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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Darwin,
Clearly the faeces originates from your goodself.
Listen to The Low Anthem’s Charlie Darwin, very beautiful.
Squire, indeed.
matte
once again I find myself agreeing with Paul 67 and disagreeing with you on whatever it is you and Paul67 are disagreeing about.
You’ll never learn….
Balotelli to Liverpool
Neg Anon
“We no longer judge a player on his skill etc – only on what fee we can get from him.
What have we become?”
Erm…. People who make false deductions because the opening statement, from which they make the deduction, is wrong.
Do I win a prize? :-)
.
Moonbeams..
FB/Twitter..
Hope Yir Guid..
001 Says.. Né..
Don’t Sell our Kris
Don’t Sell our Kris
I just don’t think ye understand
If ye sell our Kris
Ye’ll be taking the Piss
and you’re going to have a riot on your hands.
Dontbrattbakkinanger
Ok I’ll start the Scott Brown referendum debate, what currency are we going to pay him bawbees? por cierto
Just heard that “Gazza” has signed for a Sunday League team in Bournemouth. What is our scouting system like ? We could have had him for 20 B&H and a dozen cans and sold Commons for £4m.
When those who know and work with someone speak highly of him for the job he does, that counts for plenty in my book .
I was fortunate to land briefly in the company
of Commons,Mulgrew,Mattews,Ledley and Scott Brown and was left in no doubt of their admiration and respect for thier leader & captain Brooooooooooooooonie.
Delighted that the coaching team are rewarding my faith and finding their feet. Huge game next week in so many ways. Victory should arrest the downsizing and Virgil’s future may hinge on the result. I thought he looked a Rolls Royce again last night. Denayer looks a good asset, shame there’s no buy option but pleased to have him for this season. We have good quality individuals at the back, the more game time together the better our defending will become. There was too much space behind the wing backs all night.
Berget is showing promise, McGregor is a dream and Kayal had his best game in years.
Secure the Bounty and retain Virgil. That is all I ask.
Tiny Tim, you echo my sentiments exactly.
KC is Celtic through and through. I would love to see him and his wonderful partner be involved with Celtic until he is finished as a player and beyond in the back room staff.
Very surprised at the accusations re Malky.
Having a little knowledge of his background I would be astounded of forehead were the allegations found to be true.
Of course private thoughts and prejudices usually remain just that, even with those you think you know.
Really hope its not confirmed.
Tinytim- spot on re KC
Awe hear hawd oan Barry canny get a kip.;)
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/clyde-manager-barry-ferguson-admits-4080290
I also used to be very critical of Scott Brown, mainly due to his inability to complete a simple pass. However, he has improved immeasurably and I look forward to seeing him get back to fitness.
Celtic and Scott, better together. It’s a yes from me.
Player power is the game changer. To ignore it is to discount a major factor in player trading and the role of supporters in creating the conditions that give players power.
.
The following is an article for the CQN Magazine around the time of John Kennedy’s testimonial. Its not toooo long so I repost with apologies to those who are familiar with it.
Evolution Soccer – Revolution Soccer.
“The socialism I believe in is everybody working for the same goal and everybody having a share in the rewards. That’s how I see football, that’s how I see life.” Bill Shankley. Liverpool FC.
Football has experienced a curious phenomenon over the last ten years. Neither the fans nor the clubs can be considered the owners of the game. If we define ownership as the ability to dictate terms then it becomes self evident. The world’s best players and those who hang on to their coat tails now run the show and it filters down to the lower levels. These people are football’s new owners.
How has this happened for it would be impossible in normal business? It happened because the player’s paymasters, the support, set no price on their desire for glory and success. The paymasters have become the slaves of glory and football is paying the ultimate cost.
Along with the desire for glory at any price is the working man’s thinking that a player, like any working man, has the right to negotiate as high a reward for his labour as he can. As a left leaning Glaswegian who has had to strike for improved conditions in normal business, I subscribe to that notion and paid my dues to defend that right. However football is not like normal business. In normal business if a worker negotiates a wage that makes the company uncompetitive because the rise exceeds the income it will generate, that company will eventually go out of business. Thus a reality wage ceiling is in place. This is a good thing because it means the company can continue to offer employment to all its workers and continue to serve its customers.
However in recent football history the influx of TV and sugar daddy money has enabled a wage to be offered that goes way beyond the business’s ability to sustain, but unlike normal business, clubs do not, by and large, go out of business. They find ways of reforming and carry on, but at a cost to those players not in the top earning bracket, or to the workers in companies who served them. It has meant smaller squads, fewer players able to earn.
It is a curious socialist philosophy that supports a player’s right to get as much as he can from the game, but ignores the consequences for his fellow players/workers without whom there would be no game.
A good analogy is in order here. Modern football is like a description of a scene from hell where a visitor looks into one room and sees an emaciated group around a table on which is set a large pot full of stew. They cannot eat because their arms have been set straight at the elbow and elongated so that they cannot get a spoon in their mouths. It is a miserable place. Then the visitor goes upstairs and enters a similar room with occupants similarly handicapped, but where everyone is well fed and contented. “How can this be?” he asks his guide. “Well downstairs all their energies are spent in the nigh impossible task of feeding their insatiable hunger, whilst up here they simply feed each other.”
The thankless job of managing the downstairs room falls to the custodians of clubs, but their hands are tied by the players’ real paymasters, the support, demanding the custodians throw more food into the room, rather than teach the occupants the benefit of feeding each other for the good of all.
Not all players and agents are greedy men, John Kennedy’s magnificent gesture to give his testimonial money to famine relief is a demonstration of this, and there are other players who also carry out charitable acts. However, overall, it is players who exploit the support using the support’s desire for success to demand from custodians wages that starve lower reaches of the game. There is more than enough finance to satisfy both players and supporters needs, it just needs to be distributed more equitably.
Hopefully this phenomenon will end when the unconscious paymasters – the support, who should be the owners, waken up and realise that they are being exploited, not by the custodians of clubs, but by their fellow workers the players. When this realisation finally dawns about who currently owns football a consensual wage ceiling might emerge to allow football to again become the people’s game. There is no natural ceiling to ensure wealth generation is preserved or that the wealth created is more fairly distributed. One must be created.
At some point the age old class struggle of exploited worker versus owner will be repeated, except the battle will be between a more aware and responsible support and the new owners of soccer, the players.
These are not to be confused with the players of the past, fellow workers of their time exploited by then club owners. Players like Bobby Evans, Willie Fernie, Jimmy Johnstone, Bobby Murdoch etc. These guys and their fellow professionals were working men all their playing lives.
Those days, however, have gone.
If we played that game again I might have played it differently ……no sheet Sherlock hahahaha 4 3 3 hahahahahahahaha, away yi go ya rocket.
In ticket office very busy not many tix left.
misstertaximan …
He may be a Rolls Royce but if he is playing alongside some Volkswagens he should adjust and keep the defence together.
HH
If we sell Kris(please Nooooooo) can we keep Lisa:)))
There is no doubt that the main area of concern is our back four….
I’ve been banging on for over 2 years now about our “swashbuckling defenders” and how it needs to stop.
Full backs who play as wingers..and CB’s who charge forward at any given opportunity…
Might be OK for SPFL fixtures…but not CL.
If we need to play Izzy… ( and I wouldn’t …) then play him further up the field where he’ll be less dangerous…and get someone working with him on his final ball…it’s poor.
Efe is still a bomb-scare at times…and nearly cost us last night…again.Somebody needs a word.
As for the 2 current CB’s…It’s obvious that both are really talented players…but they have a tendency to “show off” occasionally…and that’s dangerous…especially at this level.
In fairness…last night was heading towards a “disciplined” defensive showing…so let’s hope Ronny stays on the case…and tightens things up even more.
Although if reports are to be believed…we’ll soon be swapping brain for brawn with one of our CB’s.
Summa of Sammi
“Very Sad that Celtic FC..after all.. might Qualify for the Champions League and that is News on CQN..”
When, in the past 14 years, and after a previous quarter century of non-European achievement, did we establish ourselves as a gimme for participation in the CL Group stages?
We did not manage this in 2000, 2002(Seville season), 2005 (not even Europa), 2009, 2010 (not even Europa), or 2011. I make that 6 times in our 14 successful seasons that we did not make CL Group stages.
I will be rejoicing greatly if we make it 9 out of 15 successes, but I will never believe that, as a Pot 4 team, we are established at the CL table.
The biggest thing for me about Scott Brown is the way he gets others to up there game I guess that is why he is captain.He is also no respecter of big names I think he is a much undervalued player by the Celtic support.H.H.
“Haw Big Mhan, gheezebrek widye, we kin jist aboot pootup wi’ the brazen ootbursts but the links tae the tawdry tabloid – too faur mo chara……way too faur!”
Tony donnelly67 13.39
Well said me old fruit
bankiebhoy1
That was a mistake, I thought I had copied to paste sorry.
Jeeezzzzo! a prifeshinal like yoo tae?
Cannae buleev that!
.
Well said Big Chap..
Celtic goalkeeper Craig Gordon has stressed there is still a long way to go in the Maribor tie.
“The away leg could suit them so we have to be very wary” – Craig Gordon
The Hoops have given themselves a great chance of progressing through to the Champions League group stage following
a 1-1 draw in Slovenia last night.
But former Scottish international Gordon believes their opponents will offer a serious threat on the break in the return next week.
“Their style of play is they play a lot on the counter-attack,” he told BBC Scotland. “The away leg could suit them so we have to be very wary – it’s not over and done with yet.
“We are a little bit disappointed we did not go on and win the game – we had the chances to do that,” Gordon added. “But 1-1 is a good away result and we’ll take that back to Celtic Park and look to build on it.”
Summa
I’ve made a few mistakes in my life believe it or not ;)
One thing I would do for next Tuesday if I was Pistol Pete is ensure the Green Brigade get tickets for the match in order to create a hostile atmosphere for Maribor.We need the stadium to be rocking for the Bhoys.Come on Peter bring back the thunder.H.H.
Last night —————–
Much improved !
-but ———-still demonstrating the desire to be a sieve ..-.
Tighten up !
Scorchio -Way down south
Scott brown had a huge price tag to live up to and a rangers tattoo myth perpetuated by job nockeys.
The other myth that he was always guff with us until recent seasons can also be blown out the water by looking to see what his fellow pros thought of him in the 08/09 season.
Fifebias csc
While I’m on my soapbox.
Any deal for kc or any other player for that matter in the 30+ bracket should be based on what he ‘can do’. Not ‘has done’. Imo.
Only way, well I think when that mob have the ball on Tuesday , is someone has to get behind the back four as soon as they go over the half way line with it, they go fifteen twenty yards into the oppositions half and chip it to the Brazilian and he plays off the shoulder, get in behind the back four an cut the wee bassa aff at the pass, like lugy used ti do. Easy peasy.
Scott Brown used to get stick for running about chasing the ball down like a mad yin when we lost it…
but apparently that is now team strategy under Deila ;p
MWD
I was not making a direct comparison
” Kris Commons is the nearest thing we have to a Lubo in our midst” and was careful not to, as you can see.
An equivalent of Lubo today, unless he emerges from some jungle island thinking the war in the Pacific is still on, would be out of our reach, which is why we depend on players in the Kris Commons range.
Malarkey
14:25 on
21 August, 2014
Scott Brown used to get stick for running about chasing the ball down like a mad yin when we lost it…
but apparently that is now team strategy under Deila ;p
==============
That is worth anything from a smile, through a grin, to a chuckle and maybe a laugh. :)
Auldheid
Lubo was plucked from obscurity. If we can find a simlar player of ability in the same situation they will walk to Paradise to sign for Celtic.
LB