No excuses, Celtic were poor and deserved nothing more than they got at Kilmarnock yesterday. Too often a new central defensive partnership looked for a forward pass and were faced with statuesque targets. Kilmarnock went man-to-man and were mostly able to keep the contest in the middle of the park until very late in the game.
Kyogo, as ever, was the exception, continually moving, dropping deep to offer an outlet despite invariably being fouled. Daizen Maeda has sufficient energy to get up and down the field all day, but we saw little of this. He and Liel Abada were often uninvolved onlookers, waiting for the ball to work through central midfield. We are left pondering if this was the plan.
One promising interchange between Matt O’Riley and Odin Holm, almost set up Kyogo, offered a glimpse of what was meant to be, if it had been replicated a few more times, the result would have been different. As we have discussed before, our midfield is young and nimble, sometimes heft and experience is required.
Yang (64 mins) and Sead Haksabanovic (75 mins) significantly picked up Celtic’s pace when they came on, credit to Kilmarnock, however, they had a lead to defend and were intent on doing so.
The goal was scored when Celtic were temporarily reduced to 10 men, Greg Taylor was off being treated for a cut, sustained when he was elbowed on the head. The referee and VAR apparently missed the incident, a clear swing of the elbow. Officials also missed a late trip on Sead Haksabanovic inside the box. It was a penalty in any other coloured shirt, but it wasn’t something our general play deserved.
Early in his first tenure Brendan Rodgers suffered defeat to Lincoln Red Imps, a setup which cost him nothing. This one will sting a tad longer and asks just as many questions.
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When AJ is fit and back in contention I would move AR into the defensive midfield position. That would give us some of the physicality, that is missing just now, and allow Calmac to move further forward.
It’s defo not mark Lawells fault no.
Nonsense. Csc
Though the injuries maybe O’ Drisscol being back in the building. Seems odd to have so many out and none with bad injury histories until now.
KLV
Ralston as a def middy might be a great shout, is he better than Iwatta though? He would be my man in the middle just now to help out.
KLV
Meanwhile…on a gasbag forum, ra superior gasbaggers look down on other gasbaggers for gasbagging in ways they think are so-o-o un-gassbag-able and that their type of restrained or mair informed gasbagging is clearly ra best. White ur we like?
Be patient with yer fellow fhans eh (except for mibby the lurkins)? It’s a digital salon where uninformed and speculative gasbaggery is the good oil that lubes the wheels.
I seriously hope Celtic have their money for Jota.
Strange goings on. Curious and more curious. Was he signed on the back of Ellie Dixon’s song. Did someone like the tune ?
Nothing makes sense.
Did they even sign the right Jota. ? 😀
God willing I’ll be at Parkhead on Saturday.
A familiar trail I have trekked since circa 5 years old. Different landscape, but same journey.
Can’t get too despondent over a narrow league Cup defeat on a poxy pitch.
We are in a transformation period, In both players and management. We have not yet transformed, it takes time. Very simple, very true.
Patience is a virtue. Irs all about the League and European football. ( Not withstanding the match day experience )
HH the journey continues.
Good morning all from a grey skied and damp underfoot Garngad.
Is Pedro still in building/position?
Ah well the Bargain hunt negotiation team continues.
D :)
We have lost games before, and no doubt will do again. Officials and plastic pitches contributed to our defeat but didn’t cause it. Attitude and complacency was more to blame. Our illustrious captain, appears to have lost something since signing his new deal, hopefully it’s temporary. The great jock Stein said that we should start every game believing defeat is possible, but that you should play in a way that makes it unlikely. That’s what we need to see now. Attitude and effort are often just as important as ability. We lost the league cup at the weekend, not the League, I know which one I’d rather win. Hail Hail
We needed a change or tweak to the midfield system from last season. We need to get control of games again. That may mean sacrificing some of the free flowing stuff – which, paradoxically, you need a controlled midfield to provide a platform for. Is it maybe time for the old ‘double pivot’?
I’m no tactician as you can tell, but our shape needs to change to allow us to impose our game on opponents and nullify their current high press against us.
Perhaps the injury crisis (that’s what it is) across the back line might precipitate a change in midfield to protect the back line better. Challenges present opportunities. The obstacle can become the way.
Worst thing we can now do is rush AJ or CCV back.
I’m maintaining hope of 3 or 4 really good signings before 31st August, but the expectation is turning more to hope. Bare minimum is a left back and winger. GK is next in the priorities list.
Interesting weeks ahead, but we have every advantage and need to keep the heid.
Have a good day fholks
Never mind a new LB, def mid and striker!
We need another THREE centre backs!
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First bhoy to achieve this feat.
Good morning all from Govanhill.
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https://www.celticway.co.uk/resources/images/17138311.jpg?type=mds-article-962
Celtic news now …WTF ….who fecking cares what wee EBT …the deeds are in my wife’s name Fergushun …thinks about the Refs decisions at aptly named RUGBY park …hope PSV wipe the smirk from the wee cheating cnuts face tonight 🤔
I got criticised by several people on here last week when I suggested we had not planned well enough over the summer. I think Sunday summed up that lack of planning. BR has come to CP on massive wages and he looks too relaxed and compliant. He has stood back to “assess the squad” which is his right but certain things were known before he arrived. The summer has been one huge let down as we signed six players – all 23 or under – with 150-200 appearances between them.
I have no issue with signings younger players but it appears that a statement was being made by the club/recruitment team. By BR’s admission he signed off on some of these but none of them were identified by him.
We have lost huge experience in the squad – and “quality”.
At this point we are underprepared for all competitions. We didn’t lose on Sunday because of our horrific injuries to defenders but because our front six looked like they had never met each other before.
We won the treble last season but any objective eyes saw areas of improvement – centre midfield being the key one. We will get humiliated in Europe with this squad. It’s both unfair and almost pointless to go into the CL with this group of players. At least 4 first choice XI players should have come into the side even if Starfelt, Mooy and Jota had stayed. A Gk, a LB, a CM and a RW/IR. That way we would have had good cover at lb in Taylor, Nawrocki and Lagerbielke would have got time to ease themselves into the team and we wouldn’t be overly relying on Mcgregor and Hatate.
The injury situation is desperate and there is little you can do about injuries. We are having a bad run.
But, we have not improved the squad at all. Numbers do not mean anything. It’s ready made quality that does. Kwon will join Iwata and Kobayashi as players signed in the last year that will hardly play. Our bloated squad needs at least 5 going out the door and maybe another 3 on loan to play football. The fact we started with Holm at Rugby park was ridiculous. Are we some league 1 English side? It’s not just that he is 20 but his lack of experience.
There is an arrogance about the behaviour of the board (once again) and BR looks far too compliant. Certainly so far. He needs to move away from being concerned about making up to the Celtic fans or even board for what happened before and focus on the job in hand. His giant ego is irrelevant to me if he wins matches.
We lost on Sunday and he is now complaining about not having good enough players brought in. He should have done this complaining 4 weeks ago. He is the one that said we have until the end of August to sign players. No we don’t – not for the league cup or indeed the league which started on August 5th.
We have no right to win trebles but we’ve thrown this one away without a fight.
BR needs to start to question his recruitment team, speak to DD and sort out a system that suits the players he has. I have faith he will do so but we have squandered a cup lightly through arrogance and lack of preparation. We are back to the old PL days of a 1 in 5or 6 being sold for £20m plus. If BR didn’t like that before then he won’t like it now. So resign? Show some character.
Saturday is the starting point but better players are needed if we want to progress as a club instead of just being happy to be better than our neighbours in Govan.
Nawrocki out for Ibrox apparently. The perfect storm is brewing up against us.
TANGBHOY on 22ND AUGUST 2023 8:51 AM
agree 100%
Tangbhoy …nailed it ….120% agree….the usual inertia and board silence is deafening !…as is the lack of big name experienced/ quality signings and the positive fan psychological multiplier effect ( and corresponding negative SEVCO effect) this generates …as I have said before should they win the league this year …just watch their close season signings next year !!?…waken and wise up Celtic 🤔
Presently in Lisbon where our team is still held in high esteem …maybe some of our board should take a similar trip and see what can be achieved with proper investment …speculate to accumulate 🤔
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The problem with Rodgers is he will never turn a player down, he’s admitted as much before, you cant have too many……we’ve spent 13.5 – 14 million on SIX players…..at an average of 2.30 give or take…..here lies the problem for me, ..scatter gun and hoping for miracles
I don’t think it would be an over reaction to say a back four of Ralston, Scales, Lager and GT at Ibrox would be difficult to have optimism in.
Even if AJ plays, he is not match fit having missed weeks of football. Iwata is not the answer at RB either.
Combine that with what is presently a misfiring midfield and we are likely going to drop 3 points.
Not the end of the world but it could give them a big psychological boost regardless of what happens with PSV.
Going there with our best XI and no fans is hard enough.
Pummel Sevco Venomously.
Tonight Matthew….
I’ll have a schmoke and a waffle…..
2 hours of distraction that takes me away from our own club’s pitiful preparation for Europe…
HH
When AJ is fit and back in contention I would move AR into the defensive midfield position. That would give us some of the physicality, that is missing just now, and allow Calmac to move further forward.
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I would buy an experienced defensive mid and move Ralston to the north stand.
Huns have a sense of entitlement while we are faithful through and through.
PigsandhumansinAnimalFarmCSC
“AN DÚN on 22ND AUGUST 2023 9:48 AM
I would buy an experienced defensive mid and move Ralston to the north stand.”
I dont agree but that made me smile :-)))
As far as I’m concerned Killie game is over , hopefully learn from it and move on,
My early impressions of Rocki & Gustaf & Yang are very positive, early impression of Holm was positive too but thought he was poor Sunday, however maybe not the right game to judge anyone,
Kwon had a mare in his preseason game but can’t be judged on that, we haven’t seen Tilio yet,
I am and always will be an optimist when it comes to Celtic, 10 days of window left, no more talented kids, we need a few seasoned Pros, I have a feeling in my gut that we will get KT back on a loan, hopefully fit for Ibrox,
The glut of injuries to our defenders is concerning but beat St. Johnstone next Saturday and worse case scenario we will be level points with the Huns with one trip to the BigotDome out of the way.
I think preseason a lot of us would have settled for that albeit we would have read it, 3 wins each and a draw at Ibrox.
Good and informative thread from jbluvsCeltic
https://twitter.com/JBLuvsCeltic/status/1693876450829742234?s=19
HH
Luck plays a bigger part in professional sport than the participants like to admit and at the moment we are going through though a short period of bad luck with the centre half injuries.
We need to keep the heid and not to revert to fanciful notions of Young Tony rampaging around midfield, or blame some random bloke in the back room staff for a bunch of injuries.
Looking forward to the weekend and for the team to get back on the saddle.
HH
EKBHOY on 22ND AUGUST 2023 10:04 AM
That`s about the strength of it. If we beat St J and Sevco, a different mood will prevail.
Cheerio for now.
HOT SMOKED on 22ND AUGUST 2023 9:52 AM
Huns have a sense of entitlement while we are faithful through and through.
PigsandhumansinAnimalFarmCSC
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Bit of ambition. Your much lauded money men haven’t put their hand in their pocket since 2005. They sit on money generated by fans, sponsors, partners and media. We’ve got to the point where we had to advertise publicly how much money we have. Only 4 teams in the EPL had more cash on their AR than Celtic had on their interim report. When they need they go to their investors or lending.
What’s the point in hoarding all this money ?
Maybe being just better than the huns in the Glasgow’s punch and judy show is their ambition. Everybody here getting their knickers in a twist about Ibrox when the ECL is 4 weeks away.
Keep having a pop at those with a bit more ambition than your beloved eternal ‘old firm’ …
HH
For goodness sake get over Sundays result ,it’s history,our priorities are for a few quality signings,a good run in the Champions League,or Europa Cup,Scottish Cup,but the main one is winning the league,and personally I have said many times on here ,we need to attract younger men and women in the Celtic Board ,at present some on the board are holding us back on how our club should be run ,mind it’s just my thoughts and opinions.
Not excusing our apparent parsimony, but are we not about to spend 20 million on updating training facilities including the covered pitch which Brendan wanted last time round? Still leaves plenty to spend but that is a significant investment (assuming we are paying for it and not borrowing money).
Big Wavy, You will know well that if Celtic spent every penny we have, we would still look like paupers in the Champions League, yes we would in all probability increase our chances somewhat but there would be no guarantees,
We know what happened to a team that threw prudence out the window to chase European MoonDreams,
You can denigrate domestic success with the Old Firm jibe but to a lot of us older fans who suffered through the Famine Years, every Title win is a thing of supreme joy and winning the Title will always be top of my wish list every year,
Having said all that, I desperately want to see Celtic do well in Europe, we most definitely need to spend 20 Million over next 10 days to give ourselves a bit of hope, but in the longer term being top Dog in Scotland is not something to be sneered at.
Deniabhoy 10.14
The £20m refurb expenditure is capital,financed differently and over a longer period than the tfer exp.hope you get sorted with a ticket.
HH
Jota a free agent ?
Saudi’s plan to diversify and make sport a major earner in the country has a long way to go.