Last night’s result was both disappointing and embarrassing. Considering that Bodo/Glimt were preseason and scored their third long after the affects of cramp and exhaustion took hold, it was even humiliating. Only a remarkable turnaround will see Celtic remain in the Uefa Conference League, an outcome that would be very harsh on the comparatively underpaid and over-performing Norwegians.
When I looked at the teams left in the competition earlier this week, only Leicester and Marseille seemed out of reach. This was a chance, I thought, to go deep into a European competition – perhaps our last and easiest chance for some time, as we hoped to compete on higher ground in the years to come.
We have both seen enough of Celtic in Europe, though, to hedge our bets. On Wednesday, I wrote, “You and I are also full of confidence right now. What we are missing is a test against non-Scottish opposition. Drubbing a limp Newco gave us hope that we are watching something special. Tomorrow night will give an indication as to whether that hope is valid.” We have our answer.
Welcome the truth instead of living deluded. It should fortify us for the challenges ahead, better to know, than to rock up at Easter Road next week with an unbalanced and porous midfield. Or to think that the world has been put to right during two transfer windows.
Cameron Carter-Vickers was head and shoulders above everyone on the field. He operated at a level Bodo/Glimt were unable to reach. Similarly, Carl Starfelt and Joe Hart did not put a foot wrong. Our full backs and wingers on both sides were bossed out of the contest.
Callum McGregor has seen this movie before and covered every inch of the park in a vain attempt to prevent a sequel. Did anyone think Tom Rogic and Matt O’Riley would be an effective midfield pairing? Apart from Ange, of course. Daizen Maeda scored with a peach of a header but spent much of the game isolated. I hope Reo Hatate was carrying an impediment that made his exclusion from the starting line-up necessary. Any other reason would be inexplicable.
And for the record, Ange, no, we did not control the game. That ability lay with the men in yellow, who played exactly how they wanted.
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RC on 18TH FEBRUARY 2022 2:49 PM
I always get the feeling when the short corners start that they’ve run out of ideas and given up.
Robertson whips in a corner, Firmino runs to the front post and heads it in.More practice required in delivery and movement in the box,short corners invariably end up back at the halfway line, totally pointless.
thems do it at every corner , Aribo always runs to the front post to head flick ball on to thems on rushing players and it works
ERNIE LYNCH
I always get the feeling when the short corners start that they’ve run out of ideas and given up.
———————
Ernie, you may be right, but remember that some of the great Barcelona teams, with many diminutive players and absent any significant headed goal threat, almost exclusively took short corners to recycle possession, in an attempt to place the ball in a position where a colleague could take a shot.
I think we may be better off doing this ourselves.
INIQUITOUSIV on 18TH FEBRUARY 2022 2:49 PM
Liverpool play with one sitting midfielder, Fabinho, like they did at the San Siro on Wednesday. One of the other two can drop back to make a two but they generally play more advanced than him
He’s not a traditional sitting midfielder either, he plays much if not most of his football in the opposition half, although that’s because how high Liverpool press, not unlike us.
I don’t know if it’s down to lack of the correct personnel or tactics but Ange’s pívot doesn’t seem to be deep lying or a particularly strong tackler, you would have thought that he would look to fill a vital position like that ahead of more creative midfielders if it was a tactical necessity in his system
It would be interesting to see how he’d deploy Fabinho :)
RC
It certainly worked for them yesterday.
“The truth is always welcome”
Apparently not.
🤔
I liked Bob’s message of 12:59 about us being in shock.
Lamentably, it doesn’t take much to surface fears, insecurities about our club and – in some cases – prejudices about (a multitude of) named individuals
Just a defeat for us in Europe on the same night as a Sevco victory it would seem?
What does that say about us as fans?
We got beat.
It happens to everyone.
It even happened to Perry Mason once.
Invite the manager and team to own it.
Then get over it.
I’ve no wish to vilify any Celtic players, so I won’t, directly. I think we’re still very much a work in progress and we don’t have all the parts of the puzzle.
Of those that we either assume Ange didn’t sign and those he inherited, if any of them were playing for another Scottish club (only using them as they’d be affordable) does anyone think he would go out of his way to purchase them. I fully appreciate that he (or someone at the club) can develop them, personally there are still a few square pegs in round holes within the squad.
MADMITCH@12:54pm
Excellent post.
There has been some chat on here about the height and physique of some of the Bodo players.
It reminded me of an incident almost 20 years ago. I was in Cleveland for the Celtic – Boca Juniors pre-season game. Just after the game started, Boca had a free kick and Carlos Tevez got into position just in front of the Celtic wall. The three players nearest to him were Bobo Balde, Stan Varga and Crainey. He gazed up at them, turned to his teammates and laughingly made a gesture passing his palm over his head. I don’t know what he meant, but I guessed at the time he was saying, “ I’m not going to win any headers!”
Let’s also remember in the midst of the inevitable The Rangers love in among media is that the same team that beat Dortmund lost against Scandinavian Champions in their own stadium as well. While having a one man advantage. In a competition of far greater significance.
An Dun @ ages ago
Seen it all before sang the songs Barcelona, Real Madrid……….. who the …. etc.
Knocked out regularly by ‘inferior’ clubs only in the sense our budget, stadium, and support is bigger.
European football goes beyond ‘good Scottish pro’s’ and expecting to beat a side that humbled Roma (6) and are Norwegian Champions, especially with an embryonic team, is same ole symptomatic Celtic
We are designed to win the SPL only , anything in Europe is a bonus.
BR couldn’t make a dent in Europe, Ange has no chance.
Ange selection last night wrong.If you want to play Rogic And O Riley,you need Biton to help out Calmac.
When both wingers are poor,team is bolloxed.Not many teams play two.When it works,as against them,brilliant.Its a gamble.You only find out things by trying.Ange tried last night.No problem for me
Scrolls back to find the excellent MadMitch post ………………..
Brian F (ud ),
You just copy and paste those posts about Taylor,ya clown.
BSR@4:02pm
I agree 100%.
Anyone on here sit close to the dugout last night? Was Ange animated like he was against Raith when the players were not following his instructions?
Before last night, we were getting 30-45 mins of great football out of 90 in most games and we mostly assumed that would get better. Last night nothing like that despite the very poor show against Raith.
Hopefully just a temporary dip rather than a pattern emerging?
As soon as I saw James Forrest standing on the touchline waiting to come on, I turned to my mate and said, “Here comes the white flag.”
Hopeless.
INIQUITOUSIV @ ages ago
AP thought he could rotate his midfielders but the three chosen together were eyebrow raising and criticised without the need of hindsight.
Physique, and fitness catches up with us in Europe see Malmo, Molde, Copenhagen blah blah blah. Then the supporters say how come with their tiny wee budget, tiny wee town, tiny wee stadium they can beat us?
We’ll never progress in Europe unless we can defend with big defenders
TIMHORTON @ 4.11 (thumbsup)
As soon as I saw James Forrest standing on the touchline waiting to come on, I turned to my mate and said, “Here comes the white flag.”
Hopeless
—-
James is done. That’s a cold but honest assessment of him. When I saw him coming on last night, I just thought, ‘what’s the point ?’.
Some players we have adequate cover for and others we have a discernible step down.
With this in mind, I’d be resting Juranovic, Abada and Jota for the second leg at a minimum.
Jaysus, that ole Roma B team defeat does some heavy lifting…oh and Scotland is meant to be a higher football ranking than the Norwegians too…
Nowhere near as much as the 5-2 Legia humping before it or the away defeat and draws against the might of ukranian, bulgarian and lithuanian football.
Last night was humbling. If we can’t compete in the equivalent of Europe’s Petrofac cup I hope we have the decency to withdraw any further pretensions of playing in Europe.
HH
On the whole the post has been generally good today
Disappointed with the display last night like everyone else
Sometimes the hard truths are a bit awkward to stomach
We were beat by the better team lessons need to be learnt and that is Ange remit
Always want to do well in Europe but for a long time this has been beyond us
Bodo were not brilliant last night but well organised athletic and confident
Most important for Celtic is that we do not loose ours
bournesouprecipe on 18th February 2022 4:04 pm
Scrolls back to find the excellent MadMitch post
Good luck wi that….
!!BADA BING!! on 18TH FEBRUARY 2022 4:55 PM
It’s Friday its Five to Five it’s ………………
AN DÚN on 18TH FEBRUARY 2022 3:51 PM
Let’s also remember in the midst of the inevitable The Rangers love in among media is that the same team that beat Dortmund lost against Scandinavian Champions in their own stadium as well. While having a one man advantage. In a competition of far greater significance.
——————————-
Runnin it by Stu is the new runnin it by minty.
All in Scotlands meeja.
In football terms they won well.
In our terms we were outplayed,outshaped,out thought,out muscled by a better team.
I watched Quadraphenians Post of ozzy guys interviewing ,he did not underestimate them.was aware of their football
Although a lot of good posts on getting beat,I think we as fans underestimated Bodo.
Their shape was solid 433,and they were malleable enough to alter to 451 and 424,tactically astute and Bodos back 4(and the defensive mids) all knew when to step out and beat a Celtic man,and with running support counter viciously.they did! :-)
Its how we learn,it’ll come good,takes Celtic men working on celtics problems,the meeja are good little boys and girls,no friends of ours.pick any historical period recently,laugh at the news placement or cry at the cost to society.
Half time.onto Sunday and we will be better,
HH
Crackerjack😮
James Forrest is done ……………
and yet he had one clear shot and a misplaced header.
small margins.
I think his demise is greatly exagerratted.
“ James Forrest is done ……………”
Cue SFTB
Just been overtaken by a wheelie bin on the Kingston Bridge!
StormEunice csc
Bsr
Start worrying if it was a reliant robin
I have deleted the Bodo game from my memory Bank,
Thinking, Hart, Juranovic, CCV, Julien, Scales, CalMac, Hatate, Riley, Jota, Gio, Abada, to face Dundee,
Wouldn’t be adverse to going 3 at the back either but I don’t see it happening.
Dundee game is all that matters now.
Copied from another site , least we forget.
🍀 Managers who have reached the last 16 of Champions League with Celtic: Gordon Strachan, Neil Lennon ✅
🍀 Managers who have won a treble with Celtic: Jock Stein, Martin O’Neill, Brendan Rodgers, Neil Lennon ✅
🏴 Managers who have won 5 trophies in a row in the history of Scottish football: Jock Stein, Walter Smith, Brendan Rodgers, Neil Lennon ✅
🏴 People who have managed and played for any Scottish team in the last 16 of the European Cup/ Champions League: Billy McNeill, Neil Lennon ✅
🏴 Managers who have completed 9 in a row in Scotland (a national record): Jock Stein, Walter Smith, Neil Lennon ✅
🏴 People who have won a domestic treble as player and manager in the history of Scottish football: Neil Lennon ✅
🏴 Managers who have won home and away against an Italian team for a Scottish team: Neil Lennon ✅
🏴 Only man to play for and manage a Scottish team in wins over Barcelona: Neil Lennon ✅
🏴 First manager to top a group in European competition with a Scottish team: Neil Lennon ✅
🌍 Only manager in the history of professional football to complete a world record quadruple treble (winning the last 5 of the 12 trophies): Neil Lennon ✅
🍀 Celtic’s best manager in last 20 years by win percentage: Neil Lennon ✅
🥬 Hibernian’s best manager in last 20 years by win percentage: Neil Lennon ✅
🏴 Scottish top league’s most successful manager in last 20 years by win percentage: Neil Lennon ✅
🏴 Scottish football’s most successful living manager (by trophies won in Scotland and win percentage): Neil Lennon ✅
His last year was a disaster for everyone involved – Show some respect beside this man’s name ?
that goon that is at heathrow doing the live feed of planes landing in a storm, not right in the head.
peoples lives in pilots hands and this eejit want to do live commentary on it.
having said that, what on earth makes people want to get on board knowing its that bumpy at the other side
On the upside – nearly 24 hours after the game posts about football dominate CQN.
Rather have a win and political posts.
God bless Neil Lennon, Celtic Legend.
I gotta be honest – I don’t value the conference league
I recall Ange saying at a press conference that he couldn’t fix it all at once and so had to prioritise.
I also recall some internet talk early in the season about Ange allegedly sharing fitness performance data for the squad in Japan he just left.
I also recall Ange saying many of the squad have not had a proper pre-season.
Don’t know Ange. Never met him.
Enough indicators above though to suggest to me that the fitness regime was given partial fix priority this season (hopefully to be addressed next pre-season)
If that is so …
(might be accurate / might be cobblers)
Levels of fitness, speed, stamina, sharpness, physical power this season will need to be managed, not optimised this season.
Winning the league and automatically qualifying for the Champions League group stage is MASSIVE …..
…. even just for the fitness programme alone which, in the absence of ridiculously early competitive games, can plan to optimise and sustain from e.g. September rather than July.
The Celts are back in domestic action this Sunday, February 20 (KO 3pm), as they take on Dundee at a packed-out Celtic Park. The match is sold-out but you can still catch all the action, anywhere in the UK & Ireland, live on StreamDigital’s pay-per-view.
The last time we faced the Dundee side at home, a Kyogo hat-trick helped secure a highly entertaining 6-0 victory, followed by a 2-4 victory at Dens Park in November.
Priced at £12.99, you can follow all the build-up, match action and post-match reaction as the Bhoys look to maintain their impressive domestic home form and gain three points at a vital part of the season.