Could someone remind me the last time we heard rumours that Ronny Deila had players rebelling against him? I heard it often, and put it to the club, but was told the players had bought-into the changes, then underway and largely unproductive. I think we got our answer after the full-time whistle yesterday. This is a group of players and manager with a common purpose.
Celtic are now top of the league, a point away from qualifying from the Europa League knock-out stages, and are beginning to look like a team, but the results are largely secondary to the transformation. Even if Virgil’s 90th minute winner hadn’t arrived at Pittodrie, progress is evident. The fragility and lack of cohesion which marked so many of our performances until early last month has gone.
Success has many fathers so it’s difficult to know exactly what’s behind the improvement. Scott Brown’s return from injury helped enormously, as did the return of Mikael Lustig and Adam Matthews (although I thought Adam had a torrid time with Niall McGinn yesterday).
The blossoming of Stefan Johansen has to be the most striking element. He has without doubt been the most improved player this season and an early contender for end of season awards. By any measure, he had no right to score his goal yesterday.
The return of James Forrest, who yesterday played his fourth game in eight months, will give the squad an extra boost before the final two Europa League group games. If he has fully recuperated from the problems which blighted him throughout this year, he’ll give fresh impetus to the pacey product Ronny is trying to hone.
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Proudbhoy,
Our domestic record since the return of Charlie is 16-1.
Also brown has not played in every game. He was rested 2 games after his return and more dropped points ensued.
The abuse Tom McLaughlin got on the last thread was laughable.His choice I stood outside my choice.
Some buzz coming out of Pittodrie yesterday. With one punter telling me it was better than sex.
Dr W
I appreciate your concern and I’ll keep it in mind when I’m asking next time :-)
Ht do you get royalties every time you’re shown?
Probably already been mentioned by some of you, but the Homebhoys podcast last week was very good. A couple of the bhoys were invited to a meeting with Lawell, John Paul and Ronnie. They were very impressed with Ronnie and said that he spoke specifically about Stokes and about how he had carved out a role for himself in the team.
Worth a listen.
ginger
If only that were the case!!! :-)
Could Kris drop back and play Mulgrew role. Has good football brain but could be too slow in there. Thing Mulgrew distribution of ball is very poor. Thoughts
I remember in Jimmy McGrorys book Lifettime in Paradis him stating he only recorded one victory at Pittodrie throughout his career
lennon’s passion
I think, like Mulgrew (his passing under pressure yesterday was quite poor), he is too slow, plus Mulgrew offers more with his height at that position.
gearoid1998
12:15 on 10 November, 2014
……..but…….any Celtic supporter who violated the ‘remembrance’ silence yesterday is a sad individual ……..also, and just, playing right into the hands of those trying to “divide the living” ……
CM aint a centre mid player. He is a defender.
I for one have never been a fan of HT TV!
MWD said AYE
HT’s been on the painful end of the odd coupon-buster.
mccourt for 7
12:57 on 10 November, 2014
lennon’s passion
Mulgrew has been well under-performing for some time now, and needs to be replaced, to see if someone else can contribute more…..and KC has ‘goals’ in his armoury…..
Imo, Biton should be the one to replace Mulgrew. I just hope James Forrest can stay fit. He is far better than the lhad McGregor, who has quite obviously lost confidence.
Imo, too, it would be a real backward step to sign McGinn. He wasn’t good enough the first time.
“Mulgrew has been well under-performing for some time now, and needs to be replaced, ”
67heaven,
Sha hoor he was the new messiah about 20 days ago :p
doc
12:09 on 10 November, 2014
HT, I read earlier Minx will start to wear Lippy to games due to your stardom:-)
Will you follow suit or stick to a wee bit of mascara?
—-
Taxi driver telt me it was minx who was following suit!
;-)
NewRomanticsCSC!
HH jamesgang
Talking of Mulgrew, have Uefa stepped in and increased the ban the Astra player will get for his red card?
I’ve only ever seen one challenge worse than that, and it was King Eric’s playing for Marseille, quite comical but a dreadful tackle!
http://youtu.be/OhskAyWlsRg
McCourt For 7
which podcast?
Two Celtic fans were arrested during the Remembrance Sunday silence before the game against Aberdeen at Pittodrie.
There has been anger on social media in the wake of disruption during the minute’s silence.
Police Scotland said two men, aged 32 and 55, were charged with assault following a disturbance in the away fans section during the silence.
Another two men, aged 24 and 29, were arrested elsewhere in the stadium for unrelated offences.
‘Behaved impeccably’
All four are expected to appear in court at a later date.
Supt Innes Walker said: “The overwhelming majority of the sell-out crowd from all sections of the ground respected the minute silence and behaved impeccably throughout the entire game.
“Police Scotland will continue to work with Aberdeen Football Club to improve the match day experience for all spectators but fans must be aware that any form of unacceptable behaviour will be dealt with firmly.”
Celtic – who were down to 10 men – won the game 2-1 thanks to a late goal, after Aberdeen had taken the lead.
I agree with most on here that Charlie is not playing well just now. Either is Broonie.
I do think they are still the best options in there although hopefully January will see more genuine options brought in.
As for folk suggesting Commons in a deep role? Not for me. Kris’ main attribute is his shot – albeit he has some nice passes from time to time. He is very slow, can’t tackle and i would not like to rely on his touch.
The ‘midfield’ role has also changed very much as well. No longer would you expect to ‘win’ the game in midfield, like for example, when Paul McStay would dominate the game in there. So i am not sure what I would look for in a midfielder. Positional discipline, strength, fitness, awareness and a good first touch?
Biton has some of the above, Kayal has some of the above but I think SB and CM in the main possess more.
Now we have 4 defenders all capable for carrying the ball forward. Our midfield 2 are often shutting down space and laying the ball off when in possession rather than controlling games.
lennon’s passion
12:49 on 10 November, 2014
It’s the best I’ve felt for a long time leaving a football ground HH
Can anyone tell me what crime is involved in breaking a minute silence?
Unless being obnoxious is mentioned in the criminal code I’m at a loss.
67 heaven@12.58
Posted yesterday
gearoid1998
09:22 on 9 November, 2014
By birthright and by inclination I’m an unrepentant Fenian bassa. When I see a trap being laid for my club I ain’t gonna walk into it.
HH to those fortunate enough to be going to the game today I hope it’s a pleasant journey back.
Zico
Prayers said and candle lit.
guernica
Mulgrew is best placed as a defender and I feel that Ronny should be thinking of when VVD goes, we will need a replacement without purchasing Mulgrew is that man.
Biton or Kayal for me in the midfield to break up the play and be more defensive.
‘GG
Breach of the peace, people would be or were offended.
dr ramesh and the love potion
http://www.spreaker.com/user/homebhoys/homebhoys-139-ready-guidetti-go
http://www.hailhailmedia.com/
So proud of anyone who broke the silence yesterday , wherever it was,pittodrie george square or anywhere else,remember those who refused to go to war and kill fellow human beings,those irish who were murdered by the british state,and their relatives living in the uk,soldiers are just murdering scum employed by states to kill their enemies,remember the thousands of youth of the usa who burnt their draft cards,lets hear it for the conscientious objectors the real heroes
Folks,
Ronny has made a fundamental change in the last few weeks. We went through pre-season and the disasters that followed in the CL, trying to play 2 in centre mid and 2 ‘wingers’.
It was a mess, and I believe that some of our players shared that view.
He then brought Mulgrew into midfield along with Brown and Johansson. This gavel a solid state midfield and things have since improved. This started at Ross County. We took a step back in Europe a few days later when RD had Mulgrew part of a back 3.
Now, fair enough, Charlie’s passing has been on the poor side, but this change has given Ronny and the team a few results and the chance to start building something.
As a very inexperienced coach, he now faces 2 further challenges.
First, to sort out his front 3. We need a solution that gets another body in close proximity to our main striker. I don’t care how this happens, but it needs to happen. It could be a ‘winger’ coming inside. It could be someone playing in the ‘hole’ who pushes up. It could even be a second striker. This needs sorted and hopefully it won’t take till Easter.
Second challenge (though not unrelated) is to figure out how to get some effective width. He seems to be falling into the trap of placing players wide in the hope that they will find both ball and space. Other teams are finding this easy to combat.
He might want to think about first creating the space – then putting ball and player into that space.
Still some way to go, methinks….
Not sure I am just as optimistic at the minute.
11 men vs 11 men we were marginally better than Aberdeen, however even that is arguable.
We had more possession however it was largely in non threatening positions.
The high tempo and intensity play was absent until we went down to 10 men – perhaps this is why we are more solid than previous?
I am still in the Ronny camp however as someone has alluded to, he is making strange decisions.
He talked about the need to hold James Forrest back due to his injury history yet he played him from the start yesterday..
If James Forrest wasnt fit enough to play in the last 20 minutes against Astra, 2 days before when he was so badly needed as McGregor was toiling so badly then I am surprised to see him start.
To pick a full back behind James who is also not match fit put unnecessary pressure down our right side – no coincidence McGinn (who went down in my estimations after he dived contributing to SB’s red card) had one of his most potent games against us.
I am also of the opinion the transfer and trading between Forster and Gordon is one of the best to have taken place in our history – however, if as a consequence we have to play Zaluska in league games and Zaluska spends minutes on the pitch he otherwise wouldnt havent spent, then that dissipates its affect somewhat.
Hes a good understudy and a great guy – but far too erratic to be played in wee games let alone big games.
lawwellsacountant:
I’ll tell you what REAL “heroism” would be. For those of you who think that way to slap it on a placard and stand outside your local TA barracks.
Good luck with that.
As I think I’ve made clear, I am no fan of the military. But to be proud of people who demonstrated nothing but total ignorance … well, it speaks volumes.
You also do a MAJOR dis-service to the many, many, many people connected with Celtic – whether fans or players or whatever – who have worn a military uniform, some of them to protect civilisation from evil.
McCourt For 7
cheers!
dr ramesh and the love potion – very good post.
I’d like to see VVD given a chance as holding midfielder. He has all the attributes.
Anyone else think that wenger is ageing before our eyes even more than usual
Was a great manager but just won’t spend the money on defenders who can actually defend
They have that many injuries it’d be easier if they just moved to Lourdes
Every time they get one player back two more get crocked
I was delighted with the result yesterday. I’ve really not enjoyed a late win like that for a long time!
Guidetti’s effort yesterday was incredible, although service to him wasn’t great – at one point in the first half VVD and Denayer were our most creative players! But his character in that team is perhaps his most important contribution – fantastic seeing him celebrating with all the bhoys at the end.
Thank God the poppy palaver is over for another year. It is truly boring. Almost as boring as the repeated silliness of people who can’t just keep quiet for 60 seconds.
Anyway, onwards and upwards…
I’m so glad to see Ronny make it. Yesterday’s win and after match celebrations could sell the crowd for the Salzburg game by a few thousand that could see a return to more realistic numbers for a match of that magnitude. It is essential for our teams development and momentum that we secure Europe post Christmas. Ronny needs to be tested by a Champions League level team. Home and away games to come in the Europa plus a few knock out rounds after Christmas should give us the confidence going into the Champions League qualifiers. What is more some absent fans may return.
On yesterday, I thought Brown and Mulgrew were shown up by the Aberdeen midfield and by their mistakes. Mulgrew didn’t shut down the shot at their goal and he had a few lapses in concentration in midfield. Scott Brown looks short of his usual standard of fitness. He is making the odd mistake again but these may be symptomatic of trying to play a forward pass every time. McGinn skinned him from a standing start when he was sent off and Pawlett out manoeuvred him with ease a couple of times including his first booking.
Always thought McGinn was a player and we let him go too soon.
I’m not advocating selling Mulgrew or Brown but they do need help. A holding midfielder or a box to box stan petrov type would be ideal.
We need to sort Denayer and VVD in January. Brown I think will stay.
Guidetti looked knackered. If Scepovic can’t be trusted to come on and replace a guy who can’t run then I worry even more about our scouting.
Again, I hope Ronny has bags of notes on what is wrong with those foisted on him in the summer.
proudbhoy
10:20 on 10 November, 2014
Saw video today on fbook, ootage of ronnie at end of the game doing bit of fist pumping
He then hugs mcgregor and after mcgregor ronnie and i think its griffiths seem to look at each other and then both look away very quickly and they pass each other and ronnie then hugs virgil
Maybe him and griffiths already celebrated together and hopefully im reasing the situation wrong.
=======================
Sadly, that brief exchange told a lot – it wouldappear LG has had enough of producing umpteen weans from umpteen different burds and is moving towards more exotic tastes, looking for a touch of lavender about him and filling his Ipod with George Michael and Elton.
What passed between him and Ronnie yesterday could be described as ‘tension’ and not of an antagonistic kind. I hope I’m wrong but it looked like ‘Deila denial’ to me…
BrokebackMountainCSC
By the way, those celebrations at the end were phenomenal – what a way to make the players feel even better about winning, what a way to bring more camaraderie between the players, what a way to unify the players, management and supporters, what a way to create a bond between all said parties and what a way to remind certain players (Guidetti and Van Dyke in particular) what “its” about.
I am hoping we all seize on that moment and continue from kick off on Saturday