Since Dinamo Kiev inflected Celtic’s first home defeat in European competition, on what was our first European game after winning the European Cup four months earlier, last night’s shocker to Sparta Prague was our 36th and worst home reversal in Europe.
Three years ago PSG scored five, but, unlike Sparta, they did not hit the woodwork on two other occasions, and they are PSG. Last season Cluj also scored four, winning by a single goal, but by any measure, across 58 years of home European ties, that is without shadow of a doubt, the low point. We are now the team fans all over Europe point to and laugh, all the money, yet Cluj, Copenhagen, Ferenvcaros, Sparta.
What has gone wrong?
It is not the formation. Without changing to three at the back, I don’t think we would have won the league last season. This season, we tried four, then three, then four, then both defensive lines at different times of games, but the formation is not the problem. It is possible to defend, control games and create chances with either line-up. And as we have seen, a change in formation does not make a slow or clumsy defender fast and assured. If only it were as simple as Scott Brown’s advancing years, or injuries and absentees; they are red herrings, this malaise is more serious.
Post-match, Callum McGregor and Neil Lennon spoke well. The player admitted to humiliation, the manager walked that fine line of showing contained anger, but he was clear: a lack of application from the players was to blame. What a thought to ponder.
I am fond of many in our squad; they have delivered success beyond my wildest imagination. I am fond of the manager too, for the same reason – results are all, and his filled the well some time ago. If I thought sacking the manager would safely resolve matters, I would tell you so.
It is Neil’s responsibility to put the players on the field in the correct frame of mind to compete at their best every time. He is failing in this, his criticism last night is self-directed, but sacking him right now would be a Gambler’s Play. It might work, it might result in carnage, anyone convinced they know how it would play out, underestimates the complexity of the question.
What I know for sure is that we stand at an historic precipice and no one is coping. We need to reframe the challenge ahead, if we do not, the season will play out as you now fear. Together, we have a great opportunity to record magnificent achievements, a fourth consecutive treble, 10 and all the glory that comes with it, but all you see are demands weighing everyone down.
This responsibility lies on Neil Lennon and the players because they are winners. They have the Scottish Government hammering them while punching for Newco, they have 10,000 critics weighing-in online (which they read and are not helped by). These are the wages of success, lesser mortals have six critics, let this fuel their engine.
After the game, Chris Sutton insisted Europe was still important to Celtic. Chris, you don’t live in the towns of Lanarkshire. Europe has gone this season; we need to reframe this too. Our three remaining Europa weeks are an opportunity to develop the squad and rest weary legs, while Newco will have at least five competitive Europa games. We must now think of this as an advantage; make the most of it.
We know how to win leagues and trophies. We were on our knees at New Year but while others “bottled it” and we got on with the business of winning. There are no white, saltire or union flags here, only green league title flags. To the manager, coaches and players, what a privilege this challenge is.
Relive some of the better days that took us here in Celtic: Treble Treble, by Alex Gordon, a 100 page full colour booklet on how the Invincible, Double and Treble Trebles were won. Our stock is available here for £5 each (retail £9.95).
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Lennon clique in force today …bury your heads as much as you want but you don’t want the best for the club end of….
man utd playing excellent passing football
shows it can be done even with a manager who is probably out his depth
man utd playing excellent passing football
shows it can be done even with a manager who is probably out his depth
—
and a dodgy defence
RC………Interesting you suggest Ajeti and Griff for Sunday. I thought Ajeti had an outstanding game against Lille and his combination and holdup play with Moi was impressive. i fully expected Neil would have played the Swiss lad against Aberdeen bringing on Eddie later in the match. Surprised Ajeti did not start against the Czechs again last Thursday with Eddie coming on off the bench. With Ajeti we have an intelligent footballer and we know the Griff can deliver and despite what Sutton thinks Griff is no Billy bunter and looks to have regained his fitness.
ONENIGHTINLISBON
Big Billy holding that cup aloft must get to your very soul.
Lenny getting the quadruple treble, nurse…nurse.
H.H. Mick
RC
Did you actually watch Bitton & El Hammed on Thurs night ?
And you want them to be the core of our defence 🤔
And include a totally disinterested Ntcham in midfield
Wow
ERNIE LYNCH on 7TH NOVEMBER 2020 1:02 PM
Ah yes, the SSP. Red on the outside orange on the inside. That explains a lot.
?
i give you ex mp for livi.Lodge member and socialist
i realised socialism is malleable but a member of the worlds first fascist organisation.rips the biscuit….
ripped their heart out as folk seen thro them
MELBOURNE MICK on 7TH NOVEMBER 2020 12:14 PM
I got Samoa from Polynesia & I knew a samovar was a Russian tea pot.
That was enough for me.
ONENIGHTINLISBON on 7TH NOVEMBER 2020 1:09 PM
Lennon clique in force today …bury your heads as much as you want but you don’t want the best for the club end of
chase yourself with your girning nonsense
you have been asked several times who? what? how do we change for better?
do we get anything?
nope!
girns,more girns and even more girns
part of a Neil Lennon clique?
why? due to you being asked to stop gi in it bonnie langford and skweam and skweam elsewhere.
hh
LETS ALL
A Man U fan joined us today , saw the Celtic tops and thought
” that’s for me ” lol.
I thought our lot could moan, feck me, they beat us hands down.
H.H. Mick
Hooooooray I’m in.
After 5 hours and various devices.
I ended up in a queue at ikea because of not being able to log in.
D :)
was there not a pic of the fascist cult members which included blairite cult members taken in Parliament?
hh
CORNELIUS
Nice one.
H.H. Mick
NORRIEM on 7TH NOVEMBER 2020 1:20 PM
RC
Did you actually watch Bitton & El Hammed on Thurs night ?
currently they are the best we have available and that’s a shocking state of affairs to be in, Duff y is a write off imo.
the only way we can include the Brighton loanee is to have a sweeper with pace playing behind a back 3.
LETS ALL
A Man U fan joined us today , saw the Celtic tops and thought
” that’s for me ” lol.
I thought our lot could moan, feck me, they beat us hands down.
H.H. Mick
—
to be fair they have an 80 million quid defender and their defence is still pish
thats good reason for a moan
Goalie
Julian
Ajer Duffy Elhamed
Turnbull McGregor Soro Laxalt
Ajeti Griff
MM
They we’re only moaning in a pantomime villain sort of way. 🤗
MICK – nice, too, to see the Opposition’s O’Brien’s popularity plummet after shit-canning Dan every single day. And clearly, there’s a time when collective, sheep-like obedience to a leader’s edict works to great COVID effect.
Embdy see the highlights of Brendan’s Leicester stuff Portugal’s 2nd top Braga? Very easy on the eye.
No crisis of confidence in that team !
GENE
A dae that when the princess disnae let me huv another Rid Biddy.
BOOOOOOoo oh awe right then.
G,night all you lovely bhoys/ghirls, another great day awaits tomorrow
for the Celtic family.
It’s not always easy, but it’s always worthwhile.
KTF.
H.H. Mick
Is that ‘Grand Old team’ blasting thru the Everton speakers? Never knew the Toffees played that one too!
Rumour Elyounoussi spotted on a plane to London yesterday…
Bada
Did he have Neil’s boot sticking out his bum.
Quadro
Where have you been for the last 30 years.
Rumour Elyounoussi spotted on a plane to London yesterday…
—
hope he had his phone on airplane mode
Team for tomorrow
Goalkeeper
Back 4
Middle 4
Front 2
This team selection is dead easy
Wait a minute
Maybe
Back 3
Middle 5
1 + 1 up front
Let me sleep on it 😴
MELBOURNE MICK on 7TH NOVEMBER 2020 1:20 PM
Grow up.
Accept criticism is allowed.
This isn’t Communist Russia….
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 7TH NOVEMBER 2020 12:19 PM
Good piece,
You mention the demented support,despite the array of trophies, problem we have is that many of these “supporters ” on Social Media are either false or Daily Record devotees,not an original thought in their head.
Like many others I’m not pleased with current form,but as I have said previously I think NL needs a bit of support,and such was his eagerness to get back here he agreed to conditions ( Asst Mgr constraints ) he is now suffering from.
Of course Duffy taking time, but was I the only one who watched both Sevco Centre halves being outstripped to a ball they had advantage of, must just have been me,as Raman went off on a rant about the Morelos goal scoring exploits. Lets ignore losing a 2 goal lead and 2 points to 10 men. Had that been Celtic !!!!!
Sorry but Bain, poor,go with Barkas,that said had PL not marginalised the conditions of the FF return to the extent it gave him a decision to make ,the Goalkeeper would not have been a problem.
That said FF was disgraceful in his behaviour,changing his mind after verbal agreement ( Alledgedly ) by which time Craig Gordon,who had been offered another derisory offer,had gone.
Do none of our ” Execs ” use pen and paper as Contracts before releasing a player like CG.
Its no wonder NL is conflicted regarding who he plays, Duffy in= Julien huff,Ntcham=Permanent huff, Edouard = ” I’m, Fatigued ” ( Unless its in France or Shop Window ) .
Manager should eliminate all these elements or persons who are conflicted,and pick a team accordingly.
————————————————————————————
Reading back.
Outrage at comment, “Daughter of Ayrshire” but nothing said about ” Boris Brennan, friend of Peter” since when did a politician of a Party who are no friends of Celtic,hold sway over a high profile Celtic man.
HH
It’s the middle of the park we need to sort out
Not providing cover for the defence and slow in any build up
That’s where I’d start.
He bought the ticket on Thursday night.
Neil has stuck by Moi and selected him when his form didn’t justify it. Apart from a few flashes of excellent play he’s been disappointing.
ONENIGHTINLISBON
I’ve grown up with the first British team to win the European cup.
Treble treble winners, possible quadruple treble winners with a wee
unrepentant fenian at the helm.
That must hurt.
H.H. Mick
GENE – ditto Brown and Edouard.
Reading back.
Outrage at comment, “Daughter of Ayrshire” but nothing said about ” Boris Brennan, friend of Peter”
—
because ‘daughter of ayrshire’ has more than a hint of sectarianism about it
GENE – Australia !
LETS ALL DO THE HUDDLE on 7TH NOVEMBER 2020 2:00 PM
——————————————————————————————
Factually correct.If the coat fits.
MELBOURNE MICK – Unrepentant Fenian or not, an expensively assembled squad is not playing for him. We have played 2 or 3 good 45 mins in 4 months. How long does any top team with title aspirations wait? You can’t sack the squad and the board won’t take the can.
It’s always the manager that takes the fall.
Nature of the business.
Factually correct.If the coat fits.
—
oh aye
she may well be an arch hun and she is from ayrshire so could be factually correct
but not a comment that i think should be made in the leader article
and in fact i suspect she isnt an arch hun, probably doesnt give a shite about all that stuff, and possibly knows sod all about football and popular culture in general
i do also suspect though that her advisers in such areas will be arch huns (tho not brit huns obviously) and so will be advising her accordingly as i reckon has been seen in Covid-gate
DENIABHOY
I understand that, you’ll see from my previous posts I don’t absolve Lenny
from criticism, but experience tells me not to jump too soon, and stick with
someone who’s brought us 5 of the 9, if I’m wrong I’ll put both hands up
immediately.
H.H. Mick
LETS ALL DO THE HUDDLE on 7TH NOVEMBER 2020 2:00 PM
I think it’s understadable that a Scottish nationalist of her age and from her background might have an ingrained and unconcious bias towards a football club that is a quintessentially Scottish institution rather than one regarded by many as being more Irish than Scottish.