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Some Perspective

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

Negatives out of the way first: we’re not good enough, this is a low achievement by a Celtic team who have reached a group stage. There’s no disputing that, but amid the predictable ‘Throw them all overboard’ reaction, I know I’m not the only one who is not panicking right now.

When I heard we were playing three wingers (Forrest, Mackay-Steven, McGregor) I anticipated a thrashing. Gordon Strachan would often drop all his craft players for the more industrial types in European football, with good reason.

As it turned out, we had the majority of the chances, and all the better ones, as we spent most of the second half pushing for a winner.

No arguments with Leigh Griffiths assessment immediately after the game, that was his worst performance in a Celtic shirt. Nor is there dispute in Ronny Deila’s retort that he’s scored plenty for us before and will continue to do so. Even the greats have days like that, including the Swede.

The midfield formation was fluid throughout the game. Tom Rogic initially played as a defensive mid, before moving in front of Stuart Armstrong (who moved everywhere) and Callum McGregor. The defensive mid role Rogic played isn’t one carried out by either Nir Bitton or Scott Brown. We’ve not had anyone in this role since the departure of Victor Wanyama (still pining) and it remains a large gap in the offering.

Lesson: we need a defensive mid. The deep lying playmaker + box-to-box player isn’t robust enough in Europe.

Callum McGregor carried possibly the lowest expectations of everyone in a Celtic shirt but he put in an excellent shift. His goal was outstanding, losing possession immediately before Ajax equalised took the shine off things a bit, but it was still a strong performance.

Do you know the last time McGregor started a game? October 2014. Under those circumstances that was a remarkable performance.

General consensus is that the defence played well. Kieran Tierney is as good a left back as we’ve had in years. Had he not gone off with an injury the result might have been different.

Jozo Simunovic is clearly out best central defender. I know I’m not setting the bar too high with that statement, but he’s a move in the right direction. He’s also young, still working on his fitness, and will continue to progress.

A week ago Celtic Underground’s Harry Brady suggested Dedryck Boyata plays better alongside Simunovic than without him. Dedryck still has a long way to go but the evidence suggests partnered with a game-reader like Jozo has helped him. Let’s see where he is at the end of the season.

And Craig Gordon? He could have stopped both Ajax goals. That’s not to say he was to blame for either, he wasn’t, but these were the kind of stops he was making in last season’s Europa League.

Ronny is 18 months into the job and has contributed to the situation we find ourselves in (tactical mistakes in both Molde games), but this is not the time to lurch off plan. We’re not good enough largely because we’ve recruited too few players since 2012 who have improved the team.

We need to continue to develop players like Tierney and we need to recruit better. Get this right in January, and again in the summer, and we will be vastly better. The alternative is likely to be to pick up a best from the SPFL pool, or someone from the English circuit who cannot get a better paid gig. And then it would take until November 2017 before we could assess them properly.

Return of the Bampots

Tonight, for one night onlyt, Phil Mac Giolla Bháin, John Fallon and myself are in the Hibs Club, Carfin, for a Q&A in aid of Mary’s Meals, with Phil Agnew hosting. The event starts at 7:30, £5 entry, can pay at the door.

Looking forward to seeing you there.
Windstrailer4

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  1. Melbourne Mick on

    Thats the car packed it looks more like a delivery van

     

    for the Celtic superstore no room for food etc, just need

     

    to buy it down the peninsula,

     

    The wee mhan prancing about saying me and auld Paddy

     

    are gonny get it at the footy game, he said.

     

    ( can you two even still run at your age?

     

    ( Listen son when Paddy and i sup the Guinness its like

     

    giving us jet fuel just watch us go )

     

    Think I’ve got him worried.

     

    No wifi over the weekend so everybody stay cool and don’t

     

    at the trolls.

     

    H.H Mick

  3. MickTT on

    Just watched John Collins interview regarding Charlie Mulgrew, sorry but I don’t think John Collins is a very good fabricator……

     

    In my opinion of course.

     

     

    Ayrshire is Green and White

  5. Gordon64 on

    The narrative that has been perpetuated by the media and to an extent the powers that be is that Celtic and Celtic supporters are fair game. Without overstating it we are being portrayed as the ‘enemy within’.

  8. glendalystonsils on

    MICKTT on 27TH NOVEMBER 2015 10:25 PM

     

    Just watched John Collins interview regarding Charlie Mulgrew, sorry but I don’t think John Collins is a very good fabricator……

     

     

     

     

    I don’t remember seeing Charlie go down or signal to the bench that he needed to come off? Don’t even remember if the ball was out of play at the time?

  9. Gordon64 on

    Quiet on the blog tonight. Obviously everyone is in Carfin to hear our esteemed host Paul, Phil and the cantankerous holy goalie.

  23. topkat on

    Seem to remember big Sutton was gie fond of the treatment table…..maybe he got the table as a going away present….don’t think he should be commenting on any managers ability…..he is making a fool of himself.

  24. Herbo on

    Bit of positivity across the interweb fae me.. It’s no great but it’s all we’ve got.

     

     

    Get the spirits lifted.

  26. Gordon64 on

    Anyone doubting Chris Sutton’s commitment to the cause should recall his imperious performance as our centre half at Ibrox in 2004. One of thee great individual Celtic performances of all time.

  32. Gordon64 on

    I listened today to Chris Suttons rantings last night and tbh there was not a lot to disagree with. The big mhan certainly gave me more pleasure than our current team have. His goals against the old co, Ajax and Juventus will go down in Celtic folk lore.

  34. the_huddle on

    Gordon64 on 27th November 2015 11:16 pm

     

     

    Anyone doubting Chris Sutton’s commitment to the cause should recall his imperious performance as our centre half at Ibrox in 2004. One of thee great individual Celtic performances of all time.

     

    ——————–

     

    And please forget him downing tools for WGS ;O)

  35. setting free the bears for Res. 12 & Oscar Knox on

    Chris Sutton is not a soup taker

     

    Chris Sutton is not an idiot

     

    Chris Sutton has a strong affection for Celtic as a club where he had many good times.

     

     

    However, Chris Sutton is not a Celtic fan- he has other teams he supports with equal or greater affection. He is a great player and a failed manager. He is an interesting pundit who, when he chooses to, can analyse a game very well, but he is a strange quirky guy and a flat track bully.

     

     

    He was vehemently anti-Deila in RD’s early days when everything was going dreadfully wrong- Legia Warsaw at Murrayfield was just a horrible shadow of a Celtic side- far below anything I have seen since the 90s.

     

     

    But fast forward to RD being cheated out of a treble and recovering a Euro campaign to run Inter close and you find the same Chris fawning over RD in an interview at Lennoxtown and conceding that he had misjudged the man.

     

     

    Fast forward to last night, and on the back of two poor Molde games, and Chris is back on the attack and using “we” to refer to Celtic, a pronoun that never crossed his mind when he hurried back down the road to Villa early in the WGS era because he saw the big bucks drying up.

     

     

    Chris is an intelligent man, worth listening to when he has his sensible head on but last night he was just playing the tabloid game. We have seen this over the years- whichever manager of Celtic and Rangers (pre-2012) were in the doldrums when compared to their rival would get the boot sunk into them. It sells papers and appeals to a scapegoat mentality. It used to work wonders for their circulation figures too as the fans of the club that was winning loved to read about the misfortunes of the failing club and the failing club fans wanted to get rid of the scapegoat manager that was responsible for their status.

     

     

    But unlike Ronny, the press and media have no Plan B- they are still peddling the same old.

     

     

    Most of the old players were mercenary pros who develop an affection for any club they played for where they were successful. John Hartson has been a more effective ambassador for us than Chris ever was.

     

     

    So, he is not an idiot, soup taker or anti-Celtic.

     

    But neither is he what I would recognise as a Celtic fan.

  40. Gordon64 on

    The Huddle I would prefer to have Sutton on our bench than JC and JK. It would certainly be more entertaining. HH

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