Out of the Champions League qualifiers at the hands of a team with a smaller budget than ours, for the second season in succession. Where did it all go wrong? Two shortcomings stand out: team planning and tactical strategy.
I’ll take the latter first. We had 60% possession last night, a remarkable figure for an away European game which was lost. We dominated possession, didn’t score a goal and conceded twice (for the fourth time in five games).
Let me take you back a few years to a Dominik Diamond TV interview with Martin O’Neill, then Leicester City manager, in 1999. O’Neill laid plain his tactical philosophy, “My teams have big guys who know how to defend, they have players who can throw dangerous balls into the box, and players who can get on the end of those balls and put them in the net”.
A year later, when Martin came to Celtic, it was like going to school as we watched the observance of these very rudimentary rules transform our club. His defenders could defend, he had wide players who could throw dangerous balls into the box, and strikers who knew where the goal was. Martin’s teams never dominated possession against a European peer, never mind a team who beat them so comfortably.
It doesn’t need to be explained that there was no team in the world who could score three times from corner kicks against the Celtic team of a decade or so back. Today, team planning has insufficiently focussed on a few fundamentals of the game: know how to defend, know how to translate possession into chances, and have a handful of players in the team who know where the goal is. This is the fittest, fastest, Celtic team I have ever seen, but we looked like busy fools last night.
Ronny Deila’s post-match comments about the team being scared was an instant reaction to the defeat, but it’s worth digging into what prompted this perception. There were actually many occasions when Celtic players showed for a pass, the Uefa possession and completed pass stats conform this, but what we never did was boss the middle of the park.
In yesterday’s blog I asked Celtic to own the park as I have had a worry about this aspect for a while. This is different from covering a lot of ground (we do that), or being able to make a pass (we do that too). We have Scott Brown (runner) and Nir Bitton (passer) in central midfield. I like both but we need extra bite in this area. Celtic’s most effective period over the last decade was when we had Wanyama and Brown central-mid. The role Wanyama fulfilled has been sacrificed for the player in the hole behind the lone striker.
Players of Wanyama’s calibre are not common, and we shouldn’t go 4-3-3 if all we have is a Kayal to fill the additional central midfield space, but Brown and Bitton are not enough in central midfield in Europe. It’s also clear that selection for the four advanced positions (the 3-1) has been so fluid since the start of the season we’re clearly not cohesive in that area of the field either.
For me, if it’s Brown and Bitton, and I think it should be, we need another Brown-Wanyama influencer. Think back to our last Champions League group to consider the prospect of playing a European game without Scott Brown. At the very least we need cover for him, but in Europe we need two in his position. Go 4-3-3.
So much for tactical strategy, what about team planning? For the third August since parting company with Gary Hooper we are hawking around for a striker. Gary’s not a panacea, so I’ll ignore him as a prospect for now, but while Leigh Griffiths has performed beyond the call of duty, we are, again, out of the Champions League without having any idea who our primary striker will be this season.
We are in a loop of mistakes, and frankly, the most likely next action is that we respond by recruiting an identikit of the many strikers who have passed through Parkhead gates in recent years. We know enough about this problem to be aware that it’s our primary challenge, yet we have been unable to overcome it.
In my State of the Club blog at the start of the season I cautioned that we’d swapped Gordon Strachan’s soft spot for recruiting from Hibs, for a desire to see stars at Dundee United. Ciftci, Mackay-Stevens and Armstrong have been our primary recruits for advanced positions in 2015. Only one won a place in the starting line-up last night, leaving us relying on players who struggled to get in the team a year (or longer) ago.
Ronny Deila may well be able to polish Dundee United players into top performers at Celtic, but we didn’t recruit the finished article. We should have known this, and should have been aware that our August cup finals would have made calls on bit-part players from recent seasons.
We will find the occasional Champions League player in Scotland, but you can’t raid a mid-table SPFL team and expect to leap to the very top table in the game. This team planning strategy always looked vulnerable and it’s proven to be.
On the money side, you know my views. Over any business period you pay what comes in, no more and no less. We’re losing to team who spend less than us, not more, and on this occasion a team who picked up a player we discarded.
On just as important matters………
The golfers among you have three days to buy a raffle ticket – for £1 only – to win a round of golf at the fantastic Aberdour Golf Course for four people! Check it out here on ebay. Money raised (by Taggsybhoy) will go to the Foundation. This important work, always needs to be done, win, lose or draw.
659 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- ...
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- ...
- 18
- »
Paul67:
I’ll start by posting part of the main thread.
…On the money side, you know my views. Over any business period you pay what comes in, no more and no less. We’re losing to team who spend less than us, not more, and on this occasion a team who picked up a player we discarded…
I would agree to a degree but you do need to speculate to accumulate. We need to equipped to take on the task, last night we were not. Our first pick Left Back was on the Bench, why was that, if it is the case Ronny doesn’t think he is up for the challenge why did we not buy another, we have known for two years we need to strengthen in that area. Why did we play Charlie there when he has always struggled to fill the position effectively.
Why did we allow Adam Matthews to leave before the qualifiers, he has on occasion played effectively at Left Back, a game against Barcelona springs to mind. We told VVD he could leave after the qualifiers. He could have played at Right Back last night.
Leigh Griffiths has done well in domestic game but has been found wanting on the European stage.
Stefan Johannsen is not the Player he was last season, personally don’t see what the hype was about him last Season.
Yes, I agree live within your means but we have first of all scout Players that can step up to the Plate and then and more importantly bring those Players together and then tactically use them to win matches. Malmo did this over two games to good effect.
Ronny has no Plan B in my opinion.
Personally I am not looking for Celtic to spend what we cannot afford, that said you get what you pay for as a rule. That may seem a contradiction but I am sure you get what I mean.
We need Players to pull together and do their best in every game, especially in big games e.g. last night.
We need our Scouts to identified who the Players are in order to go to the next level and not wait to see if we qualify for UCL before we buy Players. The last two Seasons as you post we have failed to qualify for UCL, could we have done had we gambled financially, If we then failed to qualify, could we not have then sold those quality Players we gambled on the following Summer if they were that good and only signed with the promise of Champions League.
Our Chief Executive should be saying to Ronny or any Manager we employ, what do you need to qualify for UCL, Do you have the Players to get us through three qualifiers, if he says yes, then he stands or falls by his decision. If the Manager says no and asks for Players and the Chief Executive says get there and I’ll sell a Player for £10.5 million and give you some to spend on three or four Players, then in my opinion the Chief Executive has questions to answer to the Shareholders.
We are not a UCL Club, we may think we are but in reality we are not. We kid ourselves on that we aspire to play with the big boys but we do nothing to help us achieve that objective. Our Custodians are happy to wheel and deal and I can understand that but come on please, wheel and deal in order to give us a fighting chance to get to the big boys table. And not when we fail to get there as in last Season, as in this Season, on each occasion we bet on black and it came up red.
Yes, we were the first British Club to win the European Cup. Yes the UCL is set up for the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and their ilk to win it but with the right Players, right Manager and tactics we can get there. Malmo, wanted it more than us, they did not spend more than us, they identified the right Players and used the right tactics.
I have come to the conclusion that Celtic FC has no real footballing ambition to reach the UCL. They are more interested at playing at, try and if we fail, we’ll sell one or two, get three or four in their place, try and win the treble, if dodgy refereeing doesn’t stop us.
The quality of Players we are signing with the exception of a few, VVD, Wanyama, Craig Gordon are simply only good for the SPL. Perhaps we should look at the Malmo model.
We will most probably win more domestic honours in the coming years but there is only one thing domestically I long to live to see ten in a row, other than that I have no appetite for the domestic scene.
I ‘ll stop now, feel like I am beginning to repeat myself. I am as you may have guessed hurting. In short our Players are simply not good enough to take us to the next level. I have my doubts if Ronny is good enough to take us to the next level, he failed last year but to be fair to him he was just in the Door. We are a year on now. He promised fast attacking football, I see little evidence of this, especially last night. Report Card reads…Should do better, room for improvement.
weareallguttedcfc…but as ever…
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Rebus
I’m with you on the audit – I’m sure they evaluate stuff regularly but we’re due a big overview of the current state of play and there’s enough evidence that some parts aren’t going well.
Lennybhoy
Adam is injured and is out of the Welsh squad
Love
JNP
MARIBOR manager outfoxed Deila as did the Legia manager……
Why did Kris Commons say what he did? Very odd. Our manager and captain’s comments seem more in line with what we all witnessed.
Commons didn’t look frightened to me
A ridiculous comment from Deila …And very demeaning
PARKHEADCUMSALFORD. I think it shows everyone is not pulling in the same way Kris Commons was being in my opinion disrespectful by contradicting the manager. When that happens in order to ensure the manager maintains his position the player usually moves on however I have a feeling Kris is not the only one who is not pulling in the same direction as Ronny.H.H.
RD will have to nip this in the bud or dare I say it he is in danger of losing the dressing room and we know were that leads.
Remember Chris Sutton hitting the post in Switerland when we needed a goal to put us through? We went into the Uefa Cup and went all the way to SEVILLE.
Look at the Celtic team that played that night against Basel – and failed to get us into the Champions League, a competition incidentally that we have NO CHANCE of ever winning.
It will be won by the Spanish, German or possibly English. It is set up that way. At least we have a remote possibility of winning the Europa League, a small consolation.
Our ideal position would be the creation of two league – one for Eastern European smaller nations ( in football terms) and one for Western Europe.
These leagues could each have four qualifying places for the Champions League, just like England gets. Celtic would play against teams like Malmo, Ajax, Porto, Rapid Vienna etc.
These leagues would restore a natural balance in European football, protecting the hertitage of the European Cup.
Last night Celtic lost. The manager needs to take the blame.
It doesn’t alter the fact that the money from the modern commercial game has passed us by and Celtic should be doing more to address this. There are plenty of other proud clubs in the smaller nations around Europe who are in the same position.
Lennybhoy
Have to disagree on the Griff. Started two games and has 3 goals in Europe this season. Should have been 4 but we shot ourselves in the foot yet again with the penalty v Starjan. The doesn’t cut it at this level doesn’t cut it for me. Easy throw away comment. Put Henke up there last night and he would have struggled Leigh got two half chances and nothing else. One of few players absolved of any criticism for me. I have said it before and will say it again. If Scott McDonald can score CL goals so can Leigh Griffiths. He is a far superior striker.
LB
One name, Boerrigter, juat about sums up all that is wrong with our player acquisition policy.
Despite fans and the birds on the trees hollering that he was injury prone, someone inside Celtic Park decided that they were top guns in the talent spotting department but were also handy with a bit of faith healing.
Result millions down the drain.
The Spirit of Arthur Lee on 26th August 2015 7:03 pm
All ifs and buts mate but would he have been if he stayed.
I know you take my point though…:)
Love back to you.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
winning captains on 26th August 2015 7:14 pm
At least we have a remote possibility of winning the Europa League, a small consolation. –
Sorry with the present squad not even a remote possibility.
I may be proved wrong but we will struggle to get out of EL group stage.
The truth is that on the European stage we are also rans.
See more at: http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/where-did-it-all-go-wrong/comment-page-7/#comment-2663794
Not Celtic related but Manure game is free on BT Sport tonight.
Just in case you are doing nothing.
No doubt a few of you are washing your hair.
Qunno
The Ajax manager told us not to buy Derk.
LB
If you like to gamble
I tell you I’m your man
You win some lose some
All the same to me
The pleasure is to play
Makes no difference what you say
I don’t share your greed
The only card I need is
The Ace of Spades
Motörheadcsc
Where did it go wrong?
Resting 9 players on the weekend.
Changing the defence.
Missing chances.
And the obvious, gees a break ref. First goal was a handball and you disallowed a perfectly good goal we scored. We should have been winning 1-0 instead of losing. Final score 1-1. Celtic qualify.
Never mind. Looking forward to Saturday and to the EL games.
winning captains on 26th August 2015 7:14 pm
Cannot compare the Seville Team/Squad to present one, sorry.
You talk about separate Leagues split geographically. Why not go back to basics, the Champions League for the respective Champions and not for the runners up and some cases third an fourth places. I know the answer, too much money to be had.
if it is set up for us to be in the EL, we should let Aberdeen or somebody else win the League or our Custodians be honest and tell us, look we are never going to win the UCL so we’ll do our best with what we have and if we fail, we’ll try and emulate Seville.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Quite a few asking questions about Johansen’s performance and his relationship with the manager. Johansen simply cannot play as he does in Europe. He is worse than a man down. For an international player, his lack of tactical discipline is ridiculous. Armstrong does a good job on the left but people should not forget that his best position is central. I’d have Commons or Armstrong before SJ any day.
Sorry to say it but we are just not good enough for Champions League and are where we belong in the Europa League. How we do in that is worrying going with last nights display. When we cannot beat a team where one of their main players is Berget ( a Celtic failure), does not fill me with confidence. I feel we play at too slow a pace and alway take that extra pass. We did not test their midget goalie enough last night and the best team won. The doubts are beginning to creep in about RD ability to manage my team.
I think we are on the right track. Last night was disappointing but we play in a footballing backwater and have to punch above our weight to progress. It won’t be much different in the Europa League. You have to look at the calibre of player in the sides that compete for the CL and understand what they cost. Yes, we are as good on our day as the Malmo’s of the world, but sometimes it just doesn’t come together as we hope.
For what it’s worth, I would rest Johansen immediately. He has been off form for quite some time and is not adding value at present. A rest will give him a much needed kick up the ass. He will come good again
I’m not clear where we go from here. We probably have to accept that the best we can hope for is ten in a row in what is a league going backwards at a rate of knots. Being competitive at the CL level is in our past. This is accepted by our Board. You don’t buy players at the level of Ciftci in the expectation of competing at CL level as we have in the past. We have compensated for CL failure in recent years by selling on our prize assets. That inevitably means your team gets weaker year on year and we saw the result of that last night. And we are now running out of prize assets. Once Virgil goes that’s it. No-one else in our squad will demand big money in future. It’s another strategy that appears to have had it’s day. Our recruitment policy screams the big time is in the past. I like Ronny Deila and I would give him time to improve the team, but he’s not big time and never will be. Others have commented on the mediocrity of the forwards we’ve brought in. Rasmussen, Pukki, Balde, Miku, Scepovic, Ciftci. I like Griffiths and he’ll do a job for us, but the Celtic I grew up with always had great forwards, no matter how bad the rest of our team was. It’s been an area of relative weakness in recent years and the club appears to have no plan to change the policy of buying the £1-2 million dud. Ten in a row and unglamorous nights in the Europa League with a modest team. That’s the future we’re being asked to buy into. If it ever gets to the stage where Sevco win the league we’ll look back on this period as a missed opportunity to make us invincible in Scotland.
Where did it all go wrong?
Did it all go wrong?
How many, hand and heart, did not feel that the game was up when we could not defend a last minute corner last week?
LENNYBHOY
I’m not saying this team compares to the SEVILLE season Celtic. What I am saying is that that Celtic team also failed to get into the Champions League.
Reverting to original format would do nothing to re-distribute media money. Celtic’s lack of TV money playing within the Scottish League has us in chains.
Philbhoy
My apologies if my earlier post caused you any upset.
I had not read back and I had wrongly presumed that it was your wife with the health scare.
It goes without saying that I wish you, your daughter and your wife the best of good health.
TT
LiviBhoy on 26th August 2015 7:14 pm
All about opinions mate but I really do not rate Leigh as a worthy Striker to get us there in Europe. It was not meant as a throw away comment I don’t like to base a comment on the evidence of one game. Yes he has scored in Europe but who has he scored against. I am the wrong man to ask about Scott McDonald as I was not his biggest fan.
Henrik in my opinion would have created his own chances last night, he in my opinion would have done better than Leigh last night.
I am struggling to give pass marks to many last night.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
………… peeks head round the door to see who’s in….
winning captains on 26th August 2015 7:33 pm
we are agreed on the reason why we will not revert back to the original format.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
I am astounded how many folk in the last week seem to be agreeing with the gospel I have been preaching on here for years.
Relentless downsizing and worshipping rigidly at the altar of fiscal prudence has got us where we are.
And don’t give us any guff about what reckless spending has done to THEM.
Nobody is asking Celtic to spend like money is going out of fashion.
However, the odd loosening of the purse strings would do no harm.
Pfayr.
It was a ridiculous comment from RD, just more ammo for the smsm and the Feckin huns in work.
As if the performance and result wasn’t bad enough :(
RD was let down by players who also let down the fans and themselves.
what was proved to us all last night?
Its not all about budgets and when you have a limited budget you need to be smart with it!!!
on the evidence of my eyes we do not have one player who could argue they are deserving of 10k a week wages, never mind 20k. i want Celtic paying top wages to players who earn it
i would rather we had 6 guys who genuinely earned 30k per week with another 10 upstarts getting about 5-10k per week, forget all the bull about disharmony on the squad, disharmony on the terraces is far more worrying
hh
thetimreaper on 26th August 2015 7:27 pm
I would agree with you on that. In fact I would go as far as to say I would sell Johansen.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Hi jobo…
Most have plasters on their fingers from typing… Just me and you now :)
Lennybhoy
Fair comment but I would have played Griff from the start in all our qualifiers. Far too much chopping and changing. Ciftci will be useful at fir park, firhill, rugby park, Inverness etc. Never a European standard player at the minute. Should have been nowhere near a start. Griffiths 2 goals last week show what he can do. He is on a par with Hooper for me. Playing one up front doesn’t cut it for me. It’s been proven so far this season that one up front doesn’t convert enough chances. We have all the ball and our striker is double marked. Two up front for me. Sign a partner for Griff and watch him hit 30+ goals.
LB
Ronny was wrong to slate the players publicly. Something WGS never done. Privately I bet he tore strips off them but gave the media nothing.
LB
What did RD say that was so upsetting???
the players are fucking cowards
they spent the whole nite chasing guys on a 10th their wages
sorry but you want the wages on offer you better live up to the billing
players cant take criticism well fucking preform and there will be none
only a couple of players can justifiably feel aggrieved in gordon, forrest and jenko, the rest where piss poor, simples
hh
Livibhoy
LG tried to put the laces through the ball for that chance when the defence and goalie hesitated, and sclaffed it wide.
Henrik would have lifted the ball deftly over the ‘keeper, turning away to celebrate even before the ball gently nestled in the welcoming Malmo net.
FACT!!
Malmö join a long list of competent, professional technical teams who have gubbed Celtic on a given night, although we were dreadful last night I didn’t think it was any worse than Braga or Utrecht or Artemedia, FFS even Sion beat us when they were 7th in the Swiss league.
As a wee aside I was getting my haircut today in Basel and heard a few snippets from punters in there.
“We sell all our best players, then expect to go to the CL” ” Sepp and the Uefa money obsession has killed the CL” and my personal favourite ” It’s all mafia money now with the CL and players contracts”
Morequestionsthananswers CSC