Celtic’s performance in Munich was one of the best in many years. Playing away from home against a top Champions League side, with a deficit to overcome, they came within seconds of securing a win, while creating several excellent chances.
Only two players dropped out of that side (Auston Trusty and Callum McGregor) from Sunday’s league game. Trusty was more than compensated for by Maik Nawrocki. McGregor was not replaced like-for-like by Luke McCowan, Arne Engels dropped to allow McCowan to take up a more advanced position, but this change in midfield did not determine the outcome.
Celtic’s tactical problem is how to progress the ball when everyone in the middle of the park is man-marked. It works against weaker teams, but well-drilled outfits who have as much athleticism as Celtic, like Newco, Brugge, Dinamo Zagreb or Young Boys have been able to give Celtic the ball and frustrate for long periods.
There are worse problems to have. Philippe Clement’s Achillies Heal was that he was unable to breakdown a packed defence full of lesser players. Being unable to overcome this cost him his job.
The league table reflects the true difference between Celtic and Newco. We are miles ahead of them, with better players and a better manager, but there is a gaping wound which has become more obvious with passing games and which others will pick away at.
The Champions League qualifier in August will be against a better opponent than we faced on Sunday. A tactical upgrade is required for then.
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April 12
Celtic v Killie
12.30 ko
Winning the League, League cup, the Scottish Cup in another treble?, equalling their two combined club’s number of league wins, overtaking their two club’s trophy count, should be enough for anyone, to think there were ‘bed wetters and ‘ spoiled brats ‘ on here, not so long ago, hey-ho who sold our Talisman too late in the the window, to be replaced?
Kyogo I think has more than doubled his salary so it’ll be difficult to see him coming back.
Ten men won the league
Will that has certainly cut the legs off my argument 😂
We’ll see how Raskin gets on when asked to play some football in the Belgium team.
Over the piece, if we want to develop the next O’Riley or see Engels go for 30 million then telling players to go long when we’re pressed won’t cut it.
AD- Jota x 8ish mate….
Route one football has a place and is increasingly popular.
The amount of teams with >60% possession getting beaten tells its own story, especially in European football.
HH.
Hun statement is purely for the 49ers mob and their money
!!BADA BING!! on 19TH MARCH 2025 10:02 AM
A good pal says,there’s games for dinner suits,and games for boilersuits, always boilersuits when we play against them and their ‘style’ of protected play.We try to play too much football at times,when we need to get the ball up the park quicker,and yes we need to get a couple of more physical guys in the team
*that’s what I was trying to say yesterday, yes we need some physicality but NOT necessarily hammer throwers, there was one game early on in Jocks reign where we went 2 up in 4 minutes and then let them have the ball, they never threatened us as we had Bonny Murdoch and wee Ten Thirty in the midfield protecting the defence while Jinky the Buzz Bomb, Joe McGoals and the Bear were pressurising their iron curtain defence
!!BADA BING!! on 19TH MARCH 2025 3:15 PM
AD- Jota x 8ish mate….
I’m assuming the Arabs paid Jota a lot of his remaining contract to move him on.
We had 33% of the ball against BM but we didn’t go long ball. We were brilliant at playing out and beating their press that night.
That’s the way forward for me. However, that’s against a side committing men forward in numbers and allowing you to play.
The Huns will shell the ball forward and keep their backline covered and in the event you spring a counter on them – they will foul you, save in the knowledge they won’t be booked.
the cannon fodder have them sussed, playing against them the way they play against us.
they will lose another league game soon enough.
An Dún on 19th March 2025 3:57 pm
We had 33% of the ball against BM but we didn’t go long ball. We were brilliant at playing out and beating their press that night.
That’s the way forward for me. However, that’s against a side committing men forward in numbers and allowing you to play.
——————
absolutely.
So it doesn’t apply to games against them which are one offs in terms of fouling ruling breaking and officiating.
rule
42 major honours in 25 years – it all started on this day in 2000
thanks Peter.
https://www.celticfc.com/news/2025/march/19/42-major-honours-in-25-years—it-all-started-on-this-day-in-2000/
Peter’s medal collection cabinet must be falling off the wall
Test
Huns say they are ‘embarrassed’ and ‘ashamed’ by the banner displayed at the Europa League game. Their fans singing anti Catholic and anti Irish songs, not bothered either way it seems no comment on that at the last game they played.
Tinytim @ 2:48pm – cheers.
This might get lengthy. Feel free to scroll past.
First off … we often hear about “fine margins” in elite sport.
And with good reason. It happens to be true.
Every tiny competitive advantage must be explored.
You add up enough of those tiny advantages?
It can be (not automatically is) the difference between success and failure.
Or to use another metaphor.
“If the starving man picks up enough crumbs, he gets himself a loaf”
Winner/Loser
Starving/Sustained
Gold/Silver
You Got the job/You made the shortlist
Binary outcomes often determined by a person’s or group’s dedication to gaining a tiny edge.
Second point …
Modern sport is FULL of examples of the requirement to combine explosive aggression / maximum athletic output with the calm stuff (control, balance, poise and accuracy of execution)
Tennis, Rugby, Biathlon, 400m hurdles, Boxing, 3000m steeplechase …
All require athletes to strain their bodies to the limit and then .. sometimes in fractions of a second … transform into a poised, balanced, controlled animal to execute their skill set.
And then repeat and repeat and repeat.
What’s this got to do with culture?
Very fair question.
Brendan is a guru of calm. It’s his philosophy.
The calmer they (the players) are, the more mental clarity they’ll have and the more technique they’ll retain …. than say, if they are “riled up”.
It’s warrior monk stuff … and, in the context of modern athletics? …
IMHO .. is a bit of a luxury.
All this is very theoretical and arty farty.
Punchline?
Visible aggression is an absolute must have requirement in modern sport …
.. and I don’t see enough of it in Brendan’s philosophy (other than when he talks about the press).
Practical suggestions? And none are sophisticated BTW.
Lets begin with pre-match
As soon as an ex R1ngers mascot and a guy who loved R1ngers were announced as the refereeing principals?
I’d unleash the dogs online. Cyberspace would be flooded with it for four days solid before the game. Op ends, raise the tempo.
Objective – to make sure the ref and the VAR don’t have an easy time.
Want to know why McLean added only 5 minutes of injury time? Because he wanted an easy life.
Seven yellow cards against Fenerbahce?
“We expect a very physical R2ngers” is the quote.
Start of the game.
The team must be fired up.
We’ll do the beautiful game thing in the last 85 minutes.
The first 5 minutes are full on aggression. Run, harry, harangue, tug.
In the modern game contact above the waist but below the shoulder .. on its own? .. is rarely penalised.
We’re garbage at it, instead indulging in these stupid wee pickpocket tackles on the wrong side that invariably result in cheap fouls.
If we’d shown that aggression from kick off?
We would have taken at least one of the two CLEAR opportunities to get the ball out of the danger zone.
The score would have remained 0-0 and we would have grown into the game and won it.
Remaining 85 minutes?
Skill interspersed with targeted aggression – as per the aforementioned other sports.
The VERY FIRST TIME one of our players is running away from a grappling opponent?
While still keeping his body between ball and opponent, turn 45° toward the opponent and grapple exaggeratedly with two hands to draw the foul.
At that point two teammates run to the ref (ideally from opposite directions to give him more to think about) arms in the air screaming “Look, him again !!” (who cares if it is the first time).
Two other team mates converge on the fouler telling him what a crap footballer he is.
If handbags ensue?
Great.
The ref – having awarded a foul, has to deal with two other guys in his ear, now also has to deal with a flare up?
Now knows he’s in for a hard time from us
(unlike that polite, calm easy ride we gave McLean).
And when you talk to him? Growl quietly, don’t bleat noisily.
You’ve got him. Mission accomplished. Don’t let him go.
Repeat the act throughout the first half.
Every tug, every grapple, every pull.
We know the game us going to be stop/start?
Fine. Let’s stop and start it on our terms.
(And it is an act. Ham it up then switch back to the calm thing)
Then double up on this approach for time wasting.
“It’s fouling, it’s pulling, it’s diving, it’s time wasting, it’s this, it’s that, it’s everything”
The cards are guaranteed to come out, the opponent’s sting is drawn.
Post match
If you win?
That ref whose life you made a misery?
Praise him to the hilt for not falling for gamesmanship and staying on top of things.
PS – every club in Europe does this. We don’t.
Simple culture change.
Anyone on that pitch not wearing the hoops?
… is to be overcome.
coybig
McPhail Bhoy on 19th March 2025 7:01 pm
Huns say they are ‘embarrassed’ and ‘ashamed’ by the banner displayed at the Europa League game. Their fans singing anti Catholic and anti Irish songs, not bothered either way it seems no comment on that at the last game they played.
………….
Maybe the present day immigration issues in Western countries are in Hun minds along the lines of, Scotland took Irish refugees in over 100 years ago and a huge number of their descendants are now presently trying to break up the country and take us into the EU basket case without a trade deal with either Britain or EU before a ball is kicked leaving us up the creek without a paddle like the SNP tried to do in 2014.
Maybe the SNP, voted in by a majority of Celtic fans, and Scottish Catholics, has made Britannia more appealing than EU slave camps through French Imperialism in Africa, blowing Palestine to smithereens for the past 80 years, etc, etc.
Seems that the Huns are now speaking for the vast silent majority who are banned from speaking cause UK, EU, Ire, Sco, Wales, Parliaments are full of woke creeps without any children of their own, but, they are interested in everybody else’s children, which seems very creepy.
These issues were all one sided until Elon Musk bought Twitter – X and allowed free speech for both sides of every issue which woke creeps don’t like because they are fake liberals, ie: fascists, nobody allowed to speak unless the woke winkers agree.
Who ever thought that the Hun support would be anti fascist, yet Celtic fans are pro fascist, pro cancel culture, pro trans rights over Womens rights, Sinn Fein have sold their souls to Wokeism. Clowns.
DUP are the only elected party in Britain who recognise that people were injured or killed by Covid Vaxxeens. Every other party in Britain, EU, IRE, SCO, etc, are still denying that this Covid was created for the distribution of Vaxxeens, not the other way around.
And the DUP are the only party who refused to be big Pharma sheep and showed that they have Integrity, YES I really said that, the DUP are the only elected party in Britain, EU, IRE, SCO, with any Integrity, or who have not sold out for “Diversity” which is always White countries that “Diversity” is implemented, all other parties merely pretended to have Integrity during the past 5 years of Establishment Vaxxeen Genocide against all religions apart from one. Guess who?
Woke equals scumbaggery against Women, Children, and White people.
Who would ever have thought that the Huns fans and the DUP were the only ones with Integrity when the chips were really down?
Well that is what just happened and continues to this day.
Back to basics .
Thanks for your detailed answer.TT
I think I’ve sorted out why I’ve struggled with Sunday so much – I laughed at the appointments post Clement and ignored the fact they wouldn’t make any difference – they’ve had us sussed for a while and we haven’t taken that seriously enough – joke’s on me!
Mods please be aware that’s ‘great replacement conspiracy theory’ there!
On the Beach with the Dug today.Beautiful azure blue Sky’s,but a tad parky due to a rather stiff breeze,blowing in off the sea.10 Clicks completed,after which any residue of anger,regret,that lingered around after Sunday,were blown completely away by Mother Nature.
Which was nice.Bless her.
TV does not get any better than the stunning,Adolescence.One of the all time great Television programmes.Stephen Graham a master of his art.
If you have not watched it,give yourself a treat.
We live with the actions of the DUP on a daily basis and it ain’t good. Ironically they are a party of dinosaurs who don’t believe in dinosaurs. So anyone spouting their nonsense on here is really on the wrong site
hahahahahahaha
brilliant clinko
Turkey Bhoy
If you like Stephen Graham, “A Thousand Blows” is a good watch.
It is not a biopic about someone with a an addiction to what the tabloids describe as “an indecent act” :)
I’ll get my coat.
Are we all guilty of over-complicating the issue at hand?
Change our game strategy; pivot to a plan B’ improve the culture; go tactically long; go shorter quicker etc…
No amount of tweaking will fix the deficiencies which occur when so many players decide not to show up to implement the very approach which usually yields positive results.
Near 50% of our players – Kasper, AJ, Jeffrey, wee Luke, Kuhn – were aff it in application, competition and concentration.
The question is, WHY this collective malaise again, esp when it was the same issue in a few prev games with the sevvies?
It’s a head thing shirley !
I’m with Anje.
If plan A doesn’t work .
Plan B should be to Get better players to do plan A .
TT
Night all.
So,the Hun players and staff were pelted by objects by Celtic fans.According to the Huns,and without a shred of evidence,reported by their lapdogs.Will our Rottweiler of a CEO let this stand?.
All the fallout from allowing the scum in to our stadium,we could all foretell,and indeed,made vocal.Their fans,vile,sectarian behaviour.Their team,egging them on to greater depths of behaviour.Their players assaulting our fans.All seemingly poo pooed by Nicholson in a puff piece letter.The scum in the meantime issue a statement,taking the high ground,and spewing lies.We look weak and pathetic.Quite similar to our CEO.John Reid he ain’t.
Horse Racing….
After a very good profit on Tuesday with BOTH Horses and Fitba, I ONLY Placed £2 on Horse Bets yesterday and my good fortune continued on Wednesday…..
HUNTINGDON 5.12 Race.
The FORECAST Paid Out £53.39 after my selections ( Priced 9/2 and 11/1) finished 1st & 2nd.
I had the Forecast for a £1 bet.
MAGIC ..and a nice surprise as I didnt bother to watch the Race as I was trying to trouble shoot my Desktop at the time.
LOL
HH.
Good morning CQN.
Beautiful day again 🙂
No Celtic again though 😒
Back to Basics. Glass half full
7.10pm
Spot on. Great stuff.
Just read “thems” statement, always the victim. !!!
No mention of the disgusting shit coming all through the game from the peepul, oh no, wisnae us.
We have to make a stand and ban them all from the next game at Parkhead, no matter the cost.
KINGLuBO