An amazing few days in the life of Celtic Football. First the good news, the lout who posted bigoted posts about Neil Lennon got eight months in jail. Bad news he should have got eight years. More good news McFadden is signing for Everton. He chose to play for a recent Rangers boss over Celtic 3/4 years ago saying he wanted nothing to do with Glasgow Football. Still more good news Greig and McClelland have resigned from Rangers Board. Rats deserting sinking ship and also when the Celtic and Rangers boards meet Celtic Directors will no longer worry about broken legs. Possible good news Kayal close to new deal, maybe a new deal will return him to standard he was last year. Now for the horrible Saturday. Is it that God awful stripe but when they were it I cannot remember them ever looking like a Celtic team. I have backed Lennon for ten years, last season attaining 92 points to me was good enough to win the league except fo two many clubs wanted Walter to go out on a high. This season, some bad results. Saturday was new low and one reason was the team Neil picked. For a football person of his experience it was a terrible collection of players. 2 attacking fullbacks and no out and out defensive midfielder mean't only 2 defenders. Now the best centre backs in the world would find it difficult to keep a clean sheet. Our two c/bs are not the best in the world. The first half play, first 10/15 minutes were fine as most of our players got in and about the Killie players and forced bad balls from them. Then a Killie goal, big Dan isolated (why?) and a soft goal. Did Celtic do what Celtic does and that is get stuck in and fight their way back in ? No. Amazing Celtic fell to pieces examples straight forward short Celtic throw ins were been taken away by Killie players Half time night mare 3 nil down. At least N Lennon put on a player who should have started Wangama and he brought some order to centre midfield/defence. Eventually Celtic got the breakthrough and scored 3 goals in 8 minutes. Why they did not press on and win the game baffles me. Just as if Stokes opener flicked a switch and Celtic burst to life. Mulgrew scoring the equaliser flicked the off switch and Celtic were lucky in the end to hang on. I don't think we will ever know what the hell we were watching on Saturday, I hope lessons have been taken on board by everyone at Celtic Park. Management, I feel need to sit down with each player and do what it takes to have everyone singing from the same hymn book. Together this team can win all in Scotland, divided they will win nothing and won't even finish 2nd or 3rd. It has to be sorted this week, if at the end of a day a player still is not happy NL has to isolate that player and bring the rest through if not he knows what to expect.
The scary thing about Saturday was that it took a long range effort (free kick) from Stokes to get us back into the game. Lennon can talk all about his half time talk all he wants but for the first 25 minutes of the 2nd half we were hopeless and didn't look like scoring. Our defense is a shambles. Every other manager in the SPL knows all they have to do is play long balls into our box and we're ****ed. It's happened time and time again this season, in Europe and in the SPL. Our defenders ALWAYS let the ball bounce instead of attacking it and the opposition forward nips and takes possession. And more often than not they go on to score from that position. Yes, the defense needs help from the midfield but the way they were cut apart by let's be absolutely honest here, a 3rd rate football team was shocking. I was glad when we got back into the Europa League but the way things have went and with the possibility of Sion being reinstated I would be happy to see us kicked back out of the competition. The combination of Thursday/Sunday games and losing to even an Atletic Madrid reserve side is not doing our player's confidence any good whatsoever.
The only bright spot for Celtic on Saturday was st mirren equaliser, normal Celtic teams would take heart from how the two results happenned . Unfortunately this soft centre bunch of losers at the moment are not a normal Celtic team .I fear the worst for Thursday , and that game will no doubt be an excuse for another poor display on Sunday.Our problems all start with a poor goalkeeper, he reminds me of David Marshall let's goals in for fun!!!
Harry. Which of the goals on Saturday would you blame the goalkeeper? I agree with what you are saying Stereo up to a point, but what can you do if a ball soars over your head too high to head it. Charlie had no option only to let it bounce. Why he did not clear it, the simplest way out for a corner, or more difficult out for a throw in beats me. It wasn't the bounce but Charlie's attempt to lay the ball back to goalkeeper. I think it was that goal that the player ran past Ki and Kayal and neither made the slightest attempt to follow. A defensive midfielder would have seen the run and at least roared at Charlie to put ball out. The problem with the 2nd goal I think was airy-fairy tackling allowing player to get into perfect position to cross and no pressure on him. A defensive midfielder would have been between him and his target making it difficult. Our centre backs, are not good enough, don't play as a combination and are wide open for exploitation, if it isn't sorted out we will have a very long sad season.
sh In terms of the long ball I was thinking more of the first goal. Here are the highlights. Watch the first St Mirren goal from 0.31 seconds. Absolutely shocking, school boy defending and we've been losing goals like that all season from Sion to St Johnstone. [video]http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/15329354.stm[/video]
Their headers are ****ing ****e when they don't let it bounce anyway, we should just close our eyes when teams kick long balls at us!
The goalie stays on his line gives his defence no confidence,I know directly he wasn't at fault for any of the goals .The goalie that played in pre season (100 odd caps) was like a sweeper always on edge of box speaking to defenders , Cardiff away we never looked like losing a goal, why we never signed him is beyond me.
Harry hood I thought maybe he had not enough to do and didn't prove any better than last year. Our goalie is without confidence. Bound to be with the amount of goals we have let in. I remember Pat Jennings, one of the world's best if ever he let in a few goals, it wasn't that hard to beat him. But then he would get his confidence back and boy was he not world class. Remember we had record clean sheets last season. Doesn't look that way this season. I remember last season as soon as opposition had the ball two centre mid fielders tried to get back just in front of c/bs and Browne on the right side and who ever on the left worked like demons to stop the ball going in. When Celtic got ball midfielders could nearly all attack. There is no evidence of that this season. Ki disappearing out to touchline. Stereo I watched the first goal again, I think Dan seemed lost and didn't make up his mind to the other player was striking the ball. A looseness that seems to affect us too often. Not necessary that time but far too often Killie had time to place their cross. That has to stop.
I think it is the system and not the players at fault , how can a guy with 45 caps with Sweden look a diddy at spl level ???
