Last night’s performance was not good enough, not by a long way. Early endeavour evaporated once the obligatory goal was conceded from Molde’s first attempt at goal, again. The cynic would have known we were beat, even then.
Another make-shift defence was deployed, as Jozo Simunovic retired injured, again, after three minutes. Tyler Blackett was drafted into central defence, unsuccessfully. He was hooked in the second half after casting anxious looks around him throughout his time on the field.
The point was put to me last night that we have the worst defence in European competition. That’s a fanciful assertion to make, but we must have the worst goals conceded to chances ratio. Molde looked capable of scoring every time they got up the park.
The ‘Abandon zonal marking’ brigade got their wish, as Celtic drifted from marking four, to three, to two zones at corner kicks. The sight of Celtic defenders bunched with attackers at the far end of our box was strikingly unusual. We still lost a goal from the second ball at a corner, and panic and mayhem remained on subsequent occasions.
Passing was awful, symptomatic of a team playing within themselves (trans: hiding). Stefan Johansen’s booking looked like a vain effort to be seen to be doing something, he surely didn’t think anything else but a booking would follow.
I was annoyed at Nir Bitton for his red card. There was no need to haul the player down. He was running wide, on his left, and it would have taken a spectacular effort to threaten goal. The foul was the act of a tired mind (trans: frustrated and out of ideas).
Everything positive you’ve read or heard about Kieran Tierney was on show. He’s 18-years-old and demonstrated what a good full back looks like.
‘What now, Ronny?’ was my thought as I left the stadium. Then news filtered through that we’re not actually out of the Europa League yet. Molde are through. Ajax, though a point ahead of us, are as good as out. They would need to beat us at Celtic Park, but in doing so they would remove any competitive-edge from Celtic’s game, and Celtic would then need to win in Istanbul for Ajax to proceed.
Therefore there is every chance we’ll win our first game against Ajax, and then we have a Puncher’s Chance against Fenerbahce. You have I have lived through Sion and Legia, we know Celtic survive in European competition far longer than they should. Hold onto your towels….
I’ve an interesting piece coming up later on Level5, PR to Newco Rangers and the Ladbrokes SPFL, but we’ll give this one time for a kick-around first.
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For old gits
http://youtu.be/HeEWtNaW6KE
HH
See my point is why have Forrest as a sub.
If he starts the game and is PANTS we can replace, but he gave nothing in the second half last night we were playing with a man short as far as i could see.
HH
Read Petrovs comments it is my believe that the players are over trained and are knackered if we play twice a week. No players should be tired after 60 mins which is always the case with us. But if we over train then the players legs are heavy. Not sure what we do next. Very very disappointing how does every team score with their first chance against us. The system is wrong for the players we need some aggression and nous oh for a Neil Lennon on the park.
Paul67,
Get the new article up NOW, please.
DHARMABAM
RWE is too big-and too big a TIM!-to be a troll.
He has been known to trawl bars,but-ssssshhhhhhh-don’t tell the wife….
Strange news article on the radio earlier. Seems doctors discovered that a women was suffering iron deficiency as a result of-head lice!
So they ignored the symptoms-the anaemia-and treated the cause-the lice.
Strange that a parasitic head louse can so weaken a host,while thriving itself.
boondock saint on 6th November 2015 12:22 pm
Hold on! Wasn’t Elton married?
The return of the ole ‘Tremblin Mince’
Agreed the ‘trending articles’ are never in sync with the nature of CQN as a site.
Yeah we are not good enough.
Should Ronny go? My feeling is we give him another season but i have no issues with those saying he should go now.
The reason i think he should get another season is that i think the squad he has assembled is heading in the right direction. It’s young and technically decent. Ronny is trying to play a modern style but the players are young and inexperienced. When it goes well (1st 20 minutes at home to Malmo, large periods of the games against Red Bull and Fene) it’s as good football as i’ve seen at CP in many years. As soon as we lose a goal tho the young players panic and hide.
Losing VVD and JD was a hammer blow, our scouts dug up Jozo – who looks a decent players but lacking heart (VVD wouldn’t have gone off last night IMO), Blackett 0 who is a disaster and Boyata – who i think played well last night and is ‘forced’ to carry the ball outwith his comfort zone due to his team-mates hiding.
I totally believe these were scout identified signings rather than Ronny (Boyata possibel exception).
Usually, when a decision is made to get rid of a manager like Ronny, boards go for ‘safe’ pair of hands.
I see a Paul Lambert at best or someone of that ilk. Then we would have a conservative approach, we would in all likelyhood rip up the new strategy of buying young and end up with UK journeymen (Anyone remember Lenny trying to get Bullard, Campbell aand James) and trying to stifle opponents.
The only highlight last night was watching the match with my two boys (9 and 5) – both were in awe of 18 year-old Tierney and kept asking me when they’ll be old enough to play for Celtic. It’s shame there’s no Celtic youth club link here in Krakow.
Gordon, Boyata, Blackett, Johansen, Forrest…..were absolutely garbage last night.
Their nervousness was palpable….remember, they are supposed to be professional football players.
Last night they totally lost the plot.
Looked like a bunch of rank amateurs….worse than your local pub team.
Yet….they are paid top dollar….and we are fleeced to watch that mince.
We are being truly conned.
Tory Lords who vote against tax credits for the poorest…..That is what we have become.
Tories and Masons
Why did RONNY D put it out there that big JOZO had an ankle problem? Quite rightly they gave him a good thump to test him we know the rest!! Get street wise Ronny FGS!!
Winning Captains
Is the work still ongoing re the annoying ads?
Latest trouble started last night when refreshing the page, last thing I needed given the display on the park. It’s happening now when I log on and takes three attempts to close the ad window, john Lewis big tellies, and then Theo Walcott ad appears and then I can get on the blog. These ads are full screen. I’m using iPad Air .
HH
‘Strange that a parasitic head louse can so weaken a host,while thriving itself’
– well, that’s Oldco for you.
In my opinion James Forrest will never be a consistant first team regular it has taken to long for him to develop at best he will play one good game every 7 or 8 games. He is also a big fearty and shirks tackles consistantly and still plays like a wee bhoy.It is time to move him on if we can get a buyer. H.H.
Burnley78
I asked a question. I am not a twitter person.
If it is a hoax then let’s nail it as such.
If it is out there – it is out there.
Pretending it isn’t really doesn’t help.
“A lie goes half way round the world while the truth is still pulling his boots on.”
RWE/Burnley78
There’s a fake account (SkySports?) putting out that story, its follow up is Owen C***e being sounded out for the job. They didn’t even mention his granny :)
Was Jock Stein not rumoured to be a mason?
‘It’s not the creed or nationality that counts…’CSC
Joe Filippis Haircut on 6th November 2015 12:18 pm
You won’t need a hard hat for my response. Like most Celts, I share the groundswell of sympathy for the way John Kennedy’s promising career was ended and was delighted that the club found a coaching role for him.
I think he does need more experienced help though.
Mind you, we might have to employ the wizard of oz, as one of the things our defenders often lack is courage.
Joe Filippis Haircut – Bang on re James. No heart for the physical side of the game at all.
He is also lazy. It’s a shame as he has real talent and when he first broke through had a directness that made me think he would surpass McGeady.
McGeady was similar, lazy defensively and not once have i ever seen him attack the back post when a cross came in from the opposite side. He had no real appetite to score goals and his career stats reflect that.
I believe we should give Ronny the rest of this season if Owen Coyle is the height of our ambition we really are in a bad place.H.H.
Jeez I though Blinker was Pants
Thanks for your help.
Glad we’ve established it’s a hoax.
Moving on…
Like Sion and legia ?? Have molde fielded ineligible players against us in both ties ??
If not, I’d suggest there’s more of a chance that oul big hands Green will hear Zodok the Priest at ibrox than the shambles that is our team beat Ajax and Fenerbache.
About the alleged high tempo pressing games, which we saw virtually none of last night.
The Beast Incarnate, Graeme Peenis stated a fairly good point that everyone has seen how successful Barca are at pressing teams and winning the ball back, and want to do it themselves. The only thing is Barca can keep the ball almost indefinitely, and don’t need to press as often as anyone else.
4-2-3-1 seems to relying on ‘number 10s’ unlocking the defences. Armstrong, Rogic, and Commons- we need three young Lubos in there to make this work.
The two in midfield are under-utilised.
Not that this applies to last night really, as it looked like a dog’s breakfast tactics wise.
He’s got to try something different- it’s just not working. it’s insanity to keep doing the same thing unsuccessfully.
Tierney was fearless like Danny McGrain, and it was nice to see him just clearing his lines also by blootering it instead of trying to beat a man then playing a suicide pass across the width of the field.
Still in it. Come on Ronny- adapt .
On a side note, I don’t think he will lose his job even if we lose the next two european games. Let’s hope he is up to the ‘unique challenges’ that next season may bring.
We used to be Celtic….now we are just a vehicle for rich tories and executives, and their handshaking ilk.
How are they going to pay themselves bonuses out of the receipts of 10,000 crowds, who knows, but im sure the creative accounting department will come up with something, maybe they can skim it off that 5.5 million transfer fee for Jozo.
And guess what….humped in the CL, Humiliated in the EL….but they still want you to pay top dollar to watch the worst mince in Celtic history.
Eh….something wrong there.
As for the current shambles of a manager and team….who much should we pay to watch them?
Burnley78
Hope you have a better day than a last night.
Its only 8.00am here.
HH
Coyle quite frankly can GTF.
What is going to come out of the SFA/SFL will be a joint approach that will say , allthough Rangers broke the rules by paying players off the books, everybody else could have, so there.
also, we cant take anything of them, cos that was 11 v 11 on the park, so there.
and , who knows if we took all the results to 0-3, maybe no one would have won the league, so we aint going there. so there.
and, if you want the cups awarded to the beaten finalists, well waht about the team that rangers met in the early rounds, thats no fair on them, so there.
so lets leave it will, yeese, your obsessed.
so there.
Guernica- Interesting point about attacking the back post. Alan Thomson was great at it. No player in the team with the exception of Tearney fit to lace Tommo’s boots. No desire, heart. competitiveness. Not aggressive enough either.
Joe Filippis Haircut – Agree totally on your view re Kennedy. Again nothing against the lad (and that’s what he still is!), but how can someone with such inexperience suddenly be deemed good enough to coach at a European level? Also, was Deila himself not a defender? Can HE not coach the defenders? Why do we suddenly require a defensive coach at all? If Kennedy is the man behind this ongoing zonal disaster, then something needs to be done. Fine for the SPFL against that level of opposition, but NOT Europe, and the disappointing thing is nothing seems to have been learned since RD’s first venture into Europe. Same formation, same tactics, same end result. NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
On a brighter note, young Mr Tierney. Take a bow son. I read recently that you looked up to a certain Roberto Carlos. I tell you, the man himself would have been proud of that performance last night. 10/10
TJ
RWE @ 12.57
And now you see from the post above yours – why twitter is a dangerous thing.
‘they still want you to pay top dollar to watch the worst mince in Celtic history’
-I think far worser mince has been served up over the years.
And , if nothing else, it gives us the opportunity to say to our future grandchildren when they complain about falling standards at the famous Glasgow Celtic ‘ Bad team? Bad team???
You’ve never seen a bad Celtic team, I mind well on the nicht we played some Norwegian outfit,or were they Danish? Swedes maybe. Aye Molde, that’s whit they were cried…’
Coolmore Mafia
I agree with you to a degree..
But when the least amongst us can see some players hiding on the grass of Celtic Park is it really the lack of coherent tactics or is it the lack of heart in the player?
After the Malmo away game Ronny said tot he media that our players looked scared to get the ball. That was true in that game and in both games against Molde.
It may be that the system is beyond some of the players we have, but dissension can take many forms and hiding on the field is one of them.
HH
With regards Zonal Marking, having read Soccernomics, I came to the conclusion that the number crunchers have sat down and analised the numbers. They concluded Zonal Marking works. I wouldn’t have an idea what the real numbers are but lets say man marking stops goals being scored 7 out of ten corners and zonal blocks 8 out of ten. Obviously Zonal would be the way to go. The problem is on the man marking goals it looks like a defender has just failed to stop the goal. Zonal goals look ridiculous because someone finds a gap and had all the time in the world to tap one in. Every goal is a failure but zonal ones look so much more so. Hope we haven’t discarded the better system for appearances’ sake.
Is the ole CQN server in crisis as well?
The Battered Bunnet on 6th November 2015 12:12 pm
Paul, FYI
I logged onto the site at half time last night to get a handle on the views of posers watching on TV. Nothing unusual in that.
As the site loaded, my Dad, sitting next to me said: “I didn’t know you were into that type of thing Son”.
Now, I can’t say any of them are particularly apt to offend, just a series of photographs of women’s cleavage – front and back – the usual cheap clickbait, but I thought you’d like to know the impression that it gives the casual visitor.
====================================================================
Are you trying to tell us your dad didn’t think you were heterosexual?
;))
There have been a few posts recently, which rightly highlighted the joy of the younger kids going to see Celtic.
But…how do you think the older kids feel about their team getting humped at CP?
Will they be happy going to school…what about teenage Celtic fans, will they be happy?
Can they be proud of the way their team played last night?
I know a few kids….who are gutted.
They deserve better than that, they deserve a team that will fight to the final whistle.
I wouldn’t say, that is an unrealistic expectation.