…OK, I suppose we have to mention them.
I did a preview for STV on Monday and was asked what my expectations were for last night but had to admit I had zero expectations. This season I hoped we would get into the Champions League group stage, or at least, the Europa League. We remarkably overshot. My real hope for the latter stages of the tournament was that we would exit without taking a hiding.
Technically, 0-3 at home is a bit of a hiding but it doesn’t feel that way for several reasons. The first half was the best football we have seen from a Celtic team in years; far better than either of the performances against Barcelona, and on a par with anything under the Strachan and O’Neill eras. Unlike Barcelona, this match plan was flawed, but it was an honourable flaw.
The “gamble” to play Efe is one which Neil may consider, in time-honoured Celtic tradition, will be inscribed on his gravestone. When you face Juventus you need to take gambles; if they all worked, clearly, they were not gambles. This one didn’t, we learn and move on. The player put on a brave performance and I’m very proud of his achievements this month.
With an away game at the daunting Juventus Stadium to come, many considered that our best chance of qualification would be to win the home game, and we clearly went about our business with the intention of doing just that. Had we faced Juve in the group stage it is possible we would have left fewer spaces at the back. Any watching Barcelona players must have marvelled at how big Celtic Park looked on TV last night compared to their visit two months ago.
We don’t know how good Juventus would have been if we camped in front of our own penalty box, as they did for long periods, but they were a more-than-effective counter-attacking team.
It is hard to pinpoint what we were missing. Georgios Samaras would have played if fit and would have given us the height-dimension up front we lacked without him. He would also have given Gary Hooper the support he badly missed. Charlie Mulgrew’s status as Best Corner Kick Taker in Europe is at risk if he doesn’t take corner kicks until Kris Commons has innumerable tries.
Juve were prepared for the Celtic threat from corners and behaved illegally throughout the game. One of the referees should have had the strength of character to deal with the problem but they were sadly unable.
There were many positives. Emilio is back to his very best. On one occasion in the second half two Juve players were goal-side with only Forster ahead. Emilio made-up the five yard deficit and stopped the attack. His pace, skill and decision-making were first class.
Kris Commons repeatedly took-on a crowd of Juventus players before releasing a team-mate or making space for a crack at goal. He looked like he enjoyed the occasion but didn’t get the clear-cut chance his play deserved.
Lustig and Matthews are both excellent right-sided defenders with pace and skill. Kelvin Wilson did well, as did Efe for long periods. Fraser had little to do all night but had no chance with any of the goals. Victor Wanyama bossed everyone in his vicinity, and this was some vicinity. Roy Keane played 13 games for Celtic and, after an unfortunate debut, I remember thinking “This is what all the fuss is about”. Victor elicits the same sentiment; more on the consequences of this another day.
On Friday 1 March the Lisbon Lions will be at the Kerrydale Suite providing commentary and answering questions on their magnificent European Cup final win in 1967. This has never happened in 46 years since that game, to say it is a unique opportunity fails to tell the whole story.
The event is part of our 125 4 125 campaign – central to reinvigorating the charitable spirit which is part of the club we love. It will be a family occasions, tickets are available at £10 for adults and £5 for children. The night has been organised by several fans working in conjunction with the people at Celtic Charity, so please do your best to support this great occasion. Individual tickets or tables are available, details here.
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SFTB
Beg to differ slightly on Efe during the period mentioned, but it helps not at all to pore over it.
However options-wise, Lenny could have put Mulgrew into the CB position and brought on Ledley had he wished, keeping Wanyama in the middle, which would not have changed the shape a great deal except that Mulgrew was the target for the high out-ball. That said, Lassad could have done the Sammi role to decent effect.
I was surprised that we didn’t have a CB on the bench, not least as Lenny is apt to change them twice in a game, but figured between Lustig and Mulgrew there was cover in the team already.
I also think Commons was on corner kicks because Lenny wanted Mulgrew’s height on the end of the corners in the absence of Sammi.
Finally, we’re inveterate Wednesday Afternoon Quarterbacks if you please :¬)
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean you’re wrong.
jocky bhoy
Interesting take on it – I would maintain however that Efe has had a few concentration lapses previously where there was no question of any tiredness, physical or mental.
I preffered the look of him in a holding mid role and maybe Lenny will experiment with this again.
HH
SOT @ 15.40
posted this last night…..is this a usual tactic from Juve?
23:43 on 12 February, 2013
Thought Buffon was excellent tonight along with his three defenders, when he had the ball, the 2 full backs dropped back to almost in line with the six yard box and the centre half to the edge of the box. Buffon was happy to play the ball to any one of the three, which meant 3 of our players were drawn out to leave a gaping hole in the middle of the park for Pirlo to operate in. Granted we did work hard and close it down on numerous occasions, but it was a clever tactic and interesting to watch.
o.g.rafferty
15:55 on
13 February, 2013
JamsieBhoy, 15:49
It’s getting a bit busy over in the Ibrox PR office…
Come on spill the beans, you know you are dying to tell us. Honest I won’t say a word.
You can be sure the ref at the Man U v Real Madrid game will be under orders to give a penalty for blatant holding/pushing tonight.UEFA will be loathe for this to become a recurring problem.If anyone knows what the official behind the goal is meant to bring to the game,can you let me know thanks.They are at the same side of the pitch as the linesman is ? Surely the other side of the goals would give you better coverage?
On Efe Ambrose, I am sure the boy feels absolutely dreadful.
That said, I think too much is made of questioing his fitness to play following the African Nations Cup. I watched him a couple of times in the African Cup and wasn’t hugely impressed to be honest.
For the money we can afford, Neil Lennon brought in Ambrose for pace and athleticism – not guile and experience.
At an SPL level of football, there is always going to be one or two who will struggle against top clubs and I think Ambrose might just be one of those.
On the positive side, we played fantastically for most of the game with few disappointments. A wee bit worrying though that Fraser Forster seems to have suddenly lost his mojo…
Just returned from Glasgow. Scunnered in a way I haven’t been in years.
It is one thing to lose to good play and good goals.
To have lost because of individual mistakes and bizarre refereeing is a real bitter pill to swallow.
Received some calls from Juve fans that I hardly know at the Hun like wind up. Bad move.
Can’t stand this lot.
Rant over.
Poor Mr Traynor. Wasn’t like this working for a paper, was it Jim? Or then again, maybe it was..
pedrocaravanachio67. @ 16 07.
It is a tactic they employ.
http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/succulent-lamb-rack/4144
Cults Bhoy
1) “The context of my ‘show me the money’ comments is because that realistically is as much as we can get in the final stages of CL.”
I am surprised at that.
Yes, I agree that we are punching above our weight. Yes, getting to the quarter finals and beyond is extremely hard to do from our background. But there is a big difference between “realistically expect” to get that far and “the only thing I am interested in” is getting the money for the tie. That is your 180 degree turn there because yous showed no such realism in your advocacy of matching and exceeding Ranger’s unrealistic spending in the Smith/Murray years. Do not use the Neg Anon defence of “I was only advocating a couple of small millions more spending”. That will no longer wash. we were in debt, serious debt, from the MON years and even through WGS’s downsizing period. We could easily have become rangers if we persisted.
2) “I felt SB was a match made in heaven for the likes of Arsenal..but that was 2 years ago.”
You will find few takers for your view that Arsenal was a good fit for Scott. their inter-passing game would be hard on the weaknesses in Scott’s skill set.
You will find equally few who think Scott was operating at a higher level two years ago. He has improved and he has improved with the responsibility of being this team’s leader, the guy the other, sometimes better players, look up to.
There are many other EPL teams, including top half outfits like Spurs, who could us Scott’s energy and diligence. thankfully, if he stays, our views will have been moot.
TOMOBLOG: TRAYNOR AND WHYTE http://t.co/R6Qma4N5
http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/succulent-lamb-rack/4144
Succulent lamb on the rack?
Channel 4 News understands very well that sportswriters need close relations with the football clubs they report on. But what follows stands out because of the culture peculiar to Rangers FC and the media during the reign of Sir David Murray and Craig Whyte.
Might be a pick me up…
http://blogs.channel4.com/alex-thomsons-view/succulent-lamb-rack/4144
Lets be honest we were well beaten in the end
I ‘m no big fan of the current Juventus side but they had paid us the compliment of taking us very seriously -as their antics at set plays showed!
We all know we are a work in progress and it would be very foolish to put everything down to the ref -as bad as he was!
Lenny got it wrong on two counts
1. Ambrose playing
2. Forrest playing for 90 minutes
I wonder if KC was having a go at the manager with his criticism of Ambrose
I was amazed that JF who was struggling after 45 high tempo minutes stayed on while KC was hooked.
IMHO we need better CBs than we currently have
Both Wilson and Ambrose are not strong enough against any forward with strength
Nor do I think they bring the ball out of defence so much better than others might to make up for their defensive frailties
We also need a forward capable of holding the ball up and bring our midfield up to them
Unfortunately since we do not possess such players and Lenny has been there before 3 years -it would seem that he doesn’t want those types of players
Er, tomo blog, traynor and whyte….
http://bit.ly/12LN5Vr
BOOM!
Craigy bhoy now 11/4 on for the new Pope
….is that it????
….
Far from probing the probity of Craig Whyte, James Traynor was actually going on to probe him for a job at Rangers….
…I’m underwhelmed…
There are hundreds of Juventus Under 12 teams across Italy . Anybody know which one The Ref’s son plays for.
Juve do spring and summer schools for children [all over Italy ]. Remember watching Pirlo coaching weans on a beach volleyball court on a beach . One side had to float the ball over the net , the other side had to put the ball under the net. Then they swapped over.
I suspect this is just a taster that Craig Whyte has released to Thomson. I wonder how many other people are panicking right now?
LB
Seems I’m in the minority (of one?) who thinks that Forrest played well last night. I thought he was instrumental in making Juve give the ball away so much. He was upon them much quicker than they expected, even robbed them of possession a couple of times.
Since he wasn’t given much more to work with, leading the line with high balls played up to him, I’m not sure what else he is expected to do.
On another tactical note, recently Hooper has been dropping off the front line and coming back into the midfield where he was effective in finding space and distributing the ball.
Didn’t seem to be doing that very much last night.
How many times did Traynor send his copy for approval to David Murray when he was dishing out the lamb?
Monaghan1900, 16:22
It does beg that question, does it not
O.G.Rafferty
That Traynor fella’s not coming off so good in Alex’s blog.
:0)
31003
Why?
It proves what everyone has always believed but has been denied about the MSM in Scotland.
Journalists rather then do their job were simply mouthpieces for whoever was in charge of Rangers.
Traynor was so institutionalised under David Murray that he believed he should carry on the same way under Craig Whyte and after doing some diligent work for Green he has now landed the job he always craved.
The Rangers fans of course are far too stupid to understand the implications of having someone so craven and pathetic as their head of PR but his output from Rangers will now hopefully be largely ignored by most in the media as it shows him to be totally unreliable.
Re Thommo’s latest piece. If indeed Whyte has passed on this very personal information then I have to ask, WHY? What does he stand to gain?
Does he have other information which would cause the SFA to desist in chasing him for the fine he received?
TBB
“Beg to differ slightly on Efe during the period mentioned, but it helps not at all to pore over it.”
For clarity and because you will not have been expected to read all of my earlier posts…..
I am not saying Efe should have been picked. I had the opposite view before the match started.
I am not saying Efe should not have been subbed. he was my nomination to be subbed before Mikel got injured and Neil seems to have half expected Mikel to not last the match.
I am not saying that Efe played well or made no mistakes between 3 and 83 minutes. I merely assert that his performance is being largely judged on those two, admittedly major, bookend mistakes.
I agree that Charlie could have dropped out of midfield but few among us favour Charlie as a CB against continental CL level forwards. Charlie is a utility, Moneyballs type player, who has no natural position in the team but has to be accommodated because of his delivery. If we had an NFL kicker/punter he would fill that role. He is the metronome kicker, Johnny Wilkinson, who keeps a better ball handler out of the starting line up.
I agree that Rogne, if fit, should have been on the bench at the expense of Miku. Neil was very brave. He would have got equal criticism from the Wednesday Morning Quarterback Posse if he had gone all Watty Smith on us.
Once a fat slabbery presstitute, always a fat slabbery presstitute.
Agent Whyte strikes again,
Get the TAPES out Craig :))
I don’t think it’s far fetched to assume Thommo got those e- mails and texts directly from our hero he he.
Jabba must be beelin, PR yer way out of that one jabba.
I would be interested to see how Juve play when they meet another side in the next round.
For example, would the Juve defenders get away with holding the likes of Van Persie and Wayne Rooney or Ronaldo or Messi in the same manner that the Celtic players were being manhandled.
Is this a Juve tactic against Celtic only? Or is this a Juve tactic that they will employ against any other side?
So not only did Agent Whyte record everything I see he keeps all of his emails and texts. This could run on and on and on.
I wonder if ole Craig made any films whilst working as an undercover agent ?
cavansam \o/
I suspect that most journos knew it already through the DR and that’s why they were mocking him on Twitter. More to come on this.
LB