I’m reliably informed Legia will not ‘park the bus’ on Wednesday. Instead, with a three goal lead, they have enough legroom to play their normal game, attempt to compete in the middle of the park, and expose holes at the back, as they did last week. What’s more, they’re unsure they would be able to park the bus successfully for an extended period.
Set aside the debacle what was our defensive performance for a moment. The period of last week’s match Ronny Deila should initially concern himself with is the opening 25 minutes, when Celtic largely bossed the game. We then have to consider the 40 minutes we looked comfortable with 10 men; not an insignificant achievement away from home in Europe.
In short, Legia are a team which for large periods of the game we looked to have the measure of, despite the anomalies of playing a debutant, an inexperienced youth and with a left back who was left out. We should do far better at Murrayfield.
Legia believe they are going through. They unquestionably have the upper hand but the Celtic collapse in the final minutes, when we appeared to be too busy picking fights than sticking to plan, distorted the perceived difference between the teams. Celtic didn’t just underachieve, they did so on an epic scale. What Legia don’t know, is what a highly-functional Celtic team looks like.
We need to transform that epic failure into the kind of performance we are capable of in Europe. The defence needs to find the form which broke so many records last season. Ronny needs to find some of his awesomeness.
The reality is, despite last week’s debacle, we’re still in this tie – and should plan to go through.
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With an early goal anything can happen
My fear is Ronny seems obsessed with wide players , wide players work if you have good wide players. , we have poor wide players so go with 442. Commons one of the midfield 4 and stokes and griffifths upfront
Those 2 played well enough together at end of season
Spot on, Paul – too much negativity around.
Two goals before half time and that mob’ll bottle it.
They’ll then sit back to protect their one goal advantage…after that, the tie is ours.
Hail Hail
ziggydoc1
12:29 on
4 August, 2014
Aye, I agree we don’t need to go hell for leather. A goal before half time is crucial though. I think we can do it. God knows this team, if they have any sense of pride, have to put in a performance. I’m hopeful more than confident. If we don’t go through it wont be the end of the world. If they play well and fall short I can accept that. Another performance like last week is unthinkable.
HH
Battered Surely we can’t have 10m in the bank. You sure that much?
As for the reinvested in team malarkey , that stopped with Aiden money as some of that money went to paying off the debt( it was in the accounts ). Looked like his bonus targets came 1st then and especially now if we indeed have all that cash in the bank no bonus should be paid
Good on you Paul67. Here’s the team I’d pick. Better possession, concentration and up front 3 with goals in them (I hope). Easy peasy :)
Forster
Matthews VVD Lustig Izzy
Henderson Biton Johansson
Commons
Griffiths Stokes
Coolmore Mafia@11.33
One of the difficulties that we, the economic illiterates, have with that kind of statement is having the knowledge to know if it is spin or whether it is genuine.
For example, Ally McCoist talked about taking a pay cut for months. Rangers fans stil don’t know if he took one or for how long the cut lasted or whether what he lost during his wage cut was made up to him from elsewhere. If PL “deferred” a bonus payment, is that a sacrifice at all since he will still get the money at some later date? Why was he due that money if the results were that bad, anyway?
My problem is not specifically with PL who I believe is a genuine Celtic fan and works very hard in, what he perceives to be, Celtic’s interests. My problem is with a structure of boardroom reward, common to all Western companies, which has elevated the influence of managerial gurus and boardroom operators to a level which is not justified by economic research. The spate of guru literature that was spawned in the 80s to “show” (lots of narrative, precious few figures) that the Lee Iacoccas of this world were worth 10,000 times the reward received by a Chief Engineer or a Product Engineer, far less a shop floor worker, led to a climate where boardroom hacks around the world started to award themselves a rake of unearned bonuses during the bull markets of the 80s. “Aye, you’re right enough Farquar, all this talking with only coffee and biscuits to sustain you, fair takes it out of you. The stress! The stress!”
These rewards did not come down or decrease commensurately with the onset of bear markets, recession or economic collapse. We were in a culture of over-rewarding their “success’ during economic good times and under-punishing their “failure” in bad times. In order to pay for this culture of boardroom reward, pension funds were raided, sickness and injury benefit money was raided and the greedy took rewards while punishing the efforts of staff who earned them for them.
In contrast to the heydey of Victorian capitalism, where the big rewards were for investors who risked their money and suffered both rewards and sanctions (fortunes were made and lost), we moved into a climate where boardroom staff and CEOs were rewarded for success on the backs of others but escaped sanction for poor performance.
Celtic plc does not give us the information in an Annual report to see who earns what for doing what? How much of PL’s salary is just for hours put in? How much for generating profit and against which comparators is this justified?
PL may very well be worth the money. Maybe he saves the club a fortune by being a tough negotiator and guarding our pennies? We heard news that Stormgodset considered him so when he talked down their compensation demands for Ronny Deila but we did not see evidence of that success when he negotiated compensation with Jeremy Peace of WBA for Tony Mowbray. Is he worth a bonus for keeping Amido Balde’s salary demands to a minimum or should he suffer a loss of bonus for agreeing to sign him in the first place?
Without knowing what the corporate wallahs refer to as KPI’s we are in no position to judge. We leave great wiggle room for people to say he is using Celtic as a cash cow and would not be rewarded in any company of similar size with anything near that salary. Of course there has to be a consideration to the public aspect of being a spokesperson for Celtic. A “danger money” payment, if you like, but, as I said at the beginning, economic illiterates like me don’t really have the information to judge what the basic salary is for or what the bonuses due are for.
In any company, in which I own shares, overpays its staff or donates to causes against my wishes, I can send in a shareholder motion to have it debated and defeated if there are enough voters with sufficient shares, who feel likewise. It seems to me that the Celtic Board have the shares vote sown up, even though DD is a minority shareholder, and can do pretty much what they wish so long as DD and a few friends back them. That is a dangerous position for a disillusioned fan to face and one where these share custodians need to be more sensitive to our mood. Their only action if they cannot embarrass them into change at an AGM, is to withdraw. And it is not just share money that gets withdrawn then but a family’s commitment to following Celtic.
I want to read of lost bonuses, not deferred ones, because of poor performance in the transfer market/staff recruitment and for failing to assist the football department, our major department where 90% of our KPI”s should come from, to thrive. For all other managerial duties (Press relations, liaison with Local Authority and Government, maintenance of stadium and pitch etc;) the rewards earned should be clear and commensurate and there should be sanctions for such as being hoodwinked by the OBaF process.
I am far from being a Board critic. I am on record as stating that, even if we halved PL’s salary and bonus, we would not make a huge difference to our transfer budget. I want a CEO who guards Celtic’s money, our money, and is tough in negotiations with clubs, players, agents and staff. But, if he is linked to the football department, and all evidence suggests he is, then good football years should see him earn larger bonuses and bad football years should see them reduced or even absent altogether.
It is important for Celtic fans to feel confident that this is so. After all, if PL gets his monies whether Celtic FC are successful competitively or not, then he is truly a “disinterested” employee.
And I know what “disinterested” really means.
I’d love to believe that we can turn this around.
We are too weak at the back to keep a clean sheet.
Although I do think we have the capability to score 4 I don’t think the players believe they can.
half time result will tell us what’s achievable but I fear 1-1 at 45mins and all belief will drain from the players.
You never know for sure but fingers crossed and a few breaks going our way and it’s a possibility.
Go for it Celtic.
Sydney Tim
“All sanctioned by PL against wishes of our managers”
and your factual proof of this statement is? Remember “Factual Truth” por cierto.
Robert Tressell @ 12 32
Legia are not a great team, but they are ,at the very least ,a class above any of Celtic’s SPl ” competitors “
baldrick
12:37 on 4 August, 2014
Spot on, Paul – too much negativity around.
Two goals before half time and that mob’ll bottle it.
They’ll then sit back to protect their one goal advantage…after that, the tie is ours.
Hail Hail
——
Sounds like a cunning plan. Count me in.
It’s Awe Neil lennon’s fault i tells yeez!
FFS! Rewrite history.
As for celtic looking comfortable with 10 men? Not on the telly box I was looking at.
Live in hope though. Win Lose or Draw the current PLC policy has to change!
MWD says AYE
Tactics and focus need to be spot on..no passengers, no half steppers..
What Legia don’t know, is what a highly-functional Celtic team looks like…..ehhhh under ronny neither do we ffs
ah podium tah da!
South of Tunis
I don’t believe that Legia are ‘a class above” spl opposition. I do believe our last 10 mins were abysmal and we showed complete naivety in what the players tried to achieve por cierto
setting free the bears for Res. 12 & Oscar Knox but saying no to CQN racists
12:41 on
4 August, 2014
PL’s salary is explicitly stated in our accounts including pension contributions, payments in kind, and share options. I’m pretty certain AM’s aren’t, so it’s easier to spin stories about it.
Big wavy. Can’t see anything wrong with your team best we can put on park
SFTB
If PL took a gun, pointed it at your head, pulled the trigger and shot you, you would find a reasonable excuse for him doing it!
MWD says AYE
Hello all,
A quick question.
Has the club received money for the use of the ground for the Commonwealth games and if so how much?
Ok, that was 2 questions.
I thought that Legia started the game with the bus parked. When we crossed the half way line, they had everyone behind the ball.
Apart from our goal and Pukki’s by the post effort, we never threatened.
We reverted to side ways passing, until we virtually came to a standstill, with no movement up front.
By then, our midfield had disappeared and the central defenders had no one to play the ball out to, hence the wayward passes and lapses that put us one down and a man short at half time.
If there was one single thing missing last Wednesday, it was a captain, a leader.
Whatever anyone thinks of Brown’s playing abilities, he is the only one at the club who has the required qualities as a captain.
In fact, a team like Celtic shouldn’t really need a captain, everyone should drive the team on.
Can’t see it changing by Wednesday.
big wavy
12:41 on
4 August, 2014
No McGregor?
HH
squire danaher
12:27 on 4 August, 2014
I was watching the same game as you!
I do however have confidence that our management team can turn this around, despite the quite catastrophic tactical and selection blunders made in the 1st leg.
There are 2 things a new manager needs to help him hit the ground running – none of which have been provided.
Funds – to bring in some of his own players, players that can play his system of football from day 1, giving you breathing space to teach and coach the others.
Practice makes perfect – friendly games!
The scheduling of pre season games this season has been totally shambolic.
In the full knowledge CP wasnt going to be available and in full knowledge of when the CL qualifiers were going to be, someone decided to tie the second hand behind the managers back and schedule pointless friendlies in Germany and Finland.
This has meant the actual 1st team players havent had a friendly match together since vienna 3 weeks ago.
Legia Warsaw were obviously fitter and more sharp than us last week – and they have played another league game since.
What have we been doing to improve our match fitness??
It has also meant our 1st team have been to Murrayfield once to play a game of football when a couple of friendlies against local or mediocre opposition there would have provided more practice.
I am not sure whether to say it was down to complacency or just plain amateurville.
Sutton,
A plan so cunning, you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel.
B
BMCUW
From previous
Thanks for the faith!
Don’t have much chance to post in work, so apologies for any late response.
As for the accusations from yesterday, it’s alright (I’m only bleeding), main thing is, we all know it’s all over, baby blue…;-)
HH
Paul67,
You are reliably informed, what did Henning gie ye a call? :))
Celtic will need to score 5 on Wednesday methinks.
If Celtic get their act together they can kick Legia’s @ss, I thought they were very poor at ball retention, a lot worse than Celtic in fact, until we gave them all the confidence in the World.
That backline of theirs is poor and we should easily take 5 off them on Wednesday, keeping them from scoring is the issue.
We have to bear in mind P67 watched the game with the Minx HT and Smashy.
Obviously the booze goggles don’t only work for a ten pinter…
Just another Tim
No. Not a reflection on the boy but would rather play a tighter game with closer interchange between midfield and attack than lumping it sideways to the wings.
Their centre halves looked vulnerable and if firing right then Stokes, Griffiths and Commons should pull them apart leaving gaps for Stefan and henderson to exploit.
That’s how it’s playing out in my positive mind.
A thoroughly myopic and verging on the delusional article……..
Legia will will play 4-5-1……….and wait for their away goal……why would they do anything else?
From last post.
Bamboo
Be proud of yourself sir for your kind offer.
Till later all
weeminger
“PL’s salary is explicitly stated in our accounts including pension contributions, payments in kind, and share options. I’m pretty certain AM’s aren’t, so it’s easier to spin stories about it.”
Who is AM?
I am sure the amounts PL is paid are accounted for. I never said they were not. What I stated was that the reasons he ws given them were not stated.
MWD
“If PL took a gun, pointed it at your head, pulled the trigger and shot you, you would find a reasonable excuse for him doing it!”
I am not sure you read what I wrote.
What excuse did I give PL? Explain it to me.
big wavy
12:54 on
4 August, 2014
Aye, I get where your coming from. I was thinking along similar lines. We should play a 4-4-2 with Stokes & Griffiths up front. Their centre backs look cumbersome and don’t look the best under pressure.
The 4-3-3 system we tried to play last week has to be dropped for Wednesday. We just don’t have good enough players for it yet. The only difference I had with your line-up was McGregor for Henderson. I don’t think Henderson will play after playing against Spurs.
HH
Caolila1
I believe it was £5.5m. That was what someone in the know told me anyway.
LB
Moonbeams WD. Wee Oscar’s our Bhoy and Kano’s our mhan.
12:47 on
4 August, 2014
SFTB
If PL took a gun, pointed it at your head, pulled the trigger and shot you, you would find a reasonable excuse for him doing it!
MWD says AYE
————————————-
His 5s performance from Saturday comes into mind, ha, ha!
HH
CRC
crc
You were on the same losing side.
And Saturday was far from my worst ever performance
Livibhoy 5.5m. You can not be serious !!! And we can’t give our new manager any money to improve the team !!!!
Not at all confident but the Optimist in me keeps reminding the Realist in me that what we need to achieve is exactly what we would need to if we had lost 2-0 away , ie score three and don’t concede.
Simple in theory and ,while unlikely, surely at least not beyond us. I’m more worried about the clean sheet than us scoring – their keeper looked suspect.
While our entire defence was suspect my hope lies in the belief that we simply cannot be that bad twice. We can’t, can we?
We do not have the players or management team to turn this around.
This team will be lucky to qualify for The Europa League.
I so hope that dozens of you are slamming this statement down my throat on Thursday morning.
Hail! Hail!
TT