Surprised? Well, yes. This was a no-contest early-on in Maribor last week. Even though Celtic didn’t come home with the win, the chances, balance of possession and play, were well in their favour. A defeat last night was never out of the question, but it was the nature of the defeat that was most concerning. We were second best in defence, midfield and attack.
Pre-match, Ronny told us he expected Maribor to sit in and counter-attack. They didn’t, forcing Celtic into disarray. We were fortunate to go in level at halftime; I was screaming out for a tactical change from 20 minutes in.
Kris Commons proved his value. From the moment he arrived, we had an out-ball for the first time in the night, but it was not enough.
Celtic tried to qualify for the Champions League without a target man, or a striker able to play the kind of football Ronny Deila requires to play his kind of football. Stokes, Griffiths, Pukki and Balde are not an appropriate Champions League strike force, by some distance.
We have plenty of midfielders who are happy to pass and run but no one with the composure to hold the ball. Brown, Forrest and Tonev were all missing, but none will occupy the holding roles given to Kayal and Mulgrew last night. Or to Wanyama two years ago.
The defensive collapse since last season is unfathomable. Virgil van Dijk was clearly a class above, whether in defence or attack, and Mikal Lustig was also assured – it is perhaps no coincidence that we lost the goal moments after he was replaced, but Efe Ambrose and Emilio Izaguirre have returned from the World Cup in alarmingly poor form.
This is where we are. We knew this at the end of last season, perhaps Neil Lennon did too. Ronny Deila has a significant rebuilding job on his hands.
Will we make a significant moves forward this week? This season? The Europa League isn’t the cash-cow of the premier tournament, and it carries none of the glamour, but it is a competition we need to be ready for. Perhaps more importantly, qualification planning for next season’s Champions League starts now.
[calameo code=000390171586f6fbaa2ba lang=en page=122 hidelinks=1 width=100% height=500]
1,665 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- ...
- 44
- »
South Of Tunis – Exactly. We are modelling ourselves on them, rightly or wrongly, but we are missing the whole “won’t sell until it is right” attitude. We bite hands off as soon as the value enters the correct ball park. To hell with what that does to the team…..
I posted this last night.
I stand by it. We will take years to recover from the recent mismanagement thrust upon us in the last few years.
~~~~~~~~~~++~~~~~~~~~
bobby murdoch’s curled-up winklepickers
04:16 on 27 August, 2014
Looking at the players available to be picked,it’s pretty clear that most of them aren’t of the quality we expect.
Therefore they should be replaced.
However,PL is correct when he says that the players won’t come.
They won’t come to play in a bloody poor team which won’t do their careers any favours.
I reckon we need about half a dozen top players to be able to challenge in the CL again.
And we can whistle for them. Downsizing is a runaway train.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS
12:12 on
27 August, 2014
Sorry,Bobby.
Forgot the smiley.:-(
Late antipodean evening.
Still smarting.
In all honesty……can anybody take in that we were handed a incredible lifeline……all our lottery tickets rolled into one…….never ever ever be so lucky again in a football sense………and that we did absolutely nothing …..nothing at all to improve the personnel …….I just sit and shake my head in disbelief.
That is UNFATHOMABLE…….. not the collapse !!!!
MACJAY
I don’t do smileys,and if you met me you would understand why!
(Also don’t eat peanuts!)
My friends in Celtic,
Like the vast majority, no disguising the fact I am absolutely gutted.
Playing a second string last Saturday to keep the first string fresh and eager for our big game was the correct strategy : in theory.
The problem is ( bar one or two ) there is no distinct improvement in quality or end product. Both teams were dire.
Now is not the time for knee jerk reactions. I was a Celtic supporter yesterday and I am a Celtic supporter today, albeit an extremely disappointed one.
HH.
Jonny The Tim – “There are some on here with a hun-like mentality, that we’re entitled to win everything, let’s enjoy being Celtic supporters.”
I have read not a single person speak with entitlement. Not one. I have read plenty of people who want, and demand, far more from a club like Celtic. With the finances and resources they have available.
Should we be entitled to beat Maribor? No. We are entitled to expect to put them out 9 times out of 10 considering the resources we have in comparison to theirs.
Saying it is “hun-like” to suggest that is disingenious at best
Afternoon all.
Disappointed is how I feel. I would not have taken off Kayal. Mulgrew would have been my choice. He is simply out of his depth at this level. Mind you, as Paul67 mentions, Izzaguirre and Ambrose were dreadful too. The only 3 that I thought showed up on the night were Gordon, van Dijk and Johansen.
A wee bit of consolation for me is that we have the Europa League to compete in. We don’t deserve to be in the CL and, if we were to play anything like last night, we will be hammered.
Our manager has a tough job on his hands.
When Neil Lennon was struggling in his early days as manager the club looked at appointing someone to mentor him in the job. Davie Hay has managed Celtic and has plenty of knowledge about the game in Norway so may be a good match to assist Ronny in his first season?
Stokes, Griffiths, Pukki and Balde are not an appropriate Champions League strike force, by some distance.
The Norwegian guy who hangs about where Sammi used to play – add another 5 miles to that distance.
—
What Was That Dreadful Noise Last Night…
That Shook The Residents Of Fair Partick….
From Their Deepest Slumber ..?
Were The Luftwaffe Back….
Tae Finish The Job…?
Did All That Frackin’ Business…
Set Off An Earthquake…..?
Did Kilbowie Kelt Find That Half-Croon
He Lost Back In 1947..?
NOooooo…..!!!!
It’s Just Bold C\☺/n\☺/m\☺/l\☺/r’s P-R-I-M-A-L S-C-R-E-A-M……………!
Turn Over…And Back Tae SLEEP Y’All…
O Me Miserum…
—–
no green brigade
no backing from the off – no atmosphere at all in first half
audible moans and groans – the players were affected – confidence shot
stand up for the green brigade
RogueLeader
12:13 on
27 August, 2014
You understand tactical formations much better than I do.
With some humility,I would suggest that Ronny husnae a clue about our players,their abilities and their potential.
I get the impression he is out of his depth and that he knows it.
It probably isn`t his fault that he got the gig.
Kev Jungle
Just caught your post from the last blog about our exchange yesterday. Think no more about it. It wasn’t intentional on your part.
Hail! Hail!
Johann Murdoch,
Spot on, what baffles me is why we “acquired” Tonev before the deadline to play when we knew he wasnt going to be fit enough? Nothing baffles me anymore with our transfer dealings.
Denayer wasnt 100% fit thats why he didnt start nor play
JFH – your point about PL being better than Cassidy and Brown, whilst true its hardly a good testimonial. For my part PL isnt up to the job he can cut costs here and there but has no idea that the fulcrum to making £££££’s is in the playing side. Once VVD goes there isnt a soul next on the conveyor belt, he’s plucking strategies out of the sky, that latest being loannees. Not fit for purpose, neither is his management team nor the players for the team he purports to support.
Didn’t realise you get get so depressed over a game of football.
I’m more of a happy clapper, I suppose, than a mineshafter. Went to the game last night. Left Ireland 10am and got back at 4am this morning.
Tried to put some names to faces at this mythical CQN corner but couldn’t find any CQNers. Wandered around Superstore/pools office area asking bemused people are you a CQNer. If only I had known that that would represent the highlight of the evening.
With all due respects I didn’t like getting pumped out of the Champions League by Arsenal but rationalised it with the fact that we had to go down the non champions route( however dubious that may be in retrospect) and we lost to a team with infinitely superior resources.
But FFs Legia Warsaw and Maribor.
I never subscribed to the belief that we had a god given right to go through but given OUR superior resources I expected us to go through. Not to do so given our “2nd chance” and the fact that we came back from Slovenia in the box seat borders on the inexcusable.
We have had a number of opportunities to bury The Rangers before they committed suicide. Last night was another opportunity to ensure that the new team would continue to be in our shadow for at least a generation and we failed to grasp the opportunity.
With so many chances to bury whatever manifestation of Rankers that existed and Celtics failure to do so I am coming to the conclusion that WE do not want to do so because our strategy is totally reliant on the bigot pound. This has been particularly evident since it has become apparent that there is no exit strategy to another league.
Failure to declare that they are a new team and a more proactive strategy on Res 12 confirms me in that opinion. As one who has seen the fruits of unreconstructed bigotry that greatly disappoints me ie that my team is complicit in promoting such a strategy.
I want my club run well but Legia and now Maribor have demonstrated that you can live within your means and still have what it takes to make it to the CL ( registration issues notwithstanding).
This is probably what some might refer to as “venting” but honestly I have never felt so disappointed in those who profess to be the custodians of our club. I feel that it goes without saying that the support deserve better.
I also feel that bringing us down to their level by down grading the playing staff to make our games against the new club more competitive as and from next year does not represent a strategy never mind an effective strategy. Playing in front of empty terraces is to no ones advantage.
HH Vent over.
For anyone thinking of cutting and pasting this on to FF as an example of how depressed we are today. I will still wake up in the morning as a Tim with my club never having been liquidated and with at least an ability to pay the face painters.
Wasn’t confident before the match, after the first leg it always looked like a game that could go either way, and so it came to pass, we lost by the odd goal in 3. We (the fans) wouldn’t have seen any of the 15 million CL money anyway and chances are we would have been humiliated once or twice in the CL, so guaranteed qualification straight into the Europa is not a bad second prize,
Yes it was a sore one, but let’s get a wee bit of perspective, we all know its a team in transition with a new management team, a new playing system and tough games way too early for us, so surely some of us could see it coming.
All this hand wringing, sack this one sack that one, get rid of so and so, my goodness, we sound like a bunch of spoiled brats, we lost the game, now we have the chance to do well in the Europa and go for the domestic treble, OK, maybe we won’t achieve that but it’s going to be great fun trying.
I’ve no plans to throw myself off a cliff any time soon, but reading back on here there are a few I’m getting worried about.
Martin O’Neill first season in Europe: 3 wins, 2 losses, 1 draw.
Ronny Deila season in Europe so far: 2 wins, 3 losses, 1 draw (actual results on the pitch).
Now I know we haven’t faced a team of the quality of Bordeaux but it’s also true that we no longer have the quality in our team.
Who was the last manager who had a good time in Europe in his 1st season?
spikeysauldman
12:24 on 27 August, 2014
Stokes, Griffiths, Pukki and Balde are not an appropriate Champions League strike force, by some distance.
The Norwegian guy who hangs about where Sammi used to play – add another 5 miles to that distance.
Hahaha……nearly fell off the couch reading that one!!
last nights sucesses
a goalie we got for nowt
a centre half who is leaving
a midifielder who tried his a*se off but produced nothing
some dreadful displays which were worse then anything witnessed in the Macari days
The atmosphere has gone. The commercialism has been realised. A sterile product.
A little like when we compare the joke of a Novus Ordo with the Tridentine Mass of all time.
Night and day. Inauthentic with authentic.
I know I’m no tactical genius but our super-modern new 4-3-3 looked a helluva lot like the old fashioned 4-5-1 last night. Stokes was absolutely isolated for the whole of the first half. I think Berget and McGregor were supposed to be the other two in that front three but they looked more like they were deployed as conventional wide men and fairly defensively at that.
Then (and it was difficult to tell as I was watching a very dodgy internet feed here in Denmark) I might be mad but it looked like we played Efe at right back. There was a very good reason Lennon never played him there except in times of direst emergency. He needs covered on both sides.
Charlie Mulgrew was, what? A Sweeper? We were playing at home right?
Kayal then tried to play his natural defensive holding role in front of what occasionally looked like a back five. He looked completely lost. And for that we dropped the most effective goal creator and scorer we have in the squad.
Anyone know where Johansson was supposed to be?
I see Stokes taking heavy criticism but given the quality of supply and lack of support I think most slightly above average SPFL strikers would have also struggled.
The criticism for Griffiths not being able to force his way onto the pitch seems a bit harsh, no?
In short our squad is thin on real quality for sure, but the system deployed had them baffled and shapeless. The only time we really got into the game was when Commons came on for the second half.
Then when we were finally on top and dominating we took off the left wide man and brought on a right back…
The buck stops not just with the manager but the whole coaching staff. We have gone from the most impressive defense we’ve had in years to a fragile shambles. Our players clearly don’t understand the system they’re being told to play. Our squad has a load of wingers, no decent strikers and only one left back. And let’s face it, that left back is one guy who needs a REALLY long holiday. That defensive header will haunt him for a long time.
We’ve played four Champions League matches in the past month without winning one of them on the pitch. In two “home” games we failed to score. (Let’s not count the three from the walkover eh?) I really don’t see how this converts into Deila’s vision of attacking football. If all he has to say is “more tempo” and “run faster” then he really will be our Le Guen and Irn Bru will be back on the menu by January.
I see we have withdrawn our bid for the Polish striker he is off to the Ukraine.H.H.
ernie lynch
12:15 on
27 August, 2014
macjay1 for Neil Lennon
12:11 on 27 August, 2014
‘Agreements between players and Celtic F.C. that under specific circumstances,players will be permitted to leave should they so desire.’
####
And the first specific circumstance, and the critical one, is that a transfer fee dictated by Celtic will be on the table.
———————————————————————————————————————-
Are you suggesting that this fee be specified and agreed to when the player arrives at the Club?
Irrespective of player performance in the meantime.
Surely not.
niallo83. I think we have been playing this merry go round of non scoring strikers for long enough
Wow, sorry for the length of that post. Rant over. I promise.
lazydynamite
08:51 on 27 August, 2014
I also thought Kayal had a decent first half. Also, Berget totally anonymous in the first half, yet started better in the second only to be subbed.
Robert88 10.03
If Skeptovic will make a difference,he should have been signed so that he could play in that CL qualifying matches.
That is inadequate investment in my book.
Poor planning etc,etc.
TT
spikeysauldman @ 12.27 hrs.
“no green brigade
no backing from the off – no atmosphere at all in first half
audible moans and groans – the players were affected – confidence shot
stand up for the green brigade”
——————————————
They didn’t turn up when they were needed, just like the players.
Conditional Celtic supporters at best.
As Tony Watt will testify, one goal or tifo against Barcelona has a limited shelf live.
HH.
macjay1 for Neil Lennon
12:31 on
27 August, 2014
A fee based release clause? Nobody else uses them do they? It’s not like we got the best player in a generation using that method.
spikeysauldman
12:27 on
27 August, 2014
no green brigade
no backing from the off – no atmosphere at all in first half
audible moans and groans – the players were affected – confidence shot
stand up for the green brigade.
——————————————————————————————————————–
The boycotters?
I hope they stand their ground.
Outside Celtic Park.
knee jerk?????????
ffs. it would have been knee jerk after
the first legia game.
it may have even been knee jerk after the second.
but now…its not knee jerk, its a reaction to the
absolute shambles and clueless management going
on on which now seems a daily basis.
nice guy ronny, got completely out his depth.
or maybe the players are just not eating enough chicken and pasta
and drinking enough lucozade.
spikeysauldman at 12:27,
Spot on, our advantage in Europe is/was the fans.
Ye don’t beat teams like Barca by accident.
Bring back the thunder.
Hail Hail.
weeminger
12:35 on
27 August, 2014
Sorry,pal.
Don`t quite understand your point.
Extract from my post after the ICT game!
However, even this early in the Season it does throw up some damning questions:
What exactly is our Scouting Policy? Clearly we have 8-10 players in our Squad (25) that are no better than average (some worse) – who is/are responsible for this poor use of finance? Given the level of investment made – there are a serious number of players that lack basic skills such as; controlling a ball, pass-and-move and retaining Team shape!!
Argument can be made for the successful ‘Sales Model’ – from Ki through to Forster but exactly how much has this profit total been dissipated by numerous; project purchases, their contracts and subsequent write-offs? Is the Scouting Network in need of a radical overhaul? Is the loan with option to purchase a change of direction?
To date we have spent a considerable sum on Lennoxtown with little return. For whatever reasons, we are failing to get a decent level of transition from Development to First Team Squad (witness yesterday). Ronny has made a number of public observations about the system and the facilities – what’s he saying in private?
IMO we have wasted a 3 year ‘development’ opportunity. Radical changes should have been put in place to counter the problems we face with ‘early start’ pre-qualification for the CL. We have had a substantial return from player-sales during that period – a sizeable percentage of that should have been allocated to ensuring progress.
For the Club – European football is no longer a bonus. It’s now become a way-of-life; image, finance, player development and Supporter participation – Tuesday night is about more than a result!
Reflecting on last night’s second chance of getting into the CL Proper (our 4th year of European Participation in this period) – let’s forget the UEFA income it generates and look at the player trading. In this period CFC have sold circa £50M of Quality Players!
We cannot deny that we have not spent money – but based on what? We have started this season with Circa £15M previously spent on; Ambrose, Balde, Biton, Boerrigter, Griffiths, Johansen, Kayal, Pukki, Rogic, Stokes and those on Frees or next to nothing. That’s 10+ contracts/wages – are we to assume that this £100K+ per week (and I am being conservative) can be construed as good business practice? Does anyone think that this current spend matches; the quality of players sold or the actual wages they were getting?
PPP! (Piss Poor Preparation) – a free run at winning the SPL Title, opportunities to; purchase players in the January Window and integrate them for CL Qualification, put a tactical blueprint in place to suit Domestic and European football and utilise Youth for their development and betterment of the Team………………… and what have we achieved?
3 WASTED FOOTBALL YEARS versus 3 Glorious Balance Sheets!
spikeysauldman
12:27 on
27 August, 2014
no green brigade
no backing from the off – no atmosphere at all in first half
audible moans and groans – the players were affected – confidence shot
stand up for the green brigade
Sounds like the old chicken and egg thingy.
Did the lack of backing effect the players. Or, as is more likely did the players lacking effect the backing.
It is a two way street. Whilst the fans must back the team, the team must give the fans something to back.
John Collins’ impact?
Negligible or Not Identifiable?
It cannot be positive. If it is, what does that tell you about RD?
That the shambles is not as bad as it might be?
All the posters who would sack our CEO and our Manager exactly who would you replace them with ? and why would they get us success ? H.H.