I thought the penalty had to be a dive. There’s no way Efe would clatter into the player like that, I was sure! The error wasn’t even schoolboy stuff. Ambrose and Mikael Lustig were caught square-on, the latter not goal-side of his man, and therefore unable to see the run. The incident is symptomatic of an error-prone season for the defence.
Referee Craig Thomson got that one right but missed Craig Gordon being held at County’s second goal. Unlike Efe’s split-second intervention, this was a clear and persistent infringement and should have been spotted. County can also consider themselves unfortunate to concede a penalty for an awkward hand ball, and Stefan Johansen should have received a red card for his late lunge at an opponent.
Notwithstanding the foul for County’s second, they then got two free headers within 8 yards of our goal at a corner kick. The man-to-man system is in no way better than our zonal system if your players cannot follow the flight of the ball.
I’ve said often enough before that teams can steamroller straight through the middle of us – when we play so expansively, we need real authority to control things in the middle of the park. The authority coefficient visibly increased when Scott Brown arrived but not sufficiently so.
Erik Sviatchenko looked the part when he came on. Always available for a pass, keen to take a touch, and regularly played 30-yard forward balls. It is no great stretch to suggest he could be our best defender.
What did we learn from yesterday? Primarily that we’re not good enough in many positions:
Kieran Tierney continues to shine as an 18-year-old left back. Sviatchenko and Simunovic may establish a solid central defensive partnership, but we have little more to boast about in defence.
When we are up against a disorganised Hamilton Accies, our nippy wee guys will do a lot of damage, but not every game suits nippy wee guys. The qualifiers won’t.
This is not the time to ask questions about the manager. I don’t know who it was in the media who first suggested he needed to win the treble to keep his job, but it’s absurd.
We’ve won the treble 3 times in the 70 seasons it’s been available. The league title is a vastly easier competition post Rangers liquidation, but very few times in those 67 seasons we didn’t win the treble did Rangers deny us both cups. This result is no worse than our previous two exists in this competition to Morton and St Mirren, or countless before them.
The first thing you do when you get rid of your manager is attempt to recruit a better talent. Can you imagine who would be interested in a job where you had to win the club’s fourth treble in your first two seasons or face the sack? It’s no way to run a club and would guarantee a downward spiral.
The manager’s strategic job right now is to improve the squad this month, build a defensive unit as sold as we had last season, and identify targets for the summer to prepare for the Champions League qualifiers. None of this would improve by lurching off plan right now.
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Cecilthelion,
Bang on the button pal.
Deffo aff oot..
Kazim -Richards for Nadir Ciftci.
Wooft…Somebody is having a laugh.
Not hearing many positives about him.
Bring back Willo Flood and Pukki:)
HH
More disappointing than Thomson’s decision at the RC goal…other than our defending…is the ease with which BBC first ignored the foul on Gordon, then a good 5-10 mins later reviewed the incident and summarily dismissed it as an irrelevance. It’s that attitude that permits the honest mistakes.
The Stefan J tackle at the end was cowardly and what I expect from him. No self respecting footballer at any level does that. It’s a pathetic too late in the day attempt to impress his idea of commitment on the tiny minds of those who seek that kind of behaviour.
Get rid. Replace with a real man.
Interesting defences of our Manager and I have to say that loyalty is a very important Timmy Trait (well with a lower case l at least:)
Yet for me it’s not about loyalty, certainly the jury’s out on several aspects of Ronny’s stewardship and in some areas the call to give him not time is well made.
Here is the crucial factor for me…
Ronny is NOT a match day Manager, if things go wrong in a game Ronny hasn’t got the tactical awareness and footballing nous to sort it.
I’m not asking him to be Alex Ferguson in this regard but he is way below par. Remember the much maligned Tony Mowbray, he cold pull it out the bag, remember him sticking Scott Brown up front in Moscow? He knew Scott well, what he was capable off.
Tell me one great Ronny motivational, personnel or tactical change that won us a game that was getting away from us.
Without this ability we will not succeed in knock out competitions and only succeed in the League because the percentages are on our side.
Hail Hail
And as for Craig Gordon
I’ve been consistent on this for the last 7 months.
The guy is a complete pansy.
Doesn’t come off his line
Doesn’t command his 6 yard box
Has a heart the size of a pea
Is Indefinately weak
Continues to get beat at his near post.
Isn’t imposing or physically strong.
He falls in to the high risk category of Ambrose. Therefore another position we need to address, to eliminate obvious weakness
The RC player conned the ref. (Easy thing to do if it goes against Celtic) with a dive he was cute, same as Craig Gordon being molested in goals, he got that one right but, Gordon dived, and no one laid a hand on him, been here before, some in here backing the ref? (That’s the way they see it fair enough) but some are just backing the ref. To suit there agenda to put the boot into the board and RD, not all, some, and it’s the usual suspects, and who are they? The ones that haven’t been here since the last game we lost of course.
WEEMINGER
At that time,we had a board filled with geniuses compared to the current nonentities.
Everyone saw the CL and associated TV money as a cash cow,a holy grail. A tiny wee members club where you paid the admission and took the rewards.
We were there,in wi the big boys. And we got f…d over by people who wouldn’t take the risk.
Aye,see where not taking the risk has left us. A laughing stock. A feeder team for minnows in England and a rest home for duds from Europe.
Welcome Paddy Roberts. I hope you don’t tick the box on the employee benefits package that gives you membership of CQN.
Beyond the excellent headline post from the author, fast becoming a sadly miserable self-loathing place for the perennially unhappy with their lot brigade.
Up the Celts !!
5-in-a-row !
Make mine a double !
p.s Celtic find us a striker worthy of the name or get rid of the scouting team !!!
Rather frightening to think there’s actually an overarching plan involved.
I can’t get my head around that there’s a football section actually designing this team on purpose.
Scary thought!
P’s Titanic might not have been to Efe’s liking but he’s watched far too many western’s for my tastes. His big giveaway was raising his arms after clattering into his opponent. The referee might as well have shouted “freeze” so guilty did Ambrose appear, even with his back turned.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on 1ST FEBRUARY 2016 11:09 AM
TRADITIONALIST88
It would be nice if we were able to agree to any sell-on clauses as we had no intentions of selling-rather,we were looking long term and building a team.
(Snaps fingers,comes back to reality)
– See more at: http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/not-good-enough-lurching-off-plan/#sthash.1c4RsLtU.dpuf
Thanks bobby; I thought I missed easter while reading that.
It’s February 1st, nor April ffs
yip
seems like many of our own fans have been so manipulated by the SMSM that they have taken on their hobby of slagging celtic fans for mentioning the failures/mistakes/downright cheating of refs in a game we get beat
Well some of us have enough mental capacity to rub our stomach and pat our heads at the same time, so we are allowed to mention that the refs decisions and non-decisions had a very important bearing on the result of the game yesterday, as did the failures/mistakes of our own players
these 2 situations can occur in the same game, its not that hard to understand
Paul this nonsense argument about any manager having to win the treble in their first two years is unbecoming of someone of your intellect. The only reason Deila was under pressure to win the treble was because of all the other crap he’s served up to us, particularly the rancid failure in Europe.
Lenny never won a treble in his time as manager and still enjoyed the complete support of the fans. The treble argument you’ve made is a red herring and a diversion from the real issues.
Michael O’Haloran is a good young player. Good engine, real pace, decent skill level. A real prospect of developing into a quality player at Celtic.
Less of a gamlbe than our current targets.
Why we don’t nick him off the Huns when he would be here in a heartbeat, bemuses me
I refuse to accept that Ross County were the better team, even with 10 men we played better football than them, 9 out of 10 games Celtic would win this contest hands down, yesterdays game was weird from every aspect statistically better ball retention, corners, shots less fouls, more cards, I guess the important stat was the final score 3 -1 but that does not reflect the nature of this contest Ross County are a good team they can hold their own against any other team in the SPFL what they and every other team in the league can’t do is compete with the pace and technique we have at Celtic.
So what options do the other teams have, well they put the boot in, they test the ref they fight tooth and nail to win territory, they make the most of any contact they do everything you would do in a Celtic shirt when the chips are against you against better opposition. This was a disappointing defeat for us but we dust ourselves down Learn from it, and try to improve ourselves in the next challenge.
I still think Ronnie is the man for us, to call for his head is just silly.
Hail Hail.
BMCUW
So what’s the answer? You and I are on the same page re our feelings on the current state of affairs. It’s obvious however that a large amount of supporters are accepting of the current situation. As of course they are quite entitled to.
What’s the split of happy campers to shafters? 50/50? Quite simply we don’t know.
I would never tell anyone they are wrong in their opinions. They make up their own mind. As do we.
Going to see Celtic play is a huge part of the lives of tens of thousands. From that first time you were lifted over the turnstile, then those joyous walks along London rd towards the floodlit stadium, on a Wednesday night for a European game, to that unequalled level of sheer elation after a victory over the rotten mob, you are part of something special, something unique. Overcome with pride as those green and white hoops emerge from the tunnel and ‘you’ll never walk alone resonated around Paradise’.
It’s not all gone for me, not quite yet, but sadly it’s going.
I fear unless something is done soon, those special feelings will be lost forever. So many empty seats now, European nights becoming desperate with only the odd return to those aforementioned Euro nights such as Barca and Man U.
God forbid this is the new era we are edging towards.
Someone needs to act, but who, and how?
Unfortunately it would mean a boycott of a home game. Let the empty seats determine if indeed we are in the minority, or if in fact , the number of concerned supporters are relevant.
One thing we do know. Money is all important to our custodians. It’s the one language they listen to.
It’s not easy to ask fans to take such a drastic step, but putting the option before them may answer the question of whether or not we are correct in our feelings that this isn’t going to end well and action is imperative. If a boycott was called and 40,000 plus turned out, then all isn’t as we think. If 15000 turned out, then perhaps some action would be taken by the board to change the current direction.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on 1st February 2016 1:17 pm
Aye we speculated to accumulate back then. The problem was that we only accumulated losses.
THEFLAGSTAYS on 1ST FEBRUARY 2016 1:01 PM
In business, the term ‘reasonably foreseeable’ is often used when deciding if something could have been avoided.
Yesterday was ‘reasonably foreseeable’ and hence avoidable
Struck by adversity ( the Hampden hoodoo) – have plan B (Ronny, is there one?)
Efe – how much evidence do we need? – offload the risk to another team and play a youngster if need be
The pitch – same as before. Not fit for purpose so get the footwear right
The ref – force the decisions from him. How many times did we put GMS or LG through where they had to commit to a red card tackle? How many times did WE get on top of their goalie?
Johansen – the ‘show em I’m interested’ tackle was as predictable as it was pathetic. A poor footballer.
Did anyone even notice JF moaning to the ref for a foul when what he should have been doing is chasing the ball down again?
All of the above – avoidable by good management practices
————————————————————
A fine contribution sir, which are my thoughts too.
Also, with the ref “picked” to whistle the game, I’d have the nous to have the players drilled in playing with ten men.
However, there are other single incidents at play here, such as the second RC goal, where the player fouling Gordon was conveniently ignored. Just no way on gods green earth all the officials could have missed it.
On the balance of it all, I’d say your salient points, combined with a ref determined to have us out of the competition, made for a unsatisfactory afternoon.
Are Celtic writing to the SFA to enquire over certain decisions made?
There’s an excellent movie starring Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman from 1997 called Wag The Dog. In it, De Niro is a spin doctor to the American President and throughout the movie, he and his team continuously berate the oppositions tired, predictable campaign slogan ‘Don’t change horses in mid-stream….’
The reason for bringing this up is the obvious parallels with P67’s assertion that our fortunes wouldn’t improve by ‘lurching off plan right now.’ This assertion, like the sentiments in the movie, are unfounded, lacking in ambition and the empty rhetoric of someone who has run out of ideas. ‘Ach we cannae act now, we’ve just signed that laddie fae Man City and loaned Cifti out till the end of the season… Thats no part ay the plan..’
Plan?? Now we’re being told there’s a plan?
If Ronny isn’t the man for the job, and I and many others believe he certainly isn’t, then act now before any more damage is done.
One last thing.
To all the hunterlopers relishing their moment on the blog, don’t forget now, your club is deid, defunct and what remains is an undead, rickety, rotting husk.
Celtic appear to be picking up players that they dont have to pay a transfer fee for Cole Roberts Richards and I can understand the attraction of not shelling out millions but the player needs to be better than what we have currently at the club and I am not sure they are. Now we have Scepovic out on loan and Stokes out on loan two strikers who for me are better than Cole and likely to be better than Richards. What we need in my opinion is a couple of roll your sleeves up lets get battling types players not frightened of a heavy tackle our team seem to be full of timid players as for yesterday how Joe Hanson wasnt ordered off for that cowardly tackle at the end of the game was down to a poor referee. H.H
Here’s the other thing that gets me about CKR. He’s not at make or break time for his career. He’s 29. He’s made his money. There’s not reason for him to bust a gut and prove anybody wrong.
Ronny has had the backing the board for this transfer window as he has with all others. The Board even backed Mowbray a few months before they sacked him. We had 6 Scottish Players starting and 2 more came off the bench. I am afraid the scouting department has to take a lot of the blame,
Even with 10 men we should be beating Ross County, we were carrying passengers and I thought Armstrong and Johansen were poor.
I believe Ronny has the final say in signing players which are brought forward from Scouting department.
The Board and Peter Lawwell are not involved until it becomes time to negotiate the deal but no mistake the club doesn’t sign players without the managers agreement.
Ok, Yesterday we had a poor pitch, poor weather,a well known MIB, a “competitive” opposition and some bad luck. We showed a lack of edge unlike a proper Celtic team. Not enough get up and go for me. They looked like a bunch of mercenaries who thought they were having a bad day.
The “buck” stops with the manager but scouting needs looked at.
Not impressed.
All this transfer business of ours puts me in mind of that sitcom about seamstresses from many moons ago
‘never mind the quality, feel the width’
Paul67 – I agree with the bit about poor defending
You and I, as well as everyone on this fantastic blog, will have an opinion of what happened yesterday
But the point is yesterday is now irrelevant – only 2 things matter
1) winning the league, I would take a point on Wednesday now
2) will this team qualify for the CL Group stages16/17
I think logic, common sense and eventually better players get’s us the league
But my optimism for CL Group stages are not high
For that reason I hope the club has secured a new manager by the time the CL qualifiers come round
67ECW
bigbhoy on 1st February 2016 2:13 pm
You seem very confident in your theory – Im not sure I agree – but I have no facts to support my view
Your view is, of course, the correct structure – but I have my doubts celtic apply it
I would offer an alternative – Lawwell and Park consider the money and offer cheap options to RD – meaning RD has some involvement on who is on offer but nothing more !!!!
67ECW
twists n turns on 1st February 2016 1:42 pm
I presume that when we boycott a home game we also boycott Kodi , mobdro etc.
HH.
Evening all. Is CQN down??? HH
Paul totally disagree with your post RD has not got it tactically and I’m not sure he is involved in who is in or out. As for improving the squad etc he has had 18mths and we seem to have went backwards in ever department. It’s now in DD hands to make the decision either put up or move on. RD might be a nice enough guy but him JC and JK need to be relieved of their posts. Mowbray got sacked for less stop defending the indefensible
Paul67
Can you speak to me please??? Lol. HH
Ronny talked up the treble. He talked it up to deflect from horrendous mistakes in Europe. I agree with Paul. The treble is a red herring to an extent. Ronny should get the sack over a woeful and disastrous management of our european efforts. I have absolutely no confidence in Deila’s ability to organise a coherent Celtic defensive unit.
I shudder with the thought of Ronny leading us into CL qualifiers. I hope too much damage isn’t done because Lawwell is reluctant to call time on his pet project.
There you go…….
BREAKING NEWS: Colin Kazim-Richards signs for Celtic celticfc.net/news/9982 #NewBhoy #DeadlineDay (MH)
Paul67…
I’m seriously questioning your agenda in this post. Seriously. Hints of winalot journalism and spin have been emblematic of CQN for a while now, but this particular article is absurd!
Firstly – Will there be a defeat this season where we simply admit we weren’t good enough? Where questions about referees aren’t raised, or at least hinted at being the dark force that caused an otherwise valiant hoops to be narrowly defeated? Except we weren’t. Ultimately, *without* the penalty we’re still beaten 2-1. Ross Country won comfortably.
Which brings me onto my second point. Ronny. Brought in to improve the team, to improve the players and identify talent. So… the state of the nation as we stagger into 2016? Before Ronny arrived, Efe was ridiculously unskilled player. I remember *before* Ronny arrived likening him to Tebilly. Nothing that’s happened in the intervening years has improved him one iota. Unless you count adding comedy penalties to his repertoire. Where is the faster, finger younger?
Who has Ronny improved? Kris Commons? Our most effective midfielder since Stan Petrov neutered. And replaced with countless non scoring, ineffectual midfield players seemingly most skilled at letting the side down when it matters most. And then we get to the front players. Griffiths has improved in spite of Ronny. unfavoured until he made himself undroppable by the sheer and utter failure of every other forward signed on a wing, a prayer and a healthy wage. Of course, I can’t forget – Craig Gordon. Improved to the extent that his form this year can only described as average because, well, the outfield players have managed to utterly redefine and own the terms garbage, useless, pointless and mince. To drag them to hitherto unrealised depths.
On a separate point – the wee rhetorical fallacy about how we couldn’t sack Ronny just now? I’m amazed you could type it – what with the hysterical laughter that surely must have came over you as you realised there are some people who will not only *believe* it, but who will share the same opinion!
If Ronny is sacked just now – it’s not because he failed to win the treble. He’d be sacked for a continual and persistent pattern of losing important matches. Of losing games that matter. Of failing to identify talent, and worse, failing to identify the garbage that currently infests our team. And any manager that looked at Celtic over Ronny’s ‘reign’ would not only recognise that but I’m sure would be astonished that a club that paints itself as an ambitious club would accept the absolute rubbish being served up in place of tactics, planning and forward thinking.
And the loan signing? He brings nothing to the club. He makes us no money. And comes with, in essence, pressure to play him regardless of form, lest we lose the opportunity to get more cheap loan signings.
Ronny, unlike some of his equally bad predecessors (Lou Macari springs to mind) seems like a nice guy. But he’s out of his depth. His only skill is being the eternal optimist. And that sadly isn’t enough for a Celtic manager.
I do not possess a crystal ball. Nor do you. We have no idea who might be available, but at the moment, pretty much anyone but Ronny would improve the team in my opinion. I’m not sure how it can be worse.
Sorry, I can. When we’re cheated (naturally) out of the Scottish Cup. Not defeated mind, it’s not Ronny’s fault. Or Peter Lawwell’s. The plan isn’t the problem, the referees are.
Maybe Man City can loan the SPL/SFA some referees too?
Apologies for the sarcasm, but I’ll make no apologies for holding you to the high standards you’ve set. Or for expecting you to grow teeth when the people in charge at Celtic are failing. And failing badly.
P8DDY spot on Paul 67 I take no pleasure in criticizing a team I watched over 50 yrs but enough is enough RD fellow coaches and some players not fit for purpose
Am I missing something?? I there a reason that no one is posting on here. A Blessed Site. Come on you CQNrs, HT BT BMCUW DOC CRC LEFTCLICKTICK BSR et al. Get yer asses into gear and start posting. Apols if I missed you on that list. It was just selective. Lol. HH
Is the blog active??? Maybe a waste of time. HH
On the off chance that there is life out there, Night Night all. HH
If you were RD or PL and you happened to look into CQN over the last 24hrs would you give a sheet??
Sure as feck all the opinions blasted out here in the last 24 hours matter not a jot.
Not. A. Jot!
As supporters we are only in it for the short term bragging. ie we win at the weekend we bust the a$$ off of the non tims in the office. If we get beat the reverse happens………….in spades and it hurt like feck.
Possibly we are looking far to short term??
Are we winning long term and is the strategy working long term?
And is is RD , PL and DD’s fault we are blinkered to that long term plan?
Or should we just shout and scream till we get our way????
Like kids………….