That’s a fairly ridiculous take after a fairly comfortable win.
Created far more high quality chances than Livingston and deservedly won by a couple of goals.
Lots of room for improvement but there was nothing indefensible about that today. I’d rather some defensive vulnerability in exchange for opening up defences more and that’s what has happened so far.
We don’t have a squad that can just assume to win any games this season. We have struggled in plenty of matches. Bigger tests to come but no point criticising the better performances.
3 of the starting back 5 missing today? Nancy looks like just the type of coach that could transform Celtic in Europe, the bits I have watched has had some really quality football that hasn’t been seen since Ange left. But the narrative seems to be set and it’s hard to see him there at the start of next season.
You’d say Sarrachi, Johnston and Carter Vickers would all start. So would Jota (I assume) and Iheanacho.
The injury problems predate Nancy and affected the other managers too. But it was a thin squad and missing 5 starters for months is a big ask.
My main positive impression of Nancy so far is that we had problems at both ends of the pitch under Rodgers. O’Neill improved both to be fair in his spell. But I think most people would accept that the problems in creating chances were the bigger challenge to solve and the one that Rodgers had no answer for. There were concerns then that Nancy’s three at the back would be too conservative against low blocks. So far, Celtic look to have solved that problem. Teams are drawn out (maybe partly related to our poor defending admittedly) and we’re creating far better chances than before. That doesn’t just happen by being reckless. There’s a methodology to it that is working for now anyway in an attacking sense.
And Schmeichel. I reckon Nancy can transform Celtic, whether he gets the time to do it is another matter. If he doesn’t have a competent striker by Jan 10th then he should be looking for his pay-off anyway.
I disagree 100%. We all have eyes and should be able to see what is going on in front of us. There are tough games and there are tough games, we should not be as open at the back as we were today against anyone, never mind fucking Livingston. Nancy turning today into a basketball match for me is yet again evidence that this fella is never a Celtic manager, will never change and his refusal to adapt to the cards at his disposal will cost us sooner rather than later.
You’re exaggerating to the point of ridiculousness.
We weren’t that wide open today. We conceded two. A couple of scrappy set pieces that could have caused us more problems but they didn’t really get or miss any big chances apart from the goals. So if you think we should concede fewer chances than that against every opponent then that’s just fantasy stuff.
It’s a results business as everyone said when Nancy was losing games. Now he’s won a couple of games. The improvement has been noticeable but not dramatic. But all of a sudden the results don’t seem to be important for his critics.
As I’ve said there is still lots of room for improvement. And the second goal was at least partly a result of players making poor decisions within the formation. But it’s just stubbornness to suggest there has been no signs of improvement and no prospect of further improvement.
I really amn’t through, this is like Mowbray on steroids. I do think we are a walking disaster Rocko, I’m shocked you can’t see this. These next two games will tell us a lot, I’m not overly confident at all, 4 points would be a shock, 1 or 2 points probably likely. One things for sure, Nancy won’t help himself or the club with his system
I can see challenges. I agree the next two games will tell a lot.
I think lots of people have their mind made up and don’t want to acknowledge any evidence of progress.
Ultimately I think the biggest challenge facing a team that’s dominant in their league is continuing to create enough chances. Even this really substandard Celtic squad has better players in it than Livingston and Motherwell. Their best hope over the years has been to hold Celtic out and grab a goal.
I think we’ve a better chance of asserting our superiority when we can be more inventive and free flowing in how we create chances. That’s how Ange worked. And Rodgers for a time, moreso in the first spell. So I see positives in that.
Maybe it will be a Mowbray era. But I don’t think it’s fair to damn the manager at this stage. And to not acknowledge improvements and attacking positives as well as the weaknesses.
I watched the first half from the front passenger seat of the car & only just caught the second half now. I see the xG was more of less 1 to 3.5 so a 2 goal win was fair enough. I wish Celtic had exerted more control in the second half but it wasn’t as if they were clinging on or anything. A couple of careless pieces of play gave Livingston possession in the Celtic half & they could have led to problems (like the opening goal) but it was comfortable enough despite Celtic not being that fluent in possession.
Livingston seemed to play man to man on Celtic in the second half & worked hard to stop the build up through the lines so there wasn’t as many clear cut chances after half time. But Celtic opened them up at will in the first half. You can definitely see the combinations & attacking movements getting better & smoother. The link ups on the left are looking fairly slick with low balls from the flank to someone infield & then runners off them - it led to plenty of chances & a couple of the goals.
Ideally they’d get a raft of players in January to improve the side & specifically to fit into Nancy’s style but a right sided centre back & a striker are probably the two priorities. A right winger/wing back would also be nice & I think a defensive midfielder would be beneficial too in that system. Someone to sniff out danger so Celtic aren’t so vulnerable in transition. There were still a few too many instances where some lad was able to break onto a pull back/clearance/knock down behind the midfield in considerable space.
I don’t think that was a disaster at all overall though. Patchy & room for improvement but some decent attacking combination play too.
I will acknowledge progress when I see it. Yesterday there were more chances created fair enough.
What I can’t disregard is the chances we did cough up as a result against bottom of the table in this game of basketball. You say I’m exaggerating, I really amn’t. We gave away twelve corners yesterday, the huns or a half decent Motherwell will capitalise on similar figures, especially given our two best defenders in the air are benched and injured. Livingston scored 12% of their entire goals for the season in the first eight minutes yesterday.
We gave up more opportunities yesterday than we did v Hearts, United or St Mirren. I don’t think Livingston should be getting this amount of chances/ opportunities against us. We will be killed against anyone half decent, potentially really badly. Nancy quite clearly doesn’t put on the brakes, ever.
We are currently playing a 3 man defence which consists of one centre half, one half crocked left back and one rugby player, leading to bedlam when teams attack as seen yesterday. It’s more his refusal to ever learn or adapt to what is going on in a game that I despise the most, that for me is just poor and arrogant management. I can’t see this delivering results in the short never mind long term.
And finally this “it’s not all about winning trophies”, this is Celtic pal wake up and smell the tonic wine quickly or you’ll be gone
I actually agree with that, but my fear is it’s not hard to show an improvement from three straight bad defeats. I thought you were correct when you said a few green shoots may be the worst thing.
Time will tell, but once he’s on board it really would be wrong not to give him a few quid in the transfer window and see what he does with it.
I dunno though. Ange was rolling teams like Livingstone over. Even though he was attack attack attack, we never seemed as frail at the back. The players understood the system more. I’m also a little worried that the system is inflexible and he was out thought at half time in three games in a row. The hallmark of Ferguson teams was the almost inevitable improvement in the second half. Celtic have been worse in the second half in most games under Nancy.
How important do you think the 13 corners conceded were? It’s a fairly meaningless one off statistic.
The defending could have been better. But despite what you’ve said I think we did slow the game down. As Nancy said after the game we didn’t do that well enough. But we did take the heat out of the game after we responded to the early concessions. And ended up with what I thought was a comfortable, almost boring, win.
Smaller teams have had increasing success in battling for clean sheets against us. We failed to score in 6 games this season. We seem to be on the way to solving our lack of goal scoring, even without a striker of any competence. That’s not easy to do.
There are no guarantees of success. But as much as the first few results were poor the last two have been fine. It’s a small sample size but there are signs of attacking improvement and an improved resilience in battling back from conceding goals. And the negative sample size is equally small too.
I think we all agree the next two games will probably tell a lot - both performances and results. I think it’s fair to keep an open mind until after he has a chance with those games.
I don’t know what I can say to you tbh, we are too far apart and diametrically opposed to the same thing. Your XG count is my corners, your performances are my conceding of goals and opportunities at the back etc. I guess we will see how these next two games go an reassess the situation. I just don’t see it with Nancy and for me we are catapulting towards a head on collision here