That was the latest instalment in a long running series of Behind the Couch Celtic away performances in Europe, with the wonderful exception that after Hapoel Be’er Shiva had us on the rack in the opening period of the second half, Celtic put five at the back and closed the game out without any stressful incidents in the final 15 minutes.
There are a few moments worthy of comment:
Hapoel’s penalty came as a consequence of Celtic pressing high up the field for the first time in the game. The home team dropped deep as they were temporarily reduced to 10 men, but when Celtic pressed high to take advantage of an opponent receiving treatment, they easily passed through us, switched the ball left and gave Saidy Janko his first difficult moment of the night.
More on Saidy in a moment, but we cannot allow teams to pass through us so easily. We should never have been caught so high up field. Our alertness, interceptions and tackling were not good enough. Craig Gordon’s block at the penalty was priceless (or at a price of circa £26m, if you’re being picky).
There’s a reason teams who mark zonally at corner kicks don’t mark the penalty spot. It’s because headers from the penalty spot need to be exceptional in order to beat the keeper. Sahar’s goal wasn’t an exceptional header. It bounced before passing Craig Gordon three feet inside the post. It should never have been a goal, and although Craig’s mistake for the second was more evident, the first was as worrying a goal to concede.
We’re fond of talking about “schoolboy errors” in football but Saidy’s lack of awareness of his direct opponent and goalkeeper at the second goal was a classic error from the 9-year-old’s game. I’ll be generous and say he’s not ready for a game at this level. Craig Gordon doesn’t have a let off for this one, either. While his fullback made a mistake, an alert keeper would have prevented the goal and knocked Saidy into next week. Awareness concerns exist for him too.
Whether it’s Craig’s self-confidence, or that the defence don’t have confidence in him, goalkeeping mistakes came perilously close to seeing us drop out of the Champions League last night.
Not that Craig shoulders all responsibility for what was a weak performance. The middle of the park was experimental and looked it. On the back of one of his best games for Celtic a week ago, Scott Brown’s passing, control and influence was miles off the pace.
Scott, Callum McGregor and Nir Bitton were swamped in midfield. Too few Celtic players were showing for the ball, which was thrown forward aimlessly whenever a Hapoel player closed us down. If central midfield is right, your defensive and goalkeeping frailties are less evident, but we were exposed too often at the back last night. There was a period in the second half when watching on TV made it impossible to know where we were going wrong. After a Hapoel chance, we would see a replay, and before it cut back to live pictures, Celtic had lost possession and were again under pressure. This happened repeatedly. Central midfield was the major problem with the performance, if not the result.
Don’t let any of this dampen your spirits. We’re into the Champions League group stage, a fact which will see us break through the £80m turnover mark for the first time. By comparison, turnover was £51m for 2014-15, the most recent season accounts are available for.
Despite the increase in expenditure this season, we’ll pay our bills without increasing borrowing or selling players. We’re on the circuit again, which means we’ll find it easier to attract talent going forward, it means we’ll find it easier to attract commercial deals and pretty much every KPI at the club will become that bit more attainable.
Last night was a transformational day in the life of your football club. We’re back, enjoy it!
903 Comments- Pages:
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FAN-A-TIC on 24TH AUGUST 2016 2:35 PM
VFR8008A
I have not called any Celtic player a coward as such.
But what was cowardly last night is receiving a pass and returning it straight back to a team mate who has a man on him rather than taking the responsibility to make a slightly riskier pass to two forwards making good runs ahead of you.
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See, I put that down to fear rather than cowardice; the fear of making a mistake or lack of confidence in the ability to do the right thing. That’s not me getting into semantics, but fundamentally changing the perception of why a player makes a (bad) decision. The bulk of the players last night have failed at this level 2 seasons in a row. It was interesting to note that the best performers last night – Sinclair, Toure, Dembele and Sviatchenko – hadn’t been over that ground before and didn’t display the same level of fear/cowardice that others did.
Thanks for the honest response.
KTF
NatKnow
Just a wee bit of fun mate to tinkle the rib cage, no need to be a big drip.
Davidopoulos and Natknow,
One glans at you two and it’s c;ear there are punning experts at work, I bow to you.
DAVIDOPOULOS on 24TH AUGUST 2016 3:19 PM
NatKnow
Just a wee bit of fun mate to tinkle the rib cage, no need to be a big drip.
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I know mate – I should be grateful I can laugh. There’s people in Govan who haven’t got a pot to piss in and don’t have access to exciting incontinental football like we have. Not a nappy bunch…
CFC flight due to land at 17.51
sid on 24th August 2016 3:15 pm
It may well be that Rodgers has altered slightly his view of what is needed in light of qualification and/or on the evidence of the 6 qualifying ties.
If we manage to get a couple out of the door this may well be added straight to any budget.
We are in a great position now either way and while there will be no ridiculous spurge of cash, it is likely to be a very interesting end to the window,
HH
TRADITIONALIST88 on 24TH AUGUST 2016 2:55 PM
sid on 24th August 2016 2:42 pm
I find it incredulous that supporters believe we will spend 10 – 15M in transfer fees just because we have qualified for the CL.
====
You may find it incredulous, but I am not aware of anyone around£1 who has actually called for us to spend £15m up front on transfer fees.
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I’m looking for that magnitude of spending. I think we could get Roberts if we are willing to pay the money (I think it will be nearer £10M); we need a new right back and the boy from Hearts may fit the bill at around £1M; we also need a good midfielder and the type we need will cost £3M to £5M to be at the level required.
The shout for Yaya Toure is a good one and I reckon that is a possibility if we can reach a loan deal with Man City – but that would be expensive as well.
There has been talk of somewhere between £5M and £15M for transfers before qualifying for CL Group Stage; with UEFA money, TV money, gate receipts and points money it should be around £30M. So in my view spending up to £15M of that £35M to £45M is absolutely reasonable. I would not be surprised to see us breaking our transfer record in this or the January transfer windows. In fact, I will go as far as to say I think it should be expected!
KTF
NatKnow
They need to wait to see how it all pans out….betcha a Tena it all ends with Glibby wringing them dry…
fieldofdrams
Thanks mate – looks like you are a whiz at them too. Who’s number one? It can be quite difficult coming up with these golden puns – some of them are rubbish though and just dampen the mood.
R#ng*rs Champions League Draw just made:
Matchday 1 & 5: Eastenders.
Matchday 2 & 6: Great British Bake off
Matchday 3 & 4 : Coronation Street.
Thanks for the replys guys it will be an interesting and exciting week, one which our PLC will have to show their hand.
Just glad we are in this position to have this debate. HH
I have no idea of how much the budget for team is.
But in a season that we have almost sold out our season ticket allocation and additional revenue from champions league we should have a decent amount to spend.
With a very good crop of youngsters coming through we should invest now for long term benefits.
This would be the season to push the boat out.
That our board has the vision and mindset required to take the team forward will be answered in the coming weeks.
vfr800a8 on 24th August 2016 3:32 pm
Interesting. Any deal for Roberts would be structured to spread the load. Sales of Johansen and Armstrong could in theory bring in ~£4m. With this in mind, and the guaranteed income of the CL(with more potential earnings), its not out of the question that we could ‘spend’ ~£8m, albeit with our net spend being less.
A nice problem to have, whatever way you look at it.
HH
Google to punish sites that use intrusive pop-over ads
If ads interfere with the mobile experience, it’ll spell bad news for the site…..
http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/08/google-to-punish-sites-that-use-intrusive-pop-over-ads/
#Sayin’Nathin’
Fear is the bedfellow of cowardice.
Without fear – there would be no cowardice.
Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Angers leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
Are you two piss artists Egyptians?
Prostrate your selves before the mighty Syphincter!!!
Braw,
4 million for Johansen and Armstrong. Aye right. Do you do economic predictions for the SNP?
Johansen will get you 2 million tops and Armstrong will get you next to nothing.
In the old days Bob Kelly would include some religious or cultural content when the team was on tour.
I remember as a boy a story about Charlie Tully and the Pope, but I realized when I grew up, a couple of years ago, that it was a joke.
So why didn’t we have the team visit some of the Holy Sites in Jerusalem before returning home?
A wee trip on the Via Dolorosa or a visit to Gethsemane to let them atone for what they put us through last night.
We can greet them as heroes on Saturday.
VFR800A8 on 24TH AUGUST 2016 3:32 PM
The shout for Yaya Toure is a good one and I reckon that is a possibility if we can reach a loan deal with Man City – but that would be expensive as well.
___
God this speculation is getting madder and madder.
Yaya is one of the biggest earners at Manchester City! Inter Milan couldn’t pay his wages even with their new Chinese investment.
Everybody knows that Yaya will stay put at City and pocket a salary for a year. Celtic couldn’t pay half his wages.
Do we expect City to pay all his wages?
Brendan should give Janko a try as a right winger,he defiantly ain’t a defender, and im sure James Forrest has a fitness problem,
!!BADA BING!! on 24TH AUGUST 2016 3:34 PM
R#ng*rs Champions League Draw just made:
Matchday 1 & 5: Eastenders.
Matchday 2 & 6: Great British Bake off
Matchday 3 & 4 : Coronation Street.
********************************
Loving it!
The missus and I are taking part in the Celtic Foundation sleep out in November to highlight the plight of the homeless. If you can spare a few shillings then you can donate here.
Many thanks
https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/helendunese1
Chris
timaloy29 on 24th August 2016 3:47 pm
4 million for Johansen and Armstrong. Aye right. Do you do economic predictions for the SNP?
Johansen will get you 2 million tops and Armstrong will get you next to nothin
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Did I say £4m each ya zoomer?
Emdy seen or heard from Neganon2 lately? Chap hasn’t been spotted since Stefan Johansen misplaced a pass during a counter attack late in the match v Astana.
Concerned.
HT
You posted that simply to set up a few pages of postcard-style puns, didn’t you?
Tbb,
Skyping with Sydneytim as we speak.
HH
Has anyone heard from Jamesgang?
Hope everything is good,
CQN…..needs a strong Dunblane….
Braw
This reminds me of the the Reginald D Hunter joke…
To conquer fear… you must become fear
Anyway, the reason we have ‘the fear is simple. We have no real leaders
Think of O’Neill’s teams – Lennon, Lambert, Mjallby, Sutton, Hartson – tough men who had balls
The team at the minute don’t really have ANY leaders apart from Toure
B-)
TIMBHOY3 on 24TH AUGUST 2016 3:51 PM
Brendan should give Janko a try as a right winger,he defiantly ain’t a defender, and im sure James Forrest has a fitness problem
Pretty sure Janko was a winger when we signed him. He needs experience in that position.
THE BATTERED BUNNET
Still Summer Season at Butlins is it no???
Neustadt-Braw on 24th August 2016 3:45 pm
Are you two piss artists Egyptians?
Prostrate your selves before the mighty Syphincter!!!
Braw,
——————————————————–
Haha, gooch one…
PL could phone his counterpart at Espanyol and ask him if he’s still interested in Bitton for £6m.
I don’t know this – but
BR picking team last night – do I go with who has got me here (Gordon Janko McGregor) or do I go with my strongest players (ranging from DiVries Lustig Toure Shivchenco back 3 brown Bitton Rogic in the middle )
Well 55 mins in I think we saw BRs image of best team
Sat will be interesting does he drop Craig G or try to maintain his convidence but I bet Shivchenko plays Same with Janko does he play or drop ??
Last night was the night BR learnt more about players than any of previous games so far.
Phew heart rate through the roof last night
67ECW
TRADITIONALIST88 on 24TH AUGUST 2016 3:52 PM
“Sales of Johansen and Armstrong could in theory bring in ~£4m. ”
I was shocked you believed we’d get 4 million for them. I never said anything about 4 million each.
Armstrong has no pedigree outside of Scotland and has no international caps. I’m not sure who’d be interested.
Joe Hansen has been poor, doesn’t get a game and is in his last year of contract.
timaloy29 on 24th August 2016 4:03 pm
Of course you will get *something* for Armstrong, limited as he may be, Tyler Blackett signed for Reading, so theres that…
So £2-2.5m for Johansen plus something for Armstrong = ~£4m or best part of £4m.
Next…
TBB
Oh you are naughty!
Danke…..I am grundling along ricely…..
Ma pudding needs attention Doc !!!!
Smiley thing
Braw
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-37172253
TBM