Bad couple of days for the IRA’s sporting wings.
I am delighted for Zlatan.
Somebody start a “Champions League” thread please.
In April, because that’s when the competition starts.
The qualifying for this seasons one probably did start last April!
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That’s been generous and investing the competition with an unwarranted degree of competitiveness. May I would say, not April.
Watched the last 15 mins of this. Celtic appear to be a rabble of a side. Is the permanent lack of competitive league games having more impact than they realise?
Once all the English shite is gone basically, so April
Well that was heartbreaking. Unfortunately that lacked guts and guile in equal measure. A real throwback to this time last year when we were similarly clueless against mediocre opposition.
###Ronny
Serious question marks over the nous of Ronny. Got his tactics wrong, didn’t learn from last week’s problems, didn’t have a plan to cope with Rosenberg, didn’t have a Plan B, didn’t make the right changes, changed things too late, didn’t get the team playing with any sort of purpose or belief.
Some of his worst in-game decisions were:
- Persisting with Johansen to the end
- Very slow to recognise Bitton’s disciplinary problem
- Complete lack of urgency once it went 2-0
- Taking Forrest away from the right wing where he had the full back in trouble
- Putting Commons out on the right wing where he’s ineffective
- Leaving the back 4 in tact for far too long
Some of his worst pre-game decisions were:
- Not getting blockers on their runs on corners. Unforgiveable given what we saw last week
- Getting all the zonal markers all wrong. Mulgrew was too weak to be dealing with the front post
- Putting together a game plan to fire crosses in to Griffiths who isn’t suited to that
- No plan to deal with Rosenberg
- No plan to deal with Berget
- No plan to attack Yotún more
You wonder if Deila, Collins and Kennedy are capable enough or experienced enough to really sort out the defence. We don’t have particularly capable personnel but we’re poor at defending set pieces and (curiously) we’ve been awful at defending throw-ins for years (from Lennon’s time). We just give up way too many crosses.
This isn’t the end for Deila. We struggled for 2 seasons in Europe under Lennon before making a CL breakthrough. He’s had meagre enough resources to work with and he hasn’t had enough games against top class opposition to learn enough but he does need to take lessons from this. I’m nothing if not a gentleman, so here they are for him:
#Players who were ok/good
- Gordon
- Forrest
###Gordon
Gordon made some excellent saves. Even on the second goal he nearly pulled off a remarkable double save having just done one a few moments before. He had one particularly good save in the first half.
But he had some really poor moments too. He was poor with the ball at his feet. Not quite Niall Morgan, but he gave it away plenty and is very slow on his right side in trying to be too careful. He was also weak on corners. He was too far back on his line, he didn’t learn from the first few inswingers and he needed to be more commanding.
Still a fine keeper and a great asset to have. In the expected absence of Virgil he needs to be a key organiser in that defence now. Not sure he’s doing enough of that at the moment.
###Forrest
Had the beating of his man inside and out, and the only positive from this Malmo affair is his rejuvenation. Still needs to take more responsibility in getting on the ball and his decision-making still needs work.
#Players who were poor but not irretrievably so
- Bitton
- Brown
- Griffiths
###Brown
Not an abject performance, but nowhere near the standard he is capable of and the standard we needed. Didn’t get enough leadership from him. They had plenty of joy in exploiting the space behind Brown and Bitton in both legs and we never got to grips with that. Brown is experienced enough to be able to recognise those dangers.
He also didn’t take enough attacking responsibility. He was actually causing them problems when he did get forward but it was far too late.
###Bitton
Nice touches and still looks a class act but our midfield was overrun and he seemed to get caught out positionally an awful lot when they were breaking. This was a feature of the first leg too. I think he needs to hold himself 5-10 yards deeper when we’re turning it over so he can come on to the ball, it gets played in behind him too easily, too often. Had to come off when he did because he was going off anyway but wouldn’t fault him on fouling himself out.
###Griffiths
In his form of recent weeks that was really disappointing. We didn’t play to his strengths at all but he didn’t really look like he was gambling on many of them.
More disappointing was his failure to take any of his chances. Missed one on his right foot early on and a bouncing one of his left - poor not to work the keeper with either of them.
#Players who were rank but will have better days
- Armstrong
- Johansen
- Boyata
- Virgil
- Janko
- Commons
###Armstrong:
Still can’t make my mind up on how good Armstrong is. He has the ability but none of it was in evidence tonight. He was stuck too far out on the wing, when his threat is coming inside. He was poor on the ball when he did get a chance, he was a bit timid in the air and in challenges and his crossing was poor. Deserved to come off at half time. We know he’s better but he needs to show some maturity. He’s 23 now, not far off Bitton, Griffiths, Van Dijk - old enough to be a key player, not a promise for the future.
###Johansen
Lucky not to be in a category all by his lonesome. He was abysmal. He managed the unusual feat of combining being anonymous with being conspicuously poor on the ball. Took nowhere near enough responsibility to get on the ball in dangerous areas, was far too conservative in his passing, was far too predictable in that conservative passing, went around looking for silly fights a couple of times, didn’t do any of his trademark pressing, hid at the back for the last while and wouldn’t even take the responsibility of throwing the ball forward.
At least we know he’s better. Much, much better. But he needs to show that in big games, not just against SPL fodder.
###Boyata
Hmmm, he is a concern. Doesn’t look confident at all. He makes plenty of errors with the ball. He gets exposed in plenty of 1v1s which I can’t work out if it’s because he is naive or because he’s covering for Van Dijk. He did stand up well a couple of times to prevent Rosenberg getting turned but in open play he was far too open and he got bullied a bit by Rosenberg. Jury is still out on him but he may be our best centre back in a week’s time.
###Virgil
The pattern of Virgil being less than brilliant in Europe continues. He was by no means the only culprit tonight obviously but he always seems terribly individualistic in his reaction to events. He was throwing his arms up in the air after every error but made plenty himself. He was aghast at some of our passing from the back, but dribbled into trouble regularly himself. Getting done on a “pick” from the first corner was a bit naive because there was no run involved, it was just a man standing by him. But he was out-manoeuvred for the second goal and at other set pieces too. I think we got the wrong players in the wrong zones tonight but over 2 legs Virgil was really poor at corners. I think he’s gone. I think we’re going to struggle without him. I’m not sure he’s all that special though. But he does need replacing.
###Janko
Early flurries looked promising but he got beaten by Berget a few times and then he lost the plot. He went from an attacking threat to being pedestrian and clueless with the ball at his feet. His crossing needs lots of work, it’s loopy and slow, and he checks back too often instead of taking on his man. Most worrying for a full back was how he switched off and looked uninterested any time his man escaped from him. He’s capable in 1v1 situations where his pace and strength helps him greatly, but he needs to learn much more about the art of defending on that showing. Better than Ambrose, not at Matthews’ level yet anyway.
###Commons
Got 45 minutes which was probably Ronny’s only good decision on the night. Wasn’t helped by being shunted out to the right wing for the first while but it’s up to him to make more of it and he was as lost looking as usual when deployed out there. Came inside where he looked more dangerous but it all summed to nothing. A wild shot betrayed his lack of confidence in his surrounding players and he had a couple of chances to play players in but went the busy side instead each time.
I think Ronny is struggling to find a role for Commons. He can’t play with Johansen regularly and it’s not surprising that Johansen is preferred ahead of him in general. But he seems to need regular games to keep sharp and I don’t know if they are going to be forthcoming.
#Players who weren’t on long enough to rate (bizarrely)
- GMS
Not sure how long he got but it wasn’t near enough
#Players who weren’t on long enough to rate but still had time to look cumbersome
- Ciftci
Not writing him off based on what we’ve seen so far but he was poor again. He didn’t come to the ball when it was played long to him, he doesn’t seem to have the strength to win physical battles and he seems distracted by silly “battles” with defenders instead of giving them a proper hard time. A target man who can also play as a creative type is a strange breed. So far he looks a bit lost in both roles.
#Players who were abysmal and who I am writing off for good
- Mulgrew
I don’t know why I keep falling for this guy. I think it might have a little to do with his left foot, but I think it’s mostly to do with the quality of the alternatives. But when you see him in midfield, you think he’s never a midfielder but he could be an emergency centre back. When you see him at centre back you think he’s never a centre back but at a push he could be a limited left back. And then when you see him at left back you remember why he got moved out of there in the first place. And you remember why you swore before that you never want to see him again.
He seems to have gained a yard of sluggishness with his recent lay-off which is impressive for a man as sluggish as he already was. There was a truly horrible moment in the second half late on when a cross to the back post went over his head. He trundles after it with all the agility of an overweight incontinent pensioner with an adult diaper shoved into his shorts. A hunched inelegant looking trundle to just about rescue a barely rolling ball from a throw-in so that he could then do the inevitable and side foot it back timidly to the halfway line from our position 20 yards out and we could rebuild.
That was a little insight into just how unathletic the man is. There was a similar warning early in the first half when a diagonal ball that seemed directed at his head somehow managed to miss him as he studied it in flight, took a few seconds deciding whether he needed to turn his head or not and then eventually ducked his head a little to avoid the humiliation of a Braafheid moment. The ball landed for Berget who ran at a dazed and confused Mulgrew and Charlie simply stepped out of the way to usher him into the box.
He was dreadful for the second goal, I can’t remember but I assume he was dreadful for the first goal. He was dreadful on the ball, he was dreadful off the ball. My wife finds him attractive which I find odd but she’ll soon lose her soft spot for him when I tell her how he left his kids in his car. A shambles of a performance and there have been two many shambleses for them to be a coincidence.
So Celtic collectively shit their pants.
Any appetite for a post mortem?
I’ve just written one mate. Pools of tears on the keyboard.
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season over for Celtic
they should just hand them the SPL now and be done with it
yer man on TVs having some lovely digs about signing poor players from the likes of Dundee United and the Man City reserves.
Brian Kerr clearly reads the forum as he was well up on Maccabi TA.
BTW in their last 6 meetings Maccabi have never beaten Basil in a game of football , tonight tho, winning the game didnt matter
2013 CL
basil 1 maccabi 0
maccabi 3 basil 3
2014 UEFA cup
basil 3 maccabi 0
maccabi 0 basil 0
2015 UCL
basil 2 maccabi 2
maccabi 1 basil 1
end of post
A good read, pal.
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Semi-finals start on April 26th this season, mate, so I stand by my previous statement.
With regard to Celtic, conceding three goals like that from corners is a bit of dead giveaway that the manager hasn’t a clue. You could train monkeys to defend better than that.
What are the chances of Malmo having fielded an ineligible player? Maybe Celtic will get back into it? Seems to be their preferred route of progressing in Europe these days.
Rangers’ return can’t come quick enough. At least a slightly more interesting level of total mediocrity and irrelevance will be provided when that happens.
A bit of a wake up call for Celtic and their fans particularly the ones that think Virgil v d is better than john stones.
For me Celtic completely missed an opportunity during rangers demise. They should have turned to complete youth and rebuild their academy instead of investing average continental players in the feint hope of making the group stages of the CL.
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The very few positives we can take from that:
- Chrissy Sutton was excellent both during the game and afterwards in the studio. Got everything bang on.
- No excuses afterwards. That was a shocking refereeing performance. He got lots of things wrong for both teams. Think Bitton and Rosenberg should have been sent off but the disallowed goal being the most obviously and blatantly incorrect decision we’ve seen in a long time. But Brown, Bitton, Ronny afterwards all acknowledged we were really poor, didn’t play with any confidence and deserved to lose and there was no misfortune about it.
- I like that yellow kit. It will look terrific on a Thursday night on 3E.
They have invested a fair amount in the youth academy to be fair. But:
- these things don’t produce the goods overnight and certainly not in 2-3 years.
- even if there were players coming through now they’d hardly be ready for CL level.
- you can’t change a country on your own. There isn’t an awful lot of good talent coming through in Scotland, though they’re better at developing players than plenty of countries
I agree that it needs to be part of Celtic’s strategy. Irrespective of whether it’s Partick or Sevco who provide the local competition, Celtic sell their best players to reinvest in others. The model of Ajax or Porto or Benfica or whoever only produces success when your’re selling if you are producing your own quality young players to provide depth to the squad and if you have access to a low cost market. Celtic aren’t good enough yet at producing young players but the investment in facilities has taken place and there was a decision last year to put more into that instead of into the team. But equally important is the work permit issue that allows Ajax to hoover up players from Dutch colonies and allows Benfica get players from South America. Celtic don’t have access to a cheap market so it’s a bit naive (of Celtic, not of you) to expect a strategy of buying low and selling high to work. You can’t just be better at every other club at buying talent - you can be better at developing it, particularly better than English clubs where some are closing academies because of the low rewards when players move to the big clubs at 17/18.
Ireland?
I don’t think Janko is anywhere near good enough for Celtic, bhoys. I’ve never came across a player as one footed in my life, I’d be surprised if he’s even touched the ball with his left in a game for Celtic yet, there’s being one footed and then there’s Janko. He refuses to even control or play a simple 5 yard pass under no pressure with his left foot, at this stage of his career he has probably been in football acadamies at professional clubs for the guts of 8/9 years now so it’s impossible to train it out of him.
Depressing times ahead, Boyata’s early Celtic career has been blighted with mistakes under no pressure, with Van Dijk certain to leave now we are in big bother, very disappointed in Van Dijk tonight - he looked to me like a guy who knows he’s for the off and didn’t really give a toss.
If we get £10m in for Van Dijk then we need to spending it all and getting in a left back and pair of centre backs up to this level. Is Fisher still knocking about, I honestly think I’d rather he was given a run at right back than what I’ve seen of Janko.
I think they can do more here. There are far fewer opportunities at EPL clubs now obviously. And I think Celtic is a much better road for a promising youngster than gambling what division Blackburn will be in when you get to senior level in 2/3 years.
But that’s at youth level. At senior level, I don’t know the talent is there for the level required. Richie Towell always looks the best player on the park at Dundalk. Didn’t make it at Celtic, didn’t make it at Hibs. He has improved but he’s no better than average SPL level at absolute best.