Congratulations to Brendan and the players, last night’s results makes it virtually certain we will qualify for the knockout stages of the Europa League. This tournament will give us peer-level competition into next year, Uefa coefficient points and could see income hit (drumroll) NINE figures for the first time.
While the wider context of last night was positive, the performance in Paris was tactically abject. In successive seasons we have conceded seven goals away to the top seed in our Champions League group. The total of 12 conceded to PSG this season contributed to them achieving a new record of all-time top scorers in a group stage, despite having only played five games.
I love the football we are watching under Brendan as much as you, but we are singularly unprepared to face opponents who perform at a higher level than us. This issue has nothing to do with our lowly league, or the calibre of players we are able to recruit, or even their endeavours during the game, it is about tactical choices.
Last week I watched Sweden resist Italy for 90 minutes at the San Siro. Sweden were awful, they couldn’t string two passes together. It was an exercise of attack v defence, but whenever the Italians turned one man in a yellow jersey, another two would descend upon him. There was no space inside the box, no overload of unmarked strikers fighting each other to latch onto a loose ball.
The contrast to the acres of space we allowed PSG last night is stark. While this is a great PSG team, one who have a good chance of going all the way in the tournament, this result is exceptional, even for them. No one in French football has conceded as many as seven to them this season, nor did a poor Anderlecht side.
The reason for this is not that the weaker French sides are all better than Celtic, it’s that they pack their penalty box, as we used to do, when facing top teams in the Champions League.
Think back to how Neil Lennon’s team pulled narrow at the back to deny Barcelona, with Lustig, Ambrose, K Wilson and Matthews in defence. Or how Gordon Strachan’s teams twice kept Milan, out for 90 minutes, with defences of M Wilson McManus, O’Dea, Naylor at home, and Caldwell, Pressley, McManus and O’Dea at the San Siro.
None of the defenders Strachan used would get into this Celtic team, nor would Efe, Kelvin or Adam Matthews. The key difference between the respective outcomes is not personnel, but tactics.
I loved the confident way we played for the opening 8 minutes but I also knew what we were in for as soon as PSG started making passes. We are, by a magnitude, not good enough to take the game to PSG in this manner. They found it very easy to carve us open and score, and as soon as the goals started raining in, that early confidence evaporated.
Instead, we played most of the match looking unsure and exposed. Any development opportunities had to be crammed into an 8-minute period, after that, it was just brutal. It wasn’t even down to poor individual performances. In fact, several players did very well, they were just tactically abandoned.
After Gordon Strachan took Cafu, Maldini, Gattuso, Seedorf, Pirlo, Kaka, Inzaghi & Co. all the way, Milan went on to beat Bayern Munich, Manchester United, and Liverpool in the final. Don’t pretend this PSG team are significantly better than that Milan team, because it is just not true (I could argue the opposite). Nor are they better than the Barcelona team Neil Lennon beat 2-1 and lost by the same score.
The key difference between now and then, is that Gordon remained haunted by his first dreadful result as Celtic manager, as was Neil, who was schooled 4-0 by Utrecht in his first season qualifiers, whereas Brendan’s equally dreadful debut result did not impose the same need to learn a lesson.
There is beauty in defending, so let’s learn to do it well.
FRIDAY EVENING ON CQN…
Friday night’s @CQNMagazine Podcast
A CELTIC STATE OF MIND
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— Paul John Dykes (@PaulDykes) November 23, 2017
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Natural footballing talent has been coached out of the Scottish game
I don’t see very much relevance in quoting the games where WGS Celtic played AC, NFL’s Celtic played Barca, or Sweden v Italy.
WGS’s AC result was an outlier result which does not vindicate the trend. He shipped 3 goals to United (2x), Benfica and even Copenhagen. Neil’s tactics suited a Barca team who did not want to throw crosses in from the wing; PSG are more than happy to use thier wings as attack points. And Sweden were playing a demoralised Italy at war with their manager, not the clear 7/2 favourites to win the CL tournament outright. Sweden also lost all 3 away qualification ties against France, The Netherlands and Bulgaria so we are quoting the one ocasion out of 4 big ties where their approach paid off.
And both the WGS Celtic team and Sweden were playing their fixed style- they were not changing approach. Only Neil managed that tweaking of a system but he proceeded to shift 3 goals to Braga, Sion and Juve, 4 to utrecht and 6 to Barca attempting to use the same approach.
Outlier results do not prove the case.
In any case, Brendan has said he will not change the philosophy (NB- He never said he would never change other things such as system and personnel) and he has explained what he sees as the benefits of this.
We, as hurting fans, throw out phrases such as disgrace, embarrassment and laughing stock, imagining anyone outside Scotland and a few snide voices in England, even notice this as something out of the ordinary. No one in Europe is laughing at us; they are expressing admiration at PSG and many of them could not even provide the name of the team that PSG beat, in the same way as we would struggle to remember who beat Qarabag and who beat Maribor.
Brendan will go on demanding that players step out of their comfort zone and raise their game to nearer this level. In Europe, at this level, we may fail more often than we succeed but the players who are blooded in this process and survive it, will be better players for the experience.
My prediction is that not one of the players who were on the receiving end of that beating will go into their shell and become damaged, “safety-first” players.
Of course, there is lots we can do better but the basic equation remains- Accept Brendan’s way and strap in for the ride….. or sack him and go for the type of pragmatic coach type that we were slagging a few short years ago, and , worse, losing our match day attendance habit because of our dissatisfaction.
Tony Pulis is available if anyone wants to vote for that. You can’t get more pragmatic than that (Walter Smith excepted, of course)
No sour milk from me.As far as I am concerned it is a minor triumph just to be involved in the champions league considering how difficult it has become to negotiate qualification if you are from a diddy league.Brendan can set his tactics how he sees fit.I am sure it is all part of a bigger picture on training his squad how to play in these games.I also believe that there are only couple of truely exceptional teams who can totally humiliate you with the scoreline and unfortunately for us we have played them both in the last two years…Never nice seeing celtic get totally spanked but the way top european football is going the ONLY way we can be sure for it not to happen again in the next 5 years or so is to NOT qualify……and so I am happy to make up the numbers and enjoy the experience.
Pragmatism was a word I often used when criticising Ronny during his tenure . Its a word that’s comes to mind when reading criticism from respected Celtic bloggers like Paul67 & Ralph from E Tims when writing about Brendans tactics and team set up .
It ain’t often I disagree with those 2 but hey ho , first time for everything.
If Brendan doesn’t want to change its fine by moi . I think the game , or more so the landscape of the game has changed immeasurably in the decade or so since we played AC Milan . I don’t remember being terrified by Pirlo & co in the San Siro compared with the way PSG terrified me last night on TV .
Part of the fear is induced by watching a Celtic team play football from the back . When we lose the ball we have players already committed and moving forward who then have to find a reverse gear that isn’t available to plug the holes . I also suggest that PSG commit players further forward in a quicker and better manner than the Italians ever did . Just an opinion which will find disagreement , but I also think that Brendan has brought out an improvement in some players I didn’t think possible . I don’t recall any WGS team dominating possession and winning in the backyard of the champions of Denmark and Belgium .
I also don’t think we have the players to park the bus . Dropping certain players is the easy bit .,Who replaces them apart from Kouassi or Armstrong that are defensive if needed ? We also had injuries to contend with .
Perhaps Brendan was being pragmatic . Remember that European football after Christmas is still progress . Rome wasn’t built in a day . In Brendan we trust . HH
Now I am letting my imagination run wild here, but if we were to meet the same PSG team in the final would you park the bus in the hope of taking the game to penalties or try and play them off the park over 90 minutes
I am being plagiarized awe day the day!
SFTB,
A whole lot of sense in that contribution. Many thanks.
!!BADA BING!! on 23RD NOVEMBER 2017 6:44 PM
https://twitter.com/stephen4_2/status/933763035621216257
Muhammed Ali at CP
thats brilliant, never seen it before ………..so who are all the players ?
i know some obviously, but is that the 2 brazilians ?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DPVkbSBXUAEpRjH.jpg
SFTB @7:49
An excellent post. Many posters expound the view that ` everyone is entitled to his opinion` as if that opinion is based on a greater knowledge of football than is possessed by Brendan Rogers ( otherwise why profer said opinion ? ) .
I like facts and, as is often the case , your post provided them.
I f posters really do believe that their opinions are as valid as anyone else`s , then at least support those opinions with some evidence.
JJ
PS It is NOT evidence to say we must have been rubbish because PSG scored seven goals against us.
ST STIVS
Ayrton Inacio is one of the Brazilians.
MICKEYBHOY1888
If we were good enough to reach the Final playing in an adventurous style, it would seem silly to change it.
JJ
ANGELGABRIEL,
Have to agree with much of what you say too. I don’t think our manager ever suggested INSTANT success. He is having the whole Club learn to play football in this way. The “wee” team matched PSG yesterday afternoon for much of the game and seemed (to me) to run out of steam in the last 10 minutes or so. Our manager, imo, is thinking long term and, if that means we take a hammering or two (or three!!) along the way, then so be it.
PARKHEADCUMSALFORD
Agree with your post.
Brendan’s been here about 17 months. How much progress do these peepul expect in such a short time?
I am well pleased with where we are at this juncture and expect Brendan to take us up another level after the next window.
The armchair Brendans are out…
Let’s just accept one FACT, David Brent stylee – you can park as many buses as you want against PSG – including the Hun superbus AND set it on fire; they’ll just keep the ball off you, tire you out as you dog around like a bored Essex housewife in a country car park on a late summer’s evening and end up mildly disgusted at the results of your efforts when they smash as many into you as their enthusiasm warrants.
(Watershed metaphors CSC).
They ARE the finest football team ever assembled – beyond Barca 2012 and Milan 07. They play FIFA 18 xbox football from another dimension – pinged here and there with exquisite precision, cynical finishing, perpetual motion from every outfield player, every space used, every second switched on 100%. Merciless mercenaries.
Craig Gordon will tell you – best side he’s ever seen/played.
Sure, they’re a fallacy of football tradition – a business opportunity extraordinaire and one i’m surprised nobody had nailed before the Arabs flew in on their gold magic carpets – one of the world’s foremost cultural cities with only ONE football team never exploited for the tourist attraction it cries out to be? A no-brainer.
So we get another of UEFA’s football super-franchise dream teams as they strive towards the soccer NFL model.
Meanwhile, in the East end of Glasgow…
Reality kicks in as the dynamic Celtic team – possibly the best in 45 years since the Lions – coached by the resurgent young manager out to prove his English detractors wrong face up to the PSG superstars and get a double -pumping. Questions are asked, inquisitions in every pub in the land. Torquemada might even be bored by it all.
There’s no point. PSG will beat every single football team they want to by as many goals as they want if that opposition is not at the funding-level of the pot 1 & 2 seeds.
There’s no going back for football – the gap is probably bigger than us and the Huns (although 30th December might prove a nice ‘PSG’ mollification moment for the deid-heids).
We can only shrug and move on – there’s more European teams at our level than the top 8-12; more competitive matches to look forward to. Let the superclubs have what they desire if it is indeed the closed-shop tourist-attraction superleague they seem to be manouevring towards.
There are broadcasters out there who will see the opportunity in the viable ambitions of the rest and look to make it count. We’ll be in there. Many won’t, and it’s down in no small measure to the philosophy of Brendan Rodgers and his coaching team that we’re even having desaccords (see what I did there, zeitgeist francophiles?) about performances at the very top level. How far we’ve come in how short a time and how quick some forget.
If Brendan had only failed to qualify for the CL we would have avoided the heavy defeats :)
SANDMAN
Another excellent post!
sandman,
anything you want to tell us about your metaphors ?
wtf.
-))))))
SS-PB
Brendan has been at the club a very short time, time that is needed to put his stamp on the team, there will be pitfalls along the way, there will be trophys’s to beat the band, nobody is happy getting spanked like we did and yes Brendan could have tried to shut up shop, but what if he done that and we still got spanked, I bet the self same who are pissed off would be the first to bitch about his tactics.
For sure we are a fair few players short of what BR would like, the difference he has made to some he inherited is amazing, he will get there.
IMO, there is a sense of entitlement creeping in to the support since the huns have died, it’s no something I am comfortable with.
Anyways, dugs to sort.
HH
Parkheadcumsalford 8.13pm
Thanks . I just think that although last night was painful , there’s a bigger picture emerging than being focused on a heavy defeat to PSG .
Two positives are firstly ,that our players will be brought back to earth with a bang if any thought they were the bees knees at football .
Secondly , if Brendan asks for an increased transfer budget , the suits can hardly argue that its not required in making us defensively more robust . Brendan has also restored some of my enthusiasm for watching Celtic since he arrived . We have been given brilliant memories in a short space of time ,so lets go with the flow .In Brendan we trust . HH
Sandman
Agreed. Excellent post.
SS- not sure mate, Roy C and BSR are the photo guys who might know HH
Adverts for stairlifts, they drive me up the wall
Sandman
Can’t argue with your post . Mental and metaphoric . Keep them coming ;-))
St Stivs
The picture (I think) has the 2 Brazilians Ayrton Ignacio and De Sousa as well as (I think) Ian Young, Big Billy, John Clark, Bobby Lennox, Stevie Chalmers, Willie O’Neill (not sure about that one) Jim Kennedy and Big Yogi. I can’t remember that happening and I was a teenager then. Any info posted would be nice.
As for last night…Very dispiriting to see the Bhoys pummelled the way we were last night.
Trust Brendan to give us another successful season with Trophy number 1 arriving Sunday.
Hail Hail
Just a brief look in before I catch up on Peakey Blinders so didn’t look at pages 1 to 6. However, the current page reminds me of how I was drawn into CQN a few years ago. Measured, sensible, ‘big picture’ posts. Apologies to those I may have missed but I’m certainly more comfortable with the arguments from SFTB, Sandman, Angelgabriel and TET than I am with Paul’s leader.
Roll on the ‘world series’ of Motherwell games and then the Europa League qualifier. These are still very, very special times.
Aff oot…
Ian young,big billy,John Clark,bobby Lennox,Inacio,Ali,Jim Kennedy,Di Sousa and yogi.
does anyone remember ali visiting ? why was he in glasgow ?
tontine tim or garcia lorca about ?
Left out Johnny divers
TET
The self entitlement is palpable on here.
BR has a plan that hes sticking too, not for today but hopefully for the future and he puts his own reputation and job on the line every continental game we play especially away from home, it’s a big risk for him but st least he’s got the balls to stick with it. There’s a reason why Germany for instance are fairly successful, they were pish for a while and stood back took stock and implemented a ten year plan, look at them now. A couple of spankings st the hands of money laden teams and the bed wetters have the temerity to question tactics.
He’s barely in his second year and the part time know it alls have the answers to it all
Bed wetters be careful what you wish for
Johnny Divers also in that pic.
He’s the slightly bald ghuy/
Angel G- i think the top teams attack constantly these days, compared to a few years ago
BHOYJOEBELFAST
I was lookin at the picture when you posted!
Saint Stivs
Did Ali not meet Ally?
Phil boy:
Was at the oval ( glentoran FC ) for a friendly Feb 1963 we won 5-4 yogi grabbing four and Johnny divers the
other.Celtic then played Morton in Dublin as part of a two game break,due to the inclement weather in Scotland.
Phil boy :
Should read philbhoy.
17 shots on target by PSG over the 2 games against us………. scored 12……no real.
Just like to say thanks for the prayers and messages of support
i received on the passing of my sister in law
BHOYJOEBELFAST
You post younger!
My Dad had a season book for the old stand and he lifted me over from the mid fifties.
JD was a bhoyhood hero.