Last night’s performance was a vast improvement on the horrible displays against Legia and gave us our second insight (after United) into how Ronny Deila is changing the way Celtic play football.
Key to the performance was the movement of his two Norwegians, Stefan Johansen and Jo Inge Berget, Callum McGregor and Beram Kayal. Johansen, who closed down space high up the field, pressurising defenders, played his best game for Celtic. Less said about his clearance of a Virgil van Dijk header the better.
Watching Kayal was like meeting an old friend again. The player, who in 2011 kept Victor Wanyama out of the team, has been a shadow of his former self since returning from injury two years ago. He is another player who enjoys closing space.
I’m an acknowledged cynic when it comes to even remotely hyped young players breaking through the ranks, but Callum McGregor has now delivered repeatedly. There is a long hard season ahead of him, and let’s remember, form fluctuates, but he has looked like one of the best players in the team so far. I doubt any Celtic player has opened the scoring in three consecutive European away games.
The first 35 minutes saw Maribor sit deep, which allowed Celtic to build patiently. Movement was good during this period, players in possession always had options, so we were able to switch play, force opponents to chase the ball, and penetrate with purpose.
Play was bound to change when Maribor started to close down higher up field, but Celtic reacted by playing low-percentage balls forward, which invariably resulted in possession being lost. I would like to see us look for less-ambitious passes more often.
There were several concerns, not least of all at the back. A defence which was impregnable for much of last season is now being cut open with regularity. I don’t subscribe to the view that players suddenly lose instinct and awareness over the summer, so it’s likely that a change in the midfield shape is exposing frailties in defence.
Maribor players found themselves clean through on a couple of occasions last night, echoing what happened in Warsaw and at Murrayfield. Ronny needs to find a fix.
Despite clearly being the better team, there is still a big job ahead for Celtic next week, better teams don’t always win, but a disciplined performance, no red cards, no mistakes at the back, should see us through.
Take no chances at Inverness on Saturday, make sure players are rested and fit.
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If as rumoured Leicester City want Kris Commons and are prepared to pay 4 million if Rony doesnt see him as a first team player taking into account his age it might be best for all concerned if Kris is sold. H.H.
Super Sammi on way to West Brom…
LiviBhoy
12:29 on
21 August, 2014
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Dallas was sacked for being a liar, then tried to cover his lies, then tried to bully with a refs strike.
He is also a bigot who sent sectarian e-mails.
Ideal candidate for promotion to a refs mentoring role in the eyes of the SFA.
joe filippis haircut
12:38 on 21 August, 2014
Wouldn’t be surprised if KC left in this window. £4m seems ridiculously high but then it is the most stupid transfer market in the world.
The way I read it was there was a few broon envelops flyin Aboot? In the Mackay hassle, arry boy has been doin that for ages.
Big Wavy
I believe they’re hopeful of hearing something by close of play today re being in attendance on Tuesday night.
How many times have you heard the phrase
“Hes doing a thankless task”
when describing a player performing the lone striker role.
Make that player Anto and it becomes less of the thankless and a lot more of the vitriolic.
Theres a lot of hate out there for one of our own from our own.
The Honest Mistake
That is really sad news — lovely girl.
Very very sorry to hear that and my thoughts and prayers go with her and her folks.
For every Vanessa and God willing Mackenzie there are far to many Evies and Oscars
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SFTB
I believe the raid on Malky Mackay and the other guys files was not a Police raid but a recovery of documents instigated by Tan and Cardiff City Football Club through their lawyers who then went to court and obtained a civil warrant for recovery.
It is a shame for Malky as he had the makings of a good manager but if he has blotted his copy book in this way then hell mend him.
However, I would look beyond the racist stuff as one of the allegations is that Cardiff paid out £50 Million in transfers where only £30 Million was justified by market value.
Are we talking kick backs to agents?
Kick backs to managers?
Kick backs to players?
Kick backs to owners?
I believe that all of these go on on a regular basis especially at the level below the very very top rated players who can command the ludicrous sums of several hundred thousand pounds per week.
In other words in the markets where Celtic “might” be able to operate.
Great result last night and by all accounts a decent away performance. ( I missed the game but will catch it later).
I stated yday that I’d be happy with a 2-1 loss, so I’m delighted at the 1-1.
Inverness game means nothing to us, when a huge game on Tuesday is looming, and Commons along with others deserve the rest.
well done the hoops
Big Amido up front with Declan on Tuesday should sort that mob oot ;)
“A defence which was impregnable for much of last season is now being cut open with regularity…….it’s likely that a change in the midfield shape is exposing frailties in defence”.
That might be the case but two things occur to me:
(1) Big Johan is no longer there;
(2) Danny McGrain missed pre-season through illness.
proudbhoy
Let’s look at the facts with Ledley. He was a good player. Not an outsanding player in his last year at the club. He had injury issues. I would like to have kept him.
He had refused a new deal. I suspect he wanted more money. Doesn;t matter whether the club offered him more, the same or less money. They offer him what the believe he is worth.
Joe had left his boyhood club and home town team for money at Celtic. He would have done the same to Celtic. I was annoyed he played the I wanted to stay card and put the club in a bad light. If he wanted to stay he would not have boarded the flight to London.
Ledley wanted to go and signed for Palace after a few hours of arriving there for talks. A good move for the player and for Celtic. We got money for a player I believe was waiting to go for free.
LB
The evidence of how well Maribor had been scouted was pleasing – and effective.
The change at the back bringing on Ambrose and putting Lustig to left back was smart – Maribor looked like they were going to be launching balls in and Emilio would have been the target because of his lack of height.
I say this with a tinge of regret because we all love the guy, but Emilio is the crux of our defensive vulnerability.
His positional sense of knowing when and when not to push up is poor.
He frequently gets caught with balls over the top and inside him and doesnt learn from it.
If we are being smart, we will find a left back around the same height as Lustig.
Cheers HamiltonTim,
Here’s hoping for some positive news on that front. A very noisy Celtic Park will be a major plus for getting us through next week.
Tom Molach. I am sure Danny is back at work now but it is a good point you make.H.H.
Paul,
Yes I noticed that Ronny appear s to be trying to educate players not to out hopeful balls forward but retain possession, which for periods worked, but there were natural lapses. Most good teams have this element of patience.
I believe this is a cultural philosophy, whereby if you’re not playing the ball forward all the time, you’re not doing the right thing. Good decision making requires football intelligence, which I hope some are learning.
The defensive scares did worry me with all four and the goalkeeper at some stage giving me palpitations.
The most pleasing aspect has to be the improvements. We were without Brown, Matthews, Tonev, Forrest and maybe Mubarak.
Onwards and upwards.
Árd Macha
Last thing we want to be doing is ‘resting’ players.
We’ve no even had a hat trick of league games yet!!!!!!!!!1
You need MATCH fitness, you only get that playing in MATCHES.
We need the midfield/defense playing as a cohesive unit, you only get that playing as a TEAM.
Pick the best 11, get them playing.
Times like this I question why…
God bless wee Evie and family..
Livibhoy
That’s exactly how I see it fella. Great summary.
Let’s be honest, the modern player may have an affinity with the club but Joe’s use of the free transfer system has served him well for a good pro. Fair play to him. We should interpret the old “I didn’t really want to go because I love it here” with a large pinch of salt from guys wanting to manage their own departure from the fans amicably.
Money wins out.
bawsman
12:49 on 21 August, 2014
Last thing we want to be doing is ‘resting’ players.
We’ve no even had a hat trick of league games yet!!!!!!!!!1
You need MATCH fitness, you only get that playing in MATCHES.
We need the midfield/defense playing as a cohesive unit, you only get that playing as a TEAM.
Pick the best 11, get them playing.
___________________
Is that you Ronny?
The honest mistake
A truly sad turn of events. Heartbreaking.
joe filippis haircut
12:38 on 21 August, 2014
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I love kris and his family and how they get celtic but for 4m i think we would be crazy to turn that down
But as someone suggested earlier why should we want our club to sell at best price when very little seems to be re invested.
Could we replace kris with 4m .. Yes
Could we replace kris with the 1 or 2m that will only be given to the manager im not sure.
Although the form of mcgregor brings us another option.
Tough call considering the goals/assists he got last season.
Bugger……….outed.
bawsman
12:53 on 21 August, 2014
Bugger……….outed.
_____________________ knew it was him ;)
Proudbhoy
We may have already replaced Kris with a loanee (Tonev) or a youth player (McGregor).
Pace on the wings and a 40 goal a season penalty box striker in the middle with 3 maniacs running all day behind you in the shape of Kayal, Brown and Stefan leaves little room for a player like Kris.
TBB/ BRT & H
Thanks for clarifying this. It changes my thoughts entirely.
Malky must have suspected that Tan’s lawyers would want to damage him and I cannot understand now why he did not think they would expose this stuff. If they are going to be fighting a battle to see who was culpable for any transfer wrongdoing, then Malky has suffered the first reputational strike.
If they are fighting over the point of Malky approved the bungs without managerial approval, he has little to gain in continuing to fight this as they have already shown him up to be unemployable (you would hope) in football. I wonder if Malky’s solicitors have the right to request access to all of Vincent Tan’s e mails?
Livibhoy
Thats a very realistic and probable turn of events
My concern is we MAY have decided instead of trying to give player what he wants like clubs do we instead decided to sell and then replace with a player who would be on less wages (johannson) as we seem to do quite often
Gordon-forster
Pukki-hooper
Vic-biton
As i said your version of what happened isnt at all far fetched. Joe already did it to cardiff so no reason why he wouldnt do it to us.
Regards his injuries from what iv seen/read he did very well with palace when he signed scoring a few and help turn their season around.
Good player
BT
If your resolve is questioned God help the rest of us!
Thoughts & Prayers with Elvie and her family.
MWD says AYE
Has anybody seen Wakuso yet or is he still sitting beside a fax machine in a downtown Moscow bed and breakfast ?
You took the words right out of my mouth there Tom Molach.
I see the defensive frailty in a lack or control and control, for me, most often comes from the backroom, coaches and the bench.
A simple strategy has to be introduced for moments when we the coaching staff are reduced due to staff turnover and illness. I don’t know if there are temp staff in football coaching.
But surely there is a way to loan a coach if there is a way of loaning a player? Surely?
As much as I love Izzy,he is our Achilles heel at the back.Every side we play against specifically targets him,Dundee Utd almost scored on Saturday because the wee man was out of position.
What I do like is that Ronny has seen this and will adapt to combat it!
HH
Wake so was last seen looking at a room an kitchen in Govanhill .
Today is definitely a day for looking on the bright side. We have begun to play the fabled “pass and move”. Long may it continue.
We have obvious weaknesses but we have a manager who will have seen these and, I’m sure, will be planning to sort them out as well as possible with the players at his disposal.
I would be quite happy if he allowed a few a rest on Saturday and gave game time to the likes of young Henderson and Bitton. Mathews, if fit, should be given a game at LB, as my only real worry is that too many teams exploit Izzie’s lack of height too often.
big wavy
12:56 on 21 August, 2014
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Correct mate.. Really hope mcgregor can keep improving and id gladly see us bank the 4m or whatever if he did.
Watched tonev quite abit anytime he played for villa because i knew we wanted him aswel and he was awful to be honest.
Hopefully he can come good for us as id be surprised if there wasnt a player in there somewhere.. Im sure lambert knows a player when he sees one and petrov must have gave decent reviews aswel.
Heres hoping
As left backs go, oor Emilio is a decent left winger. He is caught out of position and gives the ball away too often in games where his role is more about defending than attacking.
Whatever happened to Michael Kadlek??
SFTB
I guess Malky thought his settlement agreement with Tan was a grubby deal to hide the texts and e-mails in return for dropping his £7.5m claim against Cardiff. Always thought the public apology stank of something behind the scenes but I guess the whole ‘in the FAs interests’ to divulge was a way of circumventing the legal niceties that he would go public with this stuff.
He seems like a guy not to be crossed with and I think he’s been raging at what he might think have been ‘bungs’ going on with respect to signings.
In this day and age, the charges of racism, sexism, homophobia make Malky a toxic brand despite all the usual about ‘casual banter’. His brand is now toxic and a period in the wilderness beckons before a chance of any redemption.
He lives up the road from me and his house has been up for sale for the last 2 months. Suddenly pulled off the market in the last few weeks. Very high profile guy in a small town, I feel for his family….
PcS
That’ll work. According to DBBIA’s database, Adam’s 0.91576cm taller than Izzy…
My reading of the leak of the Mackay stuff is that he was given the option to report himself to the FA back in May. That is when Cardiff City confronted him with the evidence. He didn’t do it. Once a reasonable period had passed Cardiff City reported him. The FA asked for evidence, which was presented to them this week.
In parallel, once Crystal Palace were found guilty on Monday of obtaining classified information regarding Cardiff City’s team, I’m pretty sure swift action was taken by Cardiff City or their agents to ensure Mackay was dropped from the Crystal Palace shortlist, by passing on what they had to the Daily Mail.
If I had been in charge of Cardiff City, I would have waited until Crystal Palace had employed Mackay. But then I’m a rotter….