The principle problem in the first half is the same Celtic have had for a year – they are unable to pass through a press. Roma are simply better at the press than Dundee, so the consequences last night were more acute. In the opening minutes, the visitors had six players in their forward third when Celtic attempted to play out from the back. It worked.
A team’s ability to play out is determined by shape and ball control. Wilfried Nancy learned lots during the opening 45+ minutes on his new side’s capacity in these areas.
Mercifully, Roma dropped the pace in the second half, however, Nancy changed several things which suggests he learned from that opening period. As you and I discussed earlier this week, Auston Trusty and Liam Scales should be moved one place to the left of where they were against Hearts and in the opening period against Roma. Trusty in the middle, Scales left and Kieran Tierney hooked for Colby Donovan. I expect a lesson has been learned and that’s the last we will see of Auston on the right of a back three.
Wilfried must be wondering what all the fuss is about Daizen Maeda. He now knows Daizen is not a striker (you and I discussed this on Tuesday). Our MVP from last season was also hooked at halftime for the return of Kelechi Iheanacho. I hadn’t hoped we would see 45 minutes from Kelechi for a few weeks yet, but from his first to last touch, you could see what a difference playing with an actual striker makes. Another lesson was learned and fitness issues aside, I doubt we will see Daizen through the middle again.
Benjamin Nygren’s goal contributions have been a big part of our story so far this season but he clearly put his boots on the wrong feet last night. The introduction of the correctly attired Paulo Bernardo improved our ball control enormously. He played deeper than Nygren. This subtle change of shape gave Callum McGregor more options and freed Reo Hatate to have a good second half. The Portuguese did very well considering he was parachuted into such an environment from the wilderness.
Improvements to shape and ball control happened sooner than expected. Napoleon, who 200 years ago conquered Rome, said, “I would rather have a lucky general than a good one.” Better still to have a general who learns fast.
Yesterday we spoke about Roma being a free hit with low expectations and the lesser game of our week. Tomorrow we will talk about the cup final, and a chance to write history.
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Celtic attendnances 2024/25
Total 29 games, 1,632,525 56,293
and so far this season, not counting last night
Total 11 games 605,219 55,019
Last season enjoyed 5 european homes, plus that bumper Hibs crowd in the Scottish cup.
A buy the way – league attendance average so far is 58,352 against 58,809 last season.
the Bada Bing on 12th December 2025 1:47 pm
Tisdale will get the bullet, to make the Board feel good about themselves
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The above will happen very soon from what i’m hearing.
” tangbhoy on 12th December 2025 1:20 pm
Nobody truly has faith in him and importantly that will include the players ”
I`m fine with the fact that you don`t have faith in our new manager but I don`t feel you have the authority to speak for the players and ALL the rest of the support.
I certainly need more than two games to form a meaningful opinion of our new Manager.
Tomorrow we will talk about the cup final, and a chance to write history.
—————–
what history can be written, I am scratching my head a bit as to what records could be made , anyone got any insight ?
When I was a bhoy in the 80s and 90s I hated this tournament.
Saw my first final in 82 beating the huns 2-1 in an under construction hampden, soaked to the skin, but 2 wonderful goals.
Then, only 4 finals in 15 years, losing 3 to thems and that Raith game, I thought we were cursed.
Henrik inspired win against united,
and then the new millenium
15 finals in 25 years, I have seen us win 13 of them.
gO BACK TO 4-3-3- ON SUNDAY WILF, all that matters is winning.
footnote
we have won 7 of the last 9 league cup finals
as someone likes to say
we go again
Triple T podcast this week
https://www.youtube.com/live/8sw7tnJHbss?si=RiTnmeC4HZD_7mHL
I’m paraphrasing here, but during one of Wilfried’s first interviews, he was asked what he knew about Celtic. His response was along the lines that he’d followed them for some time. I thought, really?
I wondered if that was being honest. If not, I’d rather he would have said he knows nothing much about them.
Anyway, the jury is still out. (Do we have juries any more?)
Hopefully we will be talking about a beautiful Sunday this weekend.
Shape did look better second half but a lot to do with having a real focal point as a centre forward who can hold a ball up whilst others support.
St Mirren are a big side so not giving away silly set pieces is a must.
First 10 mins of the game will be crucial.
Changes in formation and tactics work if you have the right people to execute them.
I do not think right now we have that.
Kasper might need to go back to basics and clear the ball up field now and again even if it becomes a fifty fifty as the chips into the middle and attempts at the wings turn the ball over quickly for a counter attack too often, again something we do not defend well.
Difference in class showed last night but also I see my club as a skeleton of what it should be with the board and supporters unable to sort out their differences.
I do not take sides as there are arguments for both but if we do not sort ourselves out as a club first then I fear we will remain fragile.
Booing the team will never work.
We don’t care if we win , lose or draw, as we have sang for years.
Obviously we do but still much to be happy about.
Once a Celt, always a Celt.
Celtic teams have lost to far poorer team than Roma – a well coached team at the top end of Serie A. They have better players than us and Rodgers, o’Neil , Postecoglu would probably have lost that match too.
Our first half performance was woeful tho – why did he pick the same team that lost to hearts. Probably because he wanted to see if the players responded to a few days extra coaching in this system. Nothing wrong with that for a coach learning about his players.
I loved the he was ruthless at half time. Nygren nightmare, Yang not defensive quality and Maeda had his boot on the wrong foot (that’s what we get from him sometimes).
2nd half I though we were really good and had some slick passing movement that I liked (ok maybe Roma relaxed a bit). But Ineacho, Baernardo and Donovan too care of the ball much better. Blikwisha has good qualities technically.
Hatate best game in many many months!
Nancy is learning and dont forget this team were not setting the heather on fire since the start of the season – MON got us winning but it was rarely free flowing Celtic.
Win on Sunday – then get Nancy players with speed , power and players who can take care of the ball.
Maestro on 12th December 2025 3:18 pm
Triple T podcast this week
https://www.youtube.com/live/8sw7tnJHbss?si=RiTnmeC4HZD_7mHL
————–
gave up reading their blogs and the podcast when they banned me from commenting.
gave it a go there, still the same old same old, multiple rants and hysteronics .
lasted 20 mins , and away.
the battered bunnett@2.29
I’m not one to let the facts get in the way. And anyways last night was more about loose passes than free passes. To coin a phrase. Tend to agree with you that the game plan was a wee bit beyond our ken, and not only that, it puts our defence at even greater risk by leaving swathes of space (easy for you to say), down the flanks. Need more Siegfried less Wilfried. Three games in three tourneys, but only one is a real knockout match, Sunday against the Saints. so here’s hoping the result goes our and our manager’s way.
Presser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKznxjDvTWE
“last night was more about loose passes than free passes”
100%
Seems the guys who wanted a new manager on here,must be on a Christmas day oot….
Maybe first time ever for me, I gave up at Half-time and went out. The performance was just a shambles – embarrassing to watch. Playing Tounetki where he was asked to play was just baffling. The only 2 players who looked like they had the balls to play against Roma were Yang and Hatate. The rest looked scared – maybe unsure of what they were asked to do. Hopefully we see some improvement very quickly.
The Battered Bunnet on 12th December 2025 3:57 pm
“last night was more about loose passes than free passes”
100%
————————-
Kaspers attempts at trying to pass down the middle , dearie me.
We have played one really good game this season, Feyenoord away two short weeks ago.
Other than that we have mostly been poor to fair under BR, MoN and now WN.
Some bright moments outweighed by mediocre ones. Most games see major defensive cock ups at one end and unbelievable misses at the other. Our confidence is so low I doubt any of you would have betted on Engels scoring the penalty last night.
There is no quick fix because the problems are stacked one on top of the other from the dressing room to Dick Dastardly’s moustache.
tangbhoy on 12th December 2025 1:20 pm
He (Nancy) is an idealist/a dreamer and that won’t work out so why give him time?
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Respectfully TB – upon what evidence is your unequivocal statement based?
Has he a CV going back decades? Nope
Will he succeed at Celtic? No idea.
Anyone who KNOWS 100% ? … can get rich tonight by handing over a couple of quid in exchange for 5 large and 2 small numbers.
His previous achievements …
2021 – Canadian Championship Winner
2022 – MLS 3rd Place finish
2023 – MLS Cup (separate bauble) Winner
2024 – Leagues Cup (USA & Mexico) Winner
Now if you’d said Liam Brady and/or Tony Mowbray were idealists or dreamers? …..
🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
Another lesson in the steepest of learning curves for BW.
Going toe to toe with a top tactician like Gasperini with that Roma squad was always going to end one way for BW a week into the job. When they brought on Dybala, Pellegrini and Bailey you feared the worst but at least we got to the end of the game without a record breaker against his name and the players’ confidence completely shot to pieces.
The alternative, playing the opposition and looking for a result wouldn’t have made sense – we have limited time to implement new ideas and games where the result matters far more. We’d have likely still lost and come out no further down the line in the development of the team that has to come.
We didn’t learn anything new – we’ve been watching us struggle against that sort of high press with similar players for years. We struggle with the basic principles, and technique, our confidence goes when we realize what turning over the ball to quality opposition can mean. Not only do we panic in possession at the back, we turn over the ball in the most dangerous bit of the park – in midfield with most of our players up the pitch and our defenders high.
How we do against Roma and other better European teams won’t decide whether BW is a success, at least until hes had a couple of windows to get players in to fit his system and some others back from injury. We’ve had worst results from better managers in the midst of “success,” so the learning from last night shouldn’t be how we compete, but how we get better at what we need to do to beat lesser teams, and, for now, everyone in Scotland
I agree with Paul67, BW will succeed or fail on how well he learns the lessons from games like last night, but mistakes will be made, and he’s not the finished article himself. he’ll take more than 5 minutes to work out the players, they’ll take more than a few games to learn about a diffetent way
And I really don’t think talk of 1994 or crises helps anyone at all.
We’re helping nobody if we start panicking.
Changing a manager after 3 games is ridiculous, and would change nothing in the grand scheme of things,Tisdale will get hunted,after that there’s nobody else to blame
I’m not having Nancy as the Board’s latest scapegoat after two games. Did these mugs even consider his fit with our current squad? Or did they take the English non-league spiv’s word on it? Do we trust the guys that got us into this mess to get us out of it?
PS a lot made of the money spent on Trusty, Engels and Idah. How’s the Tounekti, Nygren, Balikwisha window ageing?
https://youtu.be/NIld7BCboBA?si=qGreCAh74QBFGmc1
Evan Ferguson trying to spare Celtics blushes
We sat off a little bit in the second half Evan Ferguson (Roma tempo and pressing noticeably dropped 2nd half)
Roma knew Celtic were in transition stage (Gasperino gave no quarter Roma pressing was aggressive as was their attacking intent, Celtic were vulnerable) Ferguson “some people didn’t know what they were doing”
You would expect Roma to do their homework in the build up to the game in Glasgow, that’s what top professionals do
José Mourinho’s reputation for meticulous opponent analysis is legendary, taking tactical preparation to new heights through detailed scouting reports, ‘photoshop’ image analysis, and highly specific game plans, often customizing training to exploit opponent weaknesses down to individual players and specific situations, like instructing players to bypass certain midfield areas or target specific defenders. He turned opposition analysis into an art, developing strategies for building up play or counter-attacking based on deep understanding, making his teams tactically astute and adaptable.
For weeks I read about how MoN had shown BR up by turning around a struggling team.
Now that WN is in the door, it appears we were crap under MoN too…
You can say he’s a dreamer, but he’s not the only one…
I love MON as much as anyone but his strength has always been his man management and it was pretty much their common wisdom that he was yesterday man when it came down to tactics
We could have kept him if he’d wanted to stay but we wouldn’t have been playing an up to date tactical game and the chances are we’d have been found out by more sophisticated managers
BW isnt suggesting anything out of the ordinary, if anything we’ll get beaten because other teams are used to it and do it better than us
PeterLatchfordsBelly on 12th December 2025 4:14 pm
I’m not having Nancy as the Board’s latest scapegoat after two games. Did these mugs even consider his fit with our current squad? Or did they take the English non-league spiv’s word on it?
—-
Exactly. Our £1 million a year CEO hired a manager wedded to a system for which our current squad is not suitable – in all honesty it could take a couple of years and 3/4 transfer windows to see this start to take shape.
I’m not asking Nicholson to have a UEFA coaching badge but these things are fairly basic. Did he make enquiries with Shaun Maloney and MoN about the suitability of the squad for a 3-4-3 ?
Was anyone at Celtic aware what way WN played and what risk analysis was done on the back of this ?
Celtic Fan Reacts To Roma Defeat, Wilfried Nancy Start As Manager & Significance Of Cup Final
well said timo, the tools who complained about him using tools.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9gduUIcQao
McPhail Bhoy on 12th December 2025 1:55 pm
Yes, Possibly nothing we could have done in terms of personnel and tactics to avoid a thrashing . When it comes to Europe we’re not equipped to deal with it unfortunately . The Desmonds think that we therefore shouldn’t bother , doesn’t matter what the rest of us think .
David17 on 12th December 2025 1:05 pm
“Maeda chucked it last night.
He’s not interested in what Wilfried wants him to do and clearly doesn’t believe in it.
He’s one of our best players and biggest assets.
Some start for a new gaffer this.”
……….
Maeda was lied to by Rodgers about getting DM a transfer in the last Transfer Window.
So DM’s head has been down since.
Maybe Rodgers lied to Kyogo as well and this has also pissed off DM?
How will we ever know in a club full of liars and deceivers?
Rodgers also lied to, DEMBELE, N’TCHAM, BOYATTA.
Just like Lawwell lied to Beram Kayal [forcing BK to down tools until his move] about getting a move to only move the goalposts AFTER the promised move by then saying we need to replace BK BEFORE he’s allowed to move.
Which proved to be another lie without any consequences having to be faced by Lawwell.
Same as what Rodgers did to DM, and probably Kyogo as well?
Same as wee sleekit hero Fergus did with the “3 Amigos” PVH, CADETTE, DI-CANIO, and Fergus brought Jock Brown in to legally cover up Fergus’s shady dealings!
Imho.
The NDA era = A club run by crooked, shifty, lying, sleekit, Tories, who must have an awful lot to hide?
Obviously the club must be allowed to have confidences on issues, but a 60,000 seaon ticket sellout = ZERO accountancy for the PLC no matter what they choose to present at the rigged AGM’s.
Meaning that the entire club is a scam!
Imho.
Compare all of these creatures to the evil Kelly’s and Whites who:
Allowed 30% of EVERY ACTUAL PHYSICAL crowd inside Parkhead, to be lifted over the turnstiles for FREE OF CHARGE!
The fans of the future were not employed and the Kelly and White board were well aware that their Celtic Da’s were probably on Celtic Da [back of the bus] level of wages back then.
And then gave 50% of what was left from pay at the gate proceeds to all opposition teams who visited Parkhead.
And then the all seated era of re-writers of Celtic history accused the Kelly’s and White’s of “pocketing” monies which they were never in receipt of!
All to make the PLC era more appealing after the initial backstabbing McCann [bull in a china shop] era.
Timdom is dripping in lazy lies.
Timdom SEEKS to be offended.
Timdom has been spoiled rotten with 13 years of endless ONE HORSE LEAGUE TROPHIES!
BUT.
When Rodgers says that he is delighted with the PLC’S backing during all Transfer Windows and then changes his mind after the first banana skin slip up, Timdom gets all offended for Rodgers.
Rodgers knows that Timdom is EASILY played so he just joins in.
BUT.
When no one can see this apart from a troll outcast poster on CQN, called, “KEVJUNGLE”, then Timdom utterly sucks!
And, KEVJUNGLE, sees a Hun Trophy haul as the ONLY WAY to rile up these spoiled, entitled, expectant, seeking to be offended, OCCUPIERS of plastic seats inside Parkhead, and it would REALLY hit home if the “dead” Huns had to wangle a Europa League trophy, whilst Timdom is being brainwashed with how super-dooper the balance sheet is, [for the bonus muggers] a Hun Trophy haul like that, which would thoroughly empty the Parkhead library, and no doubt the PLC “project” would be binned by awakened Tims?!
Like John Rambo using his big knife to cut out the bullets from his arm and stitching it up again, is what Timdom must do to the PLC.
PLC = Backdoors/Wiretapped/Fans/Details/Sold without any debates or votes being needed.
Celtic aren’t meant to be a fkn Tory corporation.
Just a fairy story football club with the TOTAL reversing of the “TAYLOR/REPORT/THATCHER/PSYOP/1989” and remove 40,000 seats.
Which do ZERO for safety, BUT, turn fans into boring sheep terrified to say the wrong words or lose their seats, IS MOT CELTIC!
PS, Why do you think the Mainstream Media have been ordered to not report on the uprising by the Bulgarian public, no matter what school they went to, they got over themselves, UNITED AS ONE, AND MADE THE CORRUPT SELLOUT Bulgarian Government jump out of the windows more or less?
https:/x.com/UnityNewsNet/status/1999433782269706427#m
Hmmmm?
Throw your TV out of the window.
HH
oot.
Did he make enquiries with Shaun Maloney and MoN about the suitability of the squad for a 3-4-3 ?
————————–
respectfully, players being paid high wages to play football, should be able to do all the basics regardless of formation.
pass the ball to the guy with the same colours on as you.
ah but people dont like possession based “safe” horse-shoe fitba.
people are asking would brendan have done any better, and i believe he would have. he got pragmatic against atlanta and munich, he would have tried the same in this match.
other people are happy we are not in the champions league because we would have got doing, well just play the way we played against almaty, safety first, you dont lose goals you dont lose games.
anyways, who do we want signed in january ?
I want a barry robson, aaron moy type to go win the title, and a real proven matured striker.
this is no time for more projects,
I watched it on the telly last night but from what I saw Maeda couldnt have looked more committed. The commentary team mentioned it several times
IS MOT CELTIC = IS NOT CELTIC
Be big and admit your mistakes. lol
HH
oot.
Paul67
What larks ,
We discussed Daizen not being a CF nearly a year ago.
What did we do for a year about not “ being unable to pass through a press.” ?
Benjamin Nygren’s boots were already on the wrong feet that’s why MON benched him, sharpish.
Well done for spotting subtle changes, most only saw the less subtle ones.
League Cup sure is important, it might be our only trophy if we win.
In WN latest presser around 1 min 20secs in, Wilfried says that he wanted to test his ideas his philosophy and the players standards against top opposition such as Roma to get a handle on standards and be able to set the bar on standards going forward
At which point does the balance point between experiments and. testing become more about winning games ?
Imagine your good news is that Iheanacho isn’t going to AFCON
bournesouprecipe on 12th December 2025 4:42 pm
Imagine your good news is that Iheanacho isn’t going to AFCON
…..
Play him too soon like Rodgers did and Wilf will just prove that Wilf is yet another erchie!
HH
oot.
lionroars67 on 12th December 2025 4:40 pm
In WN latest presser around 1 min 20secs in, Wilfried says that he wanted to test his ideas his philosophy and the players standards against top opposition such as Roma to get a handle on standards and be able to set the bar on standards going forward
At which point does the balance point between experiments and. testing become more about winning games ?
————–
experimentation, should have been put on hold until these 3 MUST NOT LOSE GAMES were done.
A draw with Hertz and Roma, no gap in league, and a point closer to qualification, then the must win saints game for a trophy.
You are getting handed opportunities that you do not have to risk, be pragmatic, watch the players do their familier things, assess them first, experiment later.
I honestly thought so far, he is being very naive.
https://thecelticstar.com/celtic-board-must-meet-green-brigade-to-resolve-disputes/