Neil Lennon has to take a fair share of the blame for yesterday's defeat, not so much for picking the team that started the game but for failing to make the right substitutions and change the tactics accordingly. St Johnstone were camped in the own third of the park for most of the game. Their only tactic was to close down all space then lump the ball forward to their front man. The fact that it worked is a shocking illustration of how poorly the Celtic defence copes with balls launched at them. Majstorovic in particular seems to struggle with this simple method of attack and questions need to be asked about whether he's the right man for the job. Why do we find it so difficult to find a couple of centre backs capable of doing the simple things? Anyway, on to Neil. We couldn't walk our way through a packed St Johnstone defence so Lennon's 'solution' to this was to put on two of the shortest players in the Celtic squad: Forrest and McCourt. At a time when we needed someone to get in among the St Johnstone players and harass and bully their defenders we leave Murphy and Samaras sitting on the bench. I lost count of the number of times in the last 15 minutes we hoofed the ball into their box only for it to be headed straight back out again. Seriously, how could the likes of Maloney, McCourt and Stokes hope to compete for cross balls against six foot plus defenders? More worrying is how much we've struggled over the past couple of games without two or three key players. Wilson, Kayal and Hooper have missed the games against Sion and St Johnstone and we've missed them. Any team will struggle without three of their best players but we have a big squad and the players available should be good enough to beat the likes of St Johnstone. Roll on Thursday. Scottish football needs a boost and that means Celtic and Rangers coming away with positive results. If both teams fall then the future of Scottish football is very bleak. Very bleak indeed.
I didn't see any of the Sion game and only caught the last half-hour of the St. Johnstone game, so I'm not in any position to form my own judgment. Why has there been such a dramatic reversal of fortune since you thrashed Dundee Utd. just last weekend?
uefa throwing out Sion is our only hope, we are blaming 4/5 injuries against st Johnstone at home , yesterday Rangers had 13 players out , time for our players to stand up and be counted. St Johnstone tactics were spot on against our team of midgets ,agree Daryl Murphy was required
To be honest this defeat might be a good thing. Just before the transfer window shuts it might help lennon with his pleas to the board to spend a bit of cash on a bit of quality A centre back and a striker is very much needed, and a replacement left back fir Izzy wouldnt go amiss. Mulgrew can cover - but he showed last year he's not good enough at left back. Oh and why the **** wont he use Rasmussen? or have him on the bench as an opition - the **** scores goals - he is a poacher, unlike Sammy or Murphy. He is 6 foot 1 too according to WIkipedia and he's got a bit of presence about him
That was a weird game. 5-1 flattered us. Dundee Utd put us under a lot of pressure and it was only poor finishing on their part and good finishing on ours that the scoreline ended up the way it did. But let's be honest, if Commons had stuck away the penalty yesterday we would probably have gone on to win the game. St Johnstone were camped in front of their own goal for most of the match. What was worrying was that when it was obvious we needed to change tactics, Lennon sent on McCourt and Forrest for more of the same. We needed to mix it up but we didn't have the players on the pitch to do so. If we aren't going to utilise players like Murphy and Rasmussen why have them in the squad?
As you say the Dundee utd game the alarm bells started to ring , 5-1 flattered us , 7-5 would have been a fairer score.. St Johnstone got their tactics spot on , pack the box to keep our midget team out , hoof it up and let Danny make a mistake. got to say his short passing is woeful , his long range pass very impressive ,how he keeps finding his pal in the front row of the main stand takes some beating!!!
I said after the Sion game that it was worrying that, without 3 key players, we seemed toothless. We missed Kayal, especially, even more yesterday than on Thursday
Bunch of ****bags yesterday, the attitude was all wrong except McCourt and unbelievebly Maloney everyone else was scared to take the ball in. Dan was a joke he's the experianced player and wee young guy beside him must have been thinking what the **** is this donkey playing at. The Mathews guy put in some superb balls to Maloney <gast>. He have other options in Ras and Murphy they ain't great players but I bet they would have caused more problems than Maloney in the box. Bringing on McCourt didn't offer any new problems that Maloney didn't already present how about a plan ****ing B.
It looks like Lenny's preference in the is m wilson, k wilson, Loovens and Izzy. 3 of them out and 1 deployed out of position. A midfielder down, 2 more carrying injuries (and a couple of Stone) and our top scorer sat on the sidelines. It is more than 3 players missing, it is pretty much the core of the team. a below par performance is to be expected almost, but for 3 out of 4 games, we should have done better. Certainly yesterday we should have more than enough for a side looking to sit in.
I don't think Murphy is the answer, we neeed to splash the cash and buy a big burly CF who can actually play football, as Anp says, maybe this defeat is a blessing in disguise as the board may now release funds to buy the extra striker we are crying out for.
Do they have one sourced though? If we just panic buy we'll have another useless striker we can't punt.
We have been linked with Roque Santa Cruz, I doubt we could afford him but they were trying to get Bellamy so why not Santa Cruz instead now that the Bellamy deal appears to be deid.
Is Rasmussen not the type we needed yesterday? To be fair, not seen much apart from videos but looks like the type to rough up defenders n get his head to the ball in the box!
I knew it would be a good idea nipping into Snake Mountain for a read. "Younger, fitter, faster." (c) fat porker Kris Commons.
We lost one game, people need to calm the **** down. One game where we were missing essentally all our best players, a freak occurance that all the players you can't do without all get injured at the same time. Any club in the world including the Barca's, Man Utd's would dip in form when losing so many key players & having others like Brown & Commons playing with a knock.
Not linked with him at all.........see my article on him maybe being available for loan & how he may be a good choice forus then the press ran with it a day later!
Lets not bury our heads in the sand here. This is a weak, weak team in a weak, weak league. Is anyone really naive enough to think that the steamrollering handed out to hearts in europe may not have come rangers or celtics way ? However , with the ,albeit limited, funds available to lennon, a better balanced squad should have been built that is able to deal with losing players and still able to deal with he likes of st johnstone. Far too many players who are all similar in style , far too many players who could go into panto as one of the seven dwarfs, far too many players who lack the basics their position requires. It may be only one game - european "performances" not withstanding - but the signs of ineptitute within celtic and within scottish football are there for all to see ; and lets not put this all down to money ; the teams scottish clubs regularly fail against in europe are often on an equal , or lower , financial footing than celtic, rangers , hearts, dundee utd.
Why were we not weak 2 weeks ago before all the injuries? We knew we needed a keeper & striker then & have since got a keeper in. I'd be worried if Lennon said he was comfortable with the strikers we have but he hasn't - he has come out & said we are looking to get someone in as he is aware we need another striker. We will get another striker in before the end of the month, if we can get rid of a few we might even get in another defender. If you list the whole squad its very good in strength & balance. No squad in world football can really withold too many injuries to key players and that leads to constant changes in the team which effects how well you play because the team has played so often with Izzy pushing on down the left, Commons moving inside to link up with Hooper etc which is why against Sion we couldn't find the killer pass. No team in the world has 2 players of exactly the same ability & traits for every position its impossible. Barca lose Dani Alves Puyol generally fills in at right back & he is a totally different player.
we were weak two weeks ago , and long before. a centre back who cant clear his lines or read the game as far as I can see. Too many similar players in the middle of the park. Too much reliance in full backs to get forward to start attacks but are very poor defensively. Too many midgets who want to walk the ball into the net. clearly we`re not gonna agree , but I dont think the balance or quality you talk about is there , and plenty of small european teams who can control the ball and work to a tactical plan seem able to demonstrate that
I think people need to wake up to the fact that these so-called smaller European teams are actually on a par or ahead of us in the spending stakes now. Lennon told the story last week of how we had Feindouno on trial last summer but we couldn't afford his wages. Well obviously a mid-table Swiss team can because he lined up against us last week for FC Sion.
