are doing an ok job now. Three of their top players were missing too – Hagi, Jack and Aribo didn’t start – yet their limited squad all looked well drilled and comfortable in what they were asked to do. His one major failing is managing Morelos, who was worse than useless today. Their implosion last season was partly due to his inexperience, players getting ahead of themselves and the Ibrox crowd turning on them as soon as they stumbled. With no crowds they are more relaxed and, looking at today’s very muted final whistle celebrations, they have learned a lesson on not jumping the gun.
It’s up to our players now to take up the gauntlet. That will take leadership on and off the park. Can it be done? Yes, of course it can. It is sport. It can change from despair to ecstasy in a moment.
Will it? Not confident at all. At least not until it is too late.
Somebody posted earlier asking if we remember how dire the football was in WGS’s last season.
Yep, I do. And right now I would take those 1-0 wins every game till the end of the season.
I’m not saying sack Lennon but for God’s sake a wee bit of pragmatism in our football would not go amiss.
Frimpong was identified by Gerrard as a real threat & he set things up to neutralise him with Kamara & Barisic. The BBC gave Kamara their MOTM.
Calmac seemed to offer Laxalt support on the left but neither Ntcham nor Brown offered the same support to Frimpong.
We had similar discussions last year trying to account for poor displays against Gerrard’s team..
Good players looking below average when playing in the wrong system or was it wrong players in the right system – I honestly can’t tell anymore.
Elyanoussi gets a regular game – was that one of the conditions he set for returning on loan this year?
He rarely delivers in important games & was posted missing again today.
Ntcham has no appetite for the physical but today he showed no interest generally yet there were folk on here yesterday saying they’d rather have him than Ryan Christie.
Scott Brown for me is like a boxer who heads out for one round too many. He should be leading & be the anchor for the team especially when things unravel – but he seemed to have no such impact on the team today.
Duffy was poor & seemed to make wrong decisions every time he was called into action. Arguably our worst defender on the day which is astonishing when you think of the fawning by fans over him till now.
Ajer had a decent game & I didn’t think it was a foul with the first goal. Kent decided to go down when his pass didn’t lead to anything. Quite how the two more experienced CBs got it so horribly wrong with a simple offside call baffles me – regardless of what Goldson did.
McGregor produced our best move of the game with his 1st half run & cross. He worked hard & never hid.
Klimala was so isolated & had such poor service & support.
We’re lucky it wasn’t a much heavier defeat.
Someone said that John Kennedy wasn’t in the dugout today – I don’t recall seeing him.
I’ve listened to NFL’s post match BBC interview.
I’m sorry but his comments are a smokescreen for me.
“Today was always going to be an uphill task” he said.
Staggering comment to make – we were not playing Barcelona or Bayern Munich.
Claiming that players weren’t fit yet putting them on when we’re down 2-0 – who does that?
If the team was leaked then it also indicates disgruntled folk and/or unhappy players.
The rest was “they defended better” & “We gave away two poor goals.” – really?
Beaton managed to not see Morelos doing his onfield thug impersonation – only taking action when the linesman flagged. Even then, Duffy raised his hands to him & could easily have seen red regardless of the provocation.
I thought young Welsh looked safe, capable & committed – high compliments compared to some others wearing the hoops today.
The disconnect between what we as fans saw & what NFL appeared to suggest during his post match interview only makes things worse. Not the first time this season that such interviews from him have underwhelmed me.
Who decides — the results of games decides.
The performance on the park decides.
The crowds in the stands decides.
We have been shocking from the start of the season.
I fear DD wants to keep the TFOD2 credible so that we can get into the EPL as one of a pair.
Either that or they are trying to rig the 20/21 SPL winners betting market.
We are that bad — if it doesn’t make sense then it doesn’t make sense and you have to ask why?
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whatever DD’s thoughts are
and i reckon you and most other fans put more thought into it than he does
i cant accept that he would be happy with todays result and performance because it keeps sevco in the league hunt
but in the long term i do agree that all guys like him and PL care about is how much cash is going in their own pockets
but neil has been given enough cash, and had a strong enough squad to start with to mean that we should have at least been able to put a fight up today
but we didnt
and thats not PL or DD’s fault
thats a seperate argument
Worst performance I have seen in 20 years.
Based on that, Neil should walk right away.
FIELDOFDRAMS on 17TH OCTOBER 2020 9:39 PM
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WGS agreed to Lawwell’s sale of Kenny Miller at the height of his career for a paltry sum that cost us League titles and an excess of £100 million in lost revenue.
Something is wrong. I agree with some commenters that there is suspicion of a disconnect between coach and some players.
Something is wrong. Often said but worth repeating…there isn’t even an appearance of game management go on. Neil looks like he’s sat pissed off in the pub like the rest of us.
Something is wrong. What’s this about Jullien? Why does Édouard look unhappy at the moment? We are so much better than that effort today.
Something is wrong. Fix it Neil.
He is blatantly unable to do so. So he needs to go. Now.
DENIABHOY on 17TH OCTOBER 2020 9:34 PM
I might have to read your post again to make sure I do indeed agree with it in every part.
That said, he (slippy) has more than “one major failing.” The man is the dictionary definition of a ******
I can’t see a way out of this at the moment – just don’t see the capacity- hope we get better.
From the 20th minute on we touched the ball just five times in their box, two of those were Griffiths round McGregor.
That is staggeringly bad
TET
Yes, exactly correct.
Let’s All do the Huddle – correct. Whatever their failings, organising and motivating the team is not PL or DDs job. Lenny has managed to do that job successfully for us before. He is struggling to do it now (even though his winning stats remain terrific). His whole demeanor has changed this season – he just looks disconnected, disassociated.
Indeed he does. Why might that be?
Rough day – night all
Watching some crappy TV coverage of the Man U post game over here and they just shared a beautiful story about Robbie Keane and Jermain Jenas.
Missing at CP these days it seems.
Celtic spent 11.5m net this year on one of most important seasons in 22 years
Basically we spent only 40% of the KT transfer fee which before that cash was in bank we had about 38.5m from Accounts
So sorry bhoys. Stop this nonsense about Neil being backed by PL He wasn’t
This season, lost CL money and if we don’t change our ways we will
Loose next years CL money
Neil bleeds green and white , but he is a bang average coach who has zero backup on tactics side
Look at JK yesterday did you ever see him talking to Neil during game. Jk only attribute is he is PL man and good at putting cones out
I said before game that my nightmare team would be Kilmala( a English championship mid table player at best ) and Moi ( useless player )
Didn’t think Neil would do it
He did.
I knew he would play the suicide 3 at back v them , but hoped that we would score more goals than them
The team sheet stopped that hope
Only October. Only 4 points behind
Transfer window to make up for penny pinching one coming up soon
Neil please please walk away to save the ten
DD go and play golf with Martin
Over it already.If we had been unlucky,I would be sick.Seen too many defeats .On to Milan,see how many bodies we have fit.
Small bonuses,Laxsalt looks good,Welch was very good.Loved his temperament.
No great damage done,plenty of time to get it right.Be handy if we had a fit squad.
THE EXILED TIM on 17TH OCTOBER 2020 9:59 PM
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God only knows Griffiths stupidity. Easy penalty award and McGregor off into the bargain.
Henryjoy at 9.50pm,
I’m not saying get WGS back, I’m just saying a bit of pragmatism wouldn’t go amiss and I thought he was a good example of a pragmatic manager.
Examples might be – we seem to play better at the moment with two strikers up front. Today we had two, albeit neither fully fit, on the bench. Would we have been better playing Klimala plus a partially fit striker, than Klimala and a palpably uncomfortable struggling-for-form Elyounoussi?
I think so. We can use five subs, so Ajeti could have had a half and Griffiths the other half. Either one scores the chance that Elyounoussi spurned in the first half.
What do I know? But WGS’s comments pre match and at half time made sense to me (hell, even Darren O’Dea’s comments made sense to me).
Maybe I am clutching at straws.
Neil is NOT going to “get it right”.
Aipple – careful, they’ll take those 6 ****** and put it on their badge :)
I should have said his only real man mngmt failing is Morelos. The rest have bought into his vision and are doing what they have been asked to do.
First post (and possibly last)….don’t know if it’s been mentioned (not up to all this techy stuff…just got used to electric kettle and then wee lassie arrives home with a phone where I can watch my front door from anywhere….brilliant! I’ve done it from the couch, loft and cludgy…why don’t we just all meet up in a pub?)….The point I am trying to get across which may have been mentioned…or not possibly…is that we still have another treble on the horizon.
So that’s all I have to say.
Sorry to interrupt.
Dan
stupid question but if Lenny doesn’t do the coaching then can anyone enlighten us on who does when it comes to tactics /formation/defence/attack etc , I know we have a dedicated goalkeeping coach and couple of nutrition and sports science guys but who is dealing with the most important issues.
Next three league games AWAY to Aberdeen, Motherwell and Hibs.
Yikes!
Neil is a motivator,I think, good players want an intelligent coach
DENIABHOY on 17TH OCTOBER 2020 10:15 PM
The Gaul of stealing an Asterix!
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IMWANDAN on 17TH OCTOBER 2020 10:16 PM
Yeah, it’s on the horizon so let’s not keep making the same mistakes and creating our own obstacles.
Ps total hun sounding first post by the way
RC. Our coaching team is sadly lacking in any top flight coaching and tactical experience
It is indeed a Peter lawell football department where football comes a distance 3rd
What’s Arsene Wenger doing these days? Mibbe lookin for a wee fun job?