Celtic’s system of play, which seems to have been figured out by several opponents in recent months, is an adaptation of the system Ange Postecoglou first implemented here in 2021. Since then, we have used inverted fullbacks. Central defenders go wide, Callum McGregor drops deep, and one of both fullbacks move into central midfield.
Ange used this at Yokahama, indeed, it has been used at all City Football Group clubs since Pepe Guardiola arrived at City in 2016. It is worth noting that Manchester City’s remarkable run of poor results started against Postecoglou’s Tottenham, on 30 October.
City won their five games going into that match, but won only one of their next 13 (something has been fixed, as they have won their last two games). Ange knows City’s system better than anyone else in the EPL. It makes sense that he saw a vulnerability which was subsequently copied by others.
Celtic’s form pivoted far less than Manchester City’s (although opponents are not at the same level). Form was breathtaking up to and including the win against Leipzig on 5 November – one week after Ange defeated Man City. Our next game was at Kilmarnock, where Derek McInnes’ side gave us a torrid time, before losing 0-2.
The history of football tactics has regular phases. A successful innovation becomes widely adopted. Then someone figures out an exploit, which is adopted by others until the original innovation is removed from the game by evolution. We may be witnessing the sun setting on the inverted fullback.
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See the manager has doubled down on his comments.
Talking about his time at Swansea…..the crowd could not recognise what was going on…….
Patronising and talking down to the support now.
David17 @ 2.32
Great here isn’t it
We won more trophies in 2024 than we lost matches. 👍
Dearie me….
We have a 13 point lead at the half way point in the season. We have suffered ONE defeat in 20 league games. We have won the League cup, and have been respectable, for the most part in the UCL.
In doing this, we have scored 2.75 goals per league game, and given up only 1 goal per every 3 games.
We have the best coach that we could possibly hope for.
And yet, here we are, seeing what we see, disliking things that we don’t always understand.
We are good at our real job. Supporting the team, the players, the coaching staff and the club.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see us passing quickly to someone like Abada, who whips it (first time) across the box, for someone like Kyogo to bulge the net. While I don’t know WHY we don’t do this, I know enough to understand that there is SOME rationale at work. A rationale delivered by a coach who knows what he is doing.
For those of us of a certain age, who remember to pre Jock Stein times….and the financial doping times…..we should understand that today’s time is a good time. Enjoy it.
It’s one thing to dissect and criticize games at home, in the pub and on here. But, in the stadium we should we support the team for the 90 minutes.
Cheers,
Weeron
bournesouprecipe on 7th January 2025 1:36 pm
Jim Goodwin played one game for Celtic.
BOURNE, It was also his debut (May 21 2000), along with Liam Miller. And ……. it was the same match as Henrik’s return to the playing field after his horrific leg break against Lyon the previous September.
(Sadly all of the above is not due to my incomparable memory, but rather Henrik covers it in his book/my Christmas pressie!)
Ave Ave
Rumour Kyogo to Atalanta 🤦🏻♂️
Rumour Kyogo to Atlanta 🤦🏻♂️
Reliable source?
Patronising and talking down to the support now.
————–
do you believe everyone attending the match knows what they are talking about, shouting about, advising the players and manager about ? is everyone there qualified because they play football manager or go to 5 a sides.
people at the football, myself including talk mince, and vocalise it, the souts i hear leaves me scratching my head often as to what are people actually watching.
Brendans example of maeda passing back in the european match, and seconds later he scores, that was me at the game, i turned to neice and said, why did he go back there, be braver, and bang ball was in the net,
i ate humble pie and said it “what do i know”.
brendan knows best, the collective support know somethings, but not all things affecting the performance.
rumour kyogo is going to Air Italia.
Personally I was largely supportive of Brendan’s observations at face value on Sunday.
As for today’s press conference. That was a complete joke. WTF.
He could have killed the matter stone dead but didn’t.
ONIL
I thought he actually said Swansea fans appreciated it and was implying they knew more about football.
Either way I agree with your general point.
onenightinlisbon on 7th January 2025 4:24 pm
See the manager has doubled down on his comments.
Talking about his time at Swansea…..the crowd could not recognise what was going on…….
———————
Sorry, I disagree with you. When you have an almost ineffable record like Brendan over two spells with the club,it is no ‘flash in the pan’; he has proven, beyond doubt, that he knows the job and deserves the trust of the support. Maybe some are still pining for Ange, I’m not, but everyone has their view – what a dystopian world we would inhabit if we all held the same opinions and beliefs – Kool Aid and not Coca Cola would be a best seller. Brendan was/is right to speak out in the manner he did and I applaud him for it.
The pundits and those’in the know’ constantly repeat that “football is a results-driven business” and managers stand, or, fall, on the success of the team. In that respect Brendan stands tall – we are lucky to have him. He is in the same orbit as Jock Stein, although with a bit of catching-up to do. HH
Patronising and talking down to the support now.
dessybhoy- been all over social media but I think Atlanta are after another Japanese player, who knows
Sorry that last sentence was from onenightinlisbon on 7th January 2025 4:24 pm – copied and pasted out of course.
Bada
Well as fact checking is being abolished I won’t concern myself with that. Thanks though.
wonder what that’ll do to GT’s performances if he has to go wide, paul67.
Well GOOD OLD USA are taking oner PANAMA and GREENLAND .Where will it be after that.
King charlie will be out on his arse where he belongs and ANDY PANDY will be up in court in ALABAMA charged with >>>>>>> AND……….
Looks like MUSK is running things and a GREATER ISRAEL is on the cards. Cant wait for them to attack TURKEY.
ps Anyone know how long it takes for pain of CIR….. to die off.
Will the GB and the Bhoys bite back ?
CELTIC MAC @ 3:18 PM,
“chairbhoy
Had forgotten Mitch as well. But now that I think about it seem to remember him playing against Arnie Slot’s Feyonoord late 2023. When are we going to bring another one of our own players through? That is the question.
Yes, that’s right, came on as a sub when we beat Feyenoord 2-1 at Fortress Celtic Park.
Lot’s of that U19 side with bags of potential.
You may remember, Darren O’Dea now has a new position and it includes managing the “pathway” for the talented youngsters to come through to the first team.
It was interesting to hear Brendan Rodgers talking about Dane Murray today – saying he’s slotting in if (when) Stephen Walsh goes out on loan.
An Airdrieonian taken over from a Brig Bhoy
That should stir interest in the Monklands.
So best of luck to them both, looking forward to seeing Dane, seen him with Queens Park and Scotland U21, he’s a formidable young footballer…
Hail Hail
Fav Uncle
Sadly some of what you say will prove to have some truth about it.
wait till the gb sing the ange song tomorrow night.
Maybe some dont want to be educated re modern day football, we are playing every 3 days just now,and if guys think we are going to demolish teams 5 and 6 every game,it’s not going to happen…….
bb,
my favourite is when someone says go 2 up front, i reply but we have 3 there now do you want one of them taken off.
Saint Stivs – that made me laugh out loud.
They could follow up with a rendition of “Martin O´Neill, Martin O’Neill, Martin O´Neill, Martin O’Neill . . .”
Burnley78 on 7th January 2025 5:43 pm
You may well be right but that then implies that the Swansea fans knew what his team was doing and our support don’t?
!!BADA BING!! @ 6:19 PM,
Spot-on
The SPL might not be the most technical league in European football but it has it’s challenges.
The speed of the game in Scotland and the physicality of the opposition is quite a challenge.
It Brendan Rodgers wants to bite back at his critics and quote his record to do so, he’s quite entitled to do that.
Week after week, our footballers come out and face that, winning over 90% of the time…
It’s interesting listening to Kuhn and Engels about the crap they faced at Ibrox – the ugly side of Scottish football.
Hail Hail
Darwin on 7th January 2025 5:47 pm
Totally agree and we cannot argue with his record.
What we can debate about is his dismissive put down of the supporters.
Also think it’s extremely rich of him to speak the word respect…….etc etc
what is dismissive when he says this ?
“I am experienced enough to say what I think and what I feel, but not in a derogatory way to anyone.
It’s not that we want to be 3, 4 or 5 up – that’s deflection, in my view. If a forward pass is on, it should be played and fans are right to question why a player doesn’t see it or does not have the skill/confidence to complete it. We are talking about a few instances against a backdrop of amazing financial and vocal support. Am not sure what Brendan is so worked up about but some moaning and groaning from the Celtic support should not be irking him to the extent it is.
I will restate, I am a massive Brendan fan so my view is not blighted by any resentment to him from leaving first time round. I understood his right to go to Leicester and was delighted when he came back
Just to qualify above, I don’t mean 1 or 2 instances of ‘recycling’ ball, I mean a good number and I do think if has crept a bit more into our play. Maybe fatigue, injury or something else but it is there and to question it should not have resulted in this distraction.
BR made an arse of himself .Does he honestly believe that the fans don’t now why the ball gets passed about the back for?.The problem is,its too fekin slow and repeated to often a lot of the time.Kyogo making fantastic runs,nope,I will ignore him and take the safe option and pass it square.Happens every game regularly.Some on here siding with him,that sit at Celtic Park watching it.Nobody has a problem with the tactic,but we are using,7 or 8 passes to do what 3 would accomplish.
I love Brendan,but he is not always right.Far from it.Today was a farce.Slavvering journos just waiting to bring it up,and he obliged.Off like a shot to misquote him.He dug a hole and made it deeper today.After the time he has been in Scotland,he should have known this.
KT a sub for Arsenal
Arsenal fans singing Greg Taylor’s name…….
Turkeybhoy.
100% right. He fell for those ego boosting questions hook line and sinker. The press conference was supposed to be about the game tomorrow night. 14 minutes of crap about himself and 2 minutes on the match. Regardless of Sundays comments he should have said , that’s in the past we move on.
Kyogo’s runs fall into 3 categories, firstly. A genuine move into space looking for the ball down the side / over the top , a move to distract the centre halves , a move to receive the ball onside in space after another phase of space.
Very often the forward pass to the wee fella looks on but is in fact not on.
Got me thinking back to Barry Robson who had a habit of chipping the ball over the fullbacks head , I’d guess 99% of the time it drifted out of play but 100% of the time got a round of applause for essentially kicking away possession.
Between Ange and Brendan we have been lucky to watch some really good football which has at least got a chance of succeeding in Europe.
HH
Brendan believes his teams play his way. I cannot see Brendan changing his tactics.
you can see when he doubled down today that it was his way only. No plan B.
Brendan has an ego and believes in himself, there is no way Celtic will reset inverted full backs in the immediate future
Every press conference should be about the upcoming game, they never are its always about previous games, incidents, VAR, international call ups etc, I thought he defended his right to speak out and also that the fans also have rights to critique performances, there will be those who think he handled today badly well or just ok, thats the beauty of having opinions, what is importants as BR said is that Celtic united at the game is a very powerful force, as fans thats better if we want as much success as possible.
Why wasn’t he asked about Arne being hit with a coin ,another assault on one of our players at Ibrox, why not, think we would like to know his opinion on this, I would.
theBHOYfromU.N.C.L.E on 7th January 2025 7:20 pm
Arsenal fans singing Greg Taylor’s name…….
:-)))) made me smile
HH