Very disappointing and we’re suffering from a lack of investment. We’re short in defence, especially now with the injuries there. We need another two strikers, we also need an option for the left side of midfield.
Lennon is making some bizzare decisions. He’s fucking about with a system that’s working for us. Brown is at his best on the right side of midfield, Ledley is best in the centre of midfield so why change it, the same applies to Stokes playing through the middle with a strike partner. The huns have bulked up their squad sufficiently and it’s embarrassing that they are investing more money in the playing squad than we are. Hard to see us going through now.
Very disappointing display. Not helped by the team set up and formation chosen by Neil on the right. The opposition are fairly average but they’ll be favourites to progress given the deadlock tonight and our away record in Europe.
Would emphasise the 4-4-2 point. We’ve been at our best under Lennon with Scott Brown on the right and Commons on the left. We seemed to start 4-4-2 with Ledley on the left and Commons on the right and a central two of Ki and Brown. We quickly reverted to a lopsided 4-5-1 with Stokes on the left, Ledley moving inside and Ki given licence to get forward. Then before half time Commons and Stokes switched wings. We seemed to start the second half with Samaras wide left and Stokes playing through the middle. And then we brought on our subs one by one. At no stage did we revert to the 4-4-2 with Brown on the right and Commons on the left. We changed it from the beginning (needlessly in my opinion) and changed it many times during the game but never went to the set up that’s served us best. Strange decisions by Neil.
Obviously we can point to the absent injured players upsetting our performance. Loovens and K Wilson were the first choice centre back partnership for the first SPL game. But aside from them, we’re now missing the 3 players that most supporters would have chosen as our top 3 players last season in Izaguirre, Kayal and Hooper.
But I still expected better. We weren’t impressive at all. Some of the passing was slow and it was careless too. We didn’t show the necessary guile and imagination to open them up and we lacked a cutting edge - not helped by the formation not suiting the likes of Stokes and Commons. I didn’t think Sion were too good and we should still have taken a 1-goal lead into the second leg based on the balance of play and a couple of decent chances carved out. But, limited though they were, it was still a step up from the SPL and some of our players didn’t (or weren’t capable) of raising their games accordingly. I thought M Wilson was dire. Commons was caught by the pace of the game a few times. Stokes and Samaras were both fairly poor - again the set up didn’t do them any favours. Brown’s passing reverted back to being very erratic too.
I thought Cha was our best player; his performance was a pleasant surprise. Big Dan also had a decent game and won most of his tackles and headers. Not much to get too excited about other than that. Ki was on the good side of average and Ledley was okay. Forrest was lively when he came on but his final ball wasn’t up to scratch. Maloney hit a decent freekick and was also busy.
As I said before the game, we’re still short in key positions (irrespective of injuries). We need a centre back and a striker still. Our attack was impotent at times tonight against an organised defence who defended deep and in numbers. Would like a powerful striker that could rough up a defence and take the ball into feet under pressure and create for himself. Also agree with Totti that we need left sided cover too - even a loan until Christmas while Izzy’s injured.
I think tonight emphasised that our squad is still short for this level. It’ll be tough to progress from here but preventing the away goal was a positive and, like I say, they didn’t seem to be worldbeaters.
Agreed with most of that, as evidenced by a few similar points in the article thread (which I’ll merge with this to keep things nice and neat).
I wasn’t convinced by Dan at all. One time near the end there he basically cheated in his positioning and let one of their lads with an easy ball in behind. Think it was just after the time Mulgrew stood off Feindouno (inexplicably) and Dan was way behind the other centre backs. He slid in eventually to concede a throw and got a round of applause but his starting position was woeful.
The lack of an away goal is a positive and springing Kayal and Hooper on them (if we can) will be a big boost.
Tactically, I agree with that assessment completely I think. Just the wrong starting lineup, then we changed formation when a simple switch of Ledley and Brown (with Commons switching with Brown if required) would have made all the difference but we went chasing the 4-5-1 instead. I don’t know if it was Lennon being overly cautious or what the rationale for it was but it really took all the edge off our attacks.
Even if you score second away then the opposition need two to go through.
It’s not the worst result though. Way back when I was a stats nerd I did a bit of research on probabilities and something like 66% of away teams that drew 0-0 went through. That figure was distorted by the fact that in some rounds the team that plays second is a higher seed so they’d be expected to win at home anyway.
I wouldn’t be much more confident (particularly with our defensive injuries) if Celtic had drawn 0-0 out there but with poor away form and the fact Utrecht and Braga completely dominated us away last season it’s hard not to be concerned.
I’ve always thought tactically it’s not a bad hand to play going away from home with the score at 0-0. If you can score first, the home team can start getting the support on their backs and managers are likely to make big tactical changes to get back into the game leading to further chances for the away side.
Setanta’s Will Downing has revealed on Twitter in response to a question from @RockoTFK that Setanta Ireland will be showing the second leg live next week.
Can we add anyone to the squad prior to the Celtic leg? I’m thinking we can’t…
Can’t add anyone new. But if we can get Hooper and Kayal back we’ll have improved the team no end.
I have a bad feeling about the fall-out from last night though. I think Lennon might look negatively on the contribution of Commons and Stokes and conclude that he can’t trust them in big games, rather than reviewing how he has used them in bigger games.
The more I look back on our 0-2 win at Ibrox last year the more damaging I think its legacy has been on our formation and tactics since. That was a surprising result at the time and the players showed great resolution to go there and win, particularly as we hadn’t been in great form. But ever since then Lennon has been tempted to play 4-5-1 (which is fine in theory if you have the personnel) and has treated some opposition with too much respect. They didn’t turn up to play last night, we should have taken them on far more aggressively.
Hard to argue with their assessment based on Thursday night’s performance but a bit premature in saying so publicly with another game to be played. Shades of Souness after the first leg against Blackburn in the Seville season so let’s hope we can destroy these cunts in the same way we did back in 2003. But, as one of them says, this is not the great Celtic team of that era.
Kayal and Hooper have trained this morning though.
Celtic are ‘not a great team’, say Swiss side Sion
By ANGUS WRIGHT
SION players did not hold back with their verdict on Celtic after their first leg stalemate at Parkhead. The Swiss outfit held Celtic to a goalless draw and the Parkhead side now face an uphill task to get through to the Europa League group stage.
Goran Obradovic, the Sion captain, said he was far from impressed with the Celtic team - but loved the Parkhead atmosphere. He said: "They are not a great team. I expected much more from them. This is not the great Celtic team of ten years ago.
“I certainly don’t think we are inferior to them in any way. Celtic were completely lacking in variety, although I suppose we shouldn’t complain too much about that. But the atmosphere and the singing was brilliant. I would love to play every week to fans like that.”
Obradovic’s view was echoed by team mate Arnaud Buhler, who couldn’t believe that Celtic didn’t put Sion under more pressure.
He said: "I think they were surprised at how well we moved the ball around. I expected this to be hell and be under so much more pressure. We believed in ourselves and we have the advantage now.
“The atmosphere in the ground was wonderful. You don’t get that in Switzerland, except perhaps at Basel, because football isn’t as popular as it is here.”
And Giovanni Sio was another Sion player who was surprised at how poor Neil Lennon’s side were. He admitted: “I thought Celtic were average. Certainly, their players are no better than ours.”
Mulgrew out for Thursday. Wilson has been dire at left back recently.
CHARLIE MULGREW is out of Celtic’s Europa League crunch against FC Sion.
The Hoops defender hobbled out of Sunday’s shock 1-0 SPL defeat to St Johnstone.
He will miss Thursday’s Swiss showdown and faces a two or three-week lay-off with a slight hamstring strain.
With Emilio Izaguirre out long-term, Neil Lennon will ask Mark Wilson to deputise at left-back.
The Celts boss will make a call on crocks Kelvin Wilson, Beram Kayal and Gary Hooper today.
If Wilson misses out, Victor Wanyama will start at centre-half alongside Daniel Majstorovic
Not that Mulgrew was in any way decent the other day but Wilson has been dire at left back lately. Really missing the balance, class, width, pace and forward threat offered by Izaguirre.
Not too confident about this game given the hapless defending and performance in general at the weekend but retain some hope on the basis that we’ll have Kayal, Hooper and K Wilson back all going well.
I see they won 2-0 away from home at the weekend with Feindouno scoring twice.
I’m worried about all parts of the team but Kayal, Hooper and K Wilson would be huge players to get back in the team.[/quote]
I see TFK are kicking off at 7pm on Thursday night. We should be able to see the second half of the encounter in Switzerland in the players’ lounge post game.
Obviously an awful lot depends on the fitness of the doubtful four (Wilson, Mulgrew, Kayal, Hooper) but there are tactical considerations too.
Lennon has been attracted by playing 4-5-1 in difficult away games before (though it only worked well once IMO). I’d be loathe to do that considering we need to score (something Sammy won’t do) given our penalties record and the fragility of our defence.
If everyone is fit (barring Izzy and Loovens and Rogne) I’d go:
Forster
Wilson Majstorovic Wilson Mulgrew
Brown Kayal Ki Ledley
Hooper Stokes
Lacks width in midfield but without having a player capable of playing on their own up front I don’t think we can start Forrest or McCourt (and Commons is in poor form).
Harder to know what to do in the event of different scenarios but I must say I’d be tempted by M Wilson at centre back and Ledley at left back with Cha at right back if Kelvin is out. They didn’t have much aerial strength and M Wilson should be capable of filling in there if required.
Wouldn’t really be considering Samaras, think it should be Maloney again if Hooper doesn’t make it.
(I’ve actually got an Excel thing I wrote that I might share later which is a rather wonderful selection tool and it basically asks you to rate every player in every position and then when you mark someone as unavailable it moves everyone around to find the best team. I haven’t had the time to put different formations in it yet though).
