Sair Yin
Morning,all.
Many of you will have noted the optimistic slant to yesterday’s article,but that didn’t last very long! In truth,I did not see last night’s result coming-but it didn’t take Bodø Glimt long to open my eyes. About six minutes in fact,and while we could have been a goal up by then following a cutback from Maeda towards Abada,the goal was not the first time they had threatened. They waltzed straight through our centre with some lovely one touch football,leaving Joe Hart in goal with no chance.
We got back into the match and tried to take it to the Norwegian champions,fashioning a few decent chances in that first half-but every time the visitors broke upfield,we were in a state of panic! In truth,what chances we had were little more than half-chances,the sort where you need everything to be going right for you if they are to fall your way. That certainly wasn’t the case last night,though the players certainly couldn’t be faulted for effort.
We came out in the second half with the clear intent of getting that equaliser followed by another to put us in front. Instead,we lost a second to another bit of fast interplay down our left. Solbakken miraculously recovered from being down with ‘injury’ to tear down the wing and centre it low into our box. They were queuing up for it,with Hart again having no chance.
Maeda did manage to get us back into the tie with about ten minutes to go,a typical dash into the box to get his head onto the end of a Juranovic cross,but Glimt simply went up the park again and restored their lead two minutes later. This was from a wicked deflection off CalMac,the sort that lets you know it is just not your night.
It certainly wasn’t,and that much was plain from early on. Our forwards were just off the pace,the midfield weren’t quite providing and certainly weren’t protecting the defence. Our pressing game was matched and bettered by that of Glimt,who gave us no time at all on the ball. This was a performance of a side who had done their homework,and stuck to their game plan. Very impressive indeed,and I don’t mind admitting it. However,losing at home in Europe is never a good result,and an honest appraisal of our chances suggests that our next European foray will be next season.
And that is a major disappointment for us all.
********
Above article by BMCUWP
A fair assessment.
Improvements needed in left CB and left back positions.
A tame midfield and Calmac needs to be played in his best position- he is not a sitter.
Perhaps in Scotland, certainly not versus even middling Euro teams.
Guchi was brought in to play that role.
But where do you play our Captain in the set up Ange prefers?
Good morning everyone, I watched the game in a busy and noisy bar last night meaning it was difficult to make an accurate assessment of what went wrong so I’ll leave that to others who had a better view.
On reflection, whilst always disappointing to lose it may well turn out to be a blessing in disguise and get us to focus 100% on our Number 1 priority of the 12 game sprint we have ahead of us to win the league. Those 12 games must all be treated as cup finals.
A second priority is the 3 game sprint we potentially have ahead of us to win the Scottish Cup.
A domestic treble would be a season that in August & September would have been beyond our wildest dreams. It would also be a dagger in the heart for anyone falsely celebrating a non existent 150th anniversary.
Let’s start with an emphatic victory against Dundee on Celtic to get the show back on the road.
CFC, I’m glad you had a good night in the Tartan Arms and that it is indeed a good Celtic pub. 👍
C B B
I can certainly recommend it. Small – a bit like the IB in Edinburgh when that was venue of choice.
Good collection of Tims, friendly and welcoming (and dignified in defeat ) as you’d expect.
Busy and noisy like your bar!
Decent pint of Guinness too.
😤⚽☹️🥅💀
⚽💀☹️😤
……
😀👍🎵🎺🎸🎹👨🎤
Yip we looked good for about 4 minutes then it went (.)(.)’s up. Angeball Norwegian style, they had done their homework.
Norwegian’s well pished outside the ground, the price of a pint would be a fraction of what they pay at home😵
Packy will understand.
Prestonpans bhoys,
I went to the pub for a couple of hours before the game. I don’t go out much nowadays, it’s the first time in a long while I’ve been in when the Celtic bus leaves. the pub became packed. I was astonished. it was such a young crowd. I only knew about 3 or 4 of the folk. A whole new generation of Tims! Two of them sat beside me and we had a great blether. Full of hope!
i had bought a litre of sherry from the Co-op. £ 8.75. I went up the road, watched the game. I was in bed for 10.30pm. an early night. 🙁
Bobby
Well done buddy 3 words sums up the feeling.
– “a major disappointment ”
Sobering wake up call!
Their system won 6-1 in Rome against a Mourinho team?
Organised & disciplined, fitter, sharper and much, much more switched on…
You could count on one hand the number of crunching (Or any kind) of tackles our team make in a game.
Too nice??
At around 3mins after 8 I said to the wee man “I’ll be shocked if this midfield works” who was expected to win the ball back in there??
Hate saying these things but, Greg Taylor is pish! No, really rank!!
Callum is never a DM
You get punished at this level, when caught ball-watching,, Both Carl and Greg are guilty of this.
Did Ange field the wrong team?? I thought so almost immediately.
With our wide players failing to get involved, we looked limp all night.
Are we really not good enough for the 3rd tier of Euro fitba?? Jeez, that is thoroughly depressing!
Having put all our chips in the OF pot, should we even be surprised this is where we’ve ended up?
Is that really the height of our ambitions?! Competing with ghosts??
From Euro powerhouse, to the Euro poorhouse.
B.A.D
Jimthrtim@9:31
Aye I have had similar chats, I recall talking about a game in the past when the bhoy in front of me said ‘ I was only one year old’ 😝😵😱
B.A.D. The sad thing is the other half of the ‘old firm pot’ seem to be managing better than us in Europe. They won last night by 2 goals against a team I had heard of. We lost by 2 goals against a team I hadn’t heard of!
P.Bs. There was talk on here yesterday about the 1984 game against Rapid Vienna, I mentioned it last night to the the young chaps – 22 yo – and they were totally unaware of it!
Jim, the Huns have found a system that gets impressive results in the continent, no doubt! My main gripe with us is that we don’t hit people hard enough …I can’t remember ONE hard tackle all night.
Are we just too nice?? Naive?
Do we expect crunching tackles from people like TR, Jota & Abada? Still think we lack real muscle in a few key positions.
Oh for a Roy Aitken, eh?!
Well Jim suppose we can cut them a bit of slack as it was 16 years before they were born. Bit like someone discussing a game in 1946 with me😂😂
B.A.D. or a Bobo Balde! 🙂
I met Roy Aitken at Kippen Street Fair. Honestly! A true story, you couldn’t make that up! 🙂
If you have expectations you will suffer.
The fact is – Sevco turned up like a gang of “succulent” lambs under the lights and were put to the slaughter in 45 minutes.
That raised expectations and caused panic and a review of Ibroxs’ – No away supporters policy. They bottled it.
Our momentum carried into the first 45 minutes against Motherwell and then petered out. A good start against a troubled Aberdeen, before being pegged back and regaining the lead.
Ange’s vocal intervention against Raith came as a surprise and signalled his concerns. We’d started poorly without the required zip.
It took a very late goal to secure the points against Dundee United, leading into the Sevco game.
The goal was greeted with over the top hysterics by some sections of the Support. It was almost on a par with Lisbon.
Prior to that, the mugging in Alloa. A victory at Tynecastle, Boyce pulled a goal back before missing a penalty. Three points against Shaun Maloney’s misfiring Hibs.
A team has been cobbled together from a collection of unlikely individuals. It’s the ultimate Moneyball.
An out of favour veteran keeper. A centre half, who’d perennially been on loan. A kid from MK Dons. Four lads from Japan, who have all played a full season of football. Only two of whom are involved in the international set-up.
Japan aren’t world beaters
Two wingers, one a kid, the other a loanee, both doing remarkably well.
Plenty to be pleased about.
The limitations of our longer-term players and concerns about the backroom staff remain – and have been discussed ad nauseam but ultimately ignored.
The excitement of the Old Firm challenge distracting from any serious debate about the long-term malaise at Celtic.
In truth, Celtic are miles off the mark. We came up against a properly prepared, professionally coached outfit last night. Our limitations were cruelly exposed.
It was embarrassing.
Celtic on and off the park have suffered from years of neglect.
By refusing to invest for the long term. Concentrating on “flipping players”. Creating a jobs for the boys, environment at Lennoxtown. We’ve treated the game with disrespect.
You might get away with it in the mud wrestling of Scottish football, not against proper, European outfits.
The priority of the support is beating the feared Sevco. We live in that self-imposed illusion and only catch a painful glimpse of the truth at the hands of European ‘giants’.
How many canings by European minows will it take before the Support stops handing over money to these charlatans and incompetents?
Even Sevco have tried to put a modern footballing culture in place. The whole thing at Celtic rests with one man – Ange Postecoglou.
The danger is he’ll burn out before any of the players. The man is trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
He’s won a League Cup and beaten Sevco once. The sight of the North Curve bedecked in a banner paying homage to the guy was at best, premature.
Let’s hope the Norwegian banner of 6-1 isn’t prophetic of what’s coming next week.
In truth for all the hype, this is just the same old Celtic as all the other European humiliations.
You don’t get away with treating the game with disrespect in Europe. You’ll get burned.
Peter Lawwell’s seat on the Executive of the European Clubs Association is safe.
The mouthwatering prospect of a Title Challenge of the fake Old Firm, is where the priorities of the Support lie.
That’ll keep those turnstiles clicking.
Lambs to the slaughter.
They’ll never learn.
Easy Money.
When was the last time out ambitions centred around doing well in Europe? Is wrestlin’ with a corpse really as far as our ambition stretches these days? As a support, do we realise how far we have fallen?
From Leeds @Hampden in front of a record crowd, to getting football lessons in the 3rd tier of Euro football. :o(
Still hoping the real Tic turn up next week.
TGM, bullseye!
TGM, too much truth in there for my liking! 🙁
One of the highlights of the past 20 years – us beating Barcelona – was because it was the exception rather than the rule!
Cheers lads,
I suppose when you follow football you have to suspend reality and all common sense for a while.
Then you’re brought back down to Earth with a Crash…
Till Later.
TGM
Best post I have read in a while
I refrained from posting yesterday, as I didn’t want to be seen as negative. But we have a long way to go to be a decent team.
Peter Lawwell. Dermot Desmond.
God forgive them.
Wish Auldheid had been on the Board.
Also wish Auldheid had been on the Board of the SFA rather than the snake Riley.
Seven league games before the split.
Four at home, three tough away games –
Hibs, Livi, Huns.
One silver lining after last night is The Rangers will more than likely have at least another two Euro games to fit in early March.
These Red Alert ‘storms’ we are experiencing are NOTHING compared to the the two bad winters we had about 10 years ago. I cant remember how many floating holidays I had to use up because I couldnt get to work!
Cosy Corner, remember that winter in the early 60s? The snow drift in our back garden completely covered the clothes poles!
The football was ‘off’ of course. So the pools results were predicted by a panel of ‘experts’. You should have heard what my da called them! LOL 🙂
Maybe I’ll have better luck with the horses. Any tips for a £2.20 yankee today?
Last night proved McCarthy is a huge waste of money, who else would have given him a 4 year contract ,given his sick record? Crying out for a defensive MF and he’s on the bench again, maybe Guchi could be the player for there…..
Bada Bing,
“Last night proved McCarthy is a huge waste of money, who else would have given him a 4 year contract ,given his sick record? ”
Answer – Dermot Desmong.
Cant say i expected that result as i did not know anything about Bodo other than they thrashed Roma but had since sold some of their best players.
The high intensity training camp paid dividends as unlike us they did not look like a team of strangers.
Have watched Milan v Liverpool and PSG vReal plus huns v Dortmund this week and what stood out was with exception of Dortmund all had very specific game plans and were very compact teams.
This we are not, have being saying for a while we start to struggle in games when we become less compact and allow opponents oceans of space.
Both Hearts and Aberdeen games were glaring examples.
So while Ange has improved us in an attacking sense we seem uncertain and erratic as a team for portions of games.
The central midfield area is the issue as when they start scurrying around without purpose we lose all sense of team and direction.
A lack of leadership on the park is an issue when things start going awry.
This is not a reactionary post to last nights game as before kick off i said we were not ready for Europe and that Ange’s system is incomplete.
Last night anyone who has watched us in Europe will know picking Rogic was foolhardy as he constantly gives ball away and offers no defensive effort.In an unforgiving environment it was suicidal.
Marking Jota and Abada was easy as doubling up on them left either a hopeful punt or passback to Taylor or Juranovic which then meant either square ball or another passback.
Since we were too light to capitalize on hopeful punts it resulted in us conceding possession constantly.
Taylor looked scared and showing a forward inside on second goal is something every kid is taught not to do.
Juranovic did not look fit and was well off the pace all night
Starfelt getting it in the neck for first goal when clearly it was others at fault.
Rogic sauntering back with no effort to defend ball to centre 25 yards out from their left side then the absence of McGregor who is our central defensive mid.Guy goes to shoot and Starfelt first stays in position to block then has to slide across as guy makes pass to onrushing forward who shoots home.
On the third goal McGregor gets to middle late from wide to deflect ball past Hart.His poor positional sense as a defensive mid showing again.
The chances and goals we gave up would not happen if we had better game intelligence.
Too many square pegs in round holes still holding us back.
Bada Bing
You are being harsh on McCarthy as clearly coach has decided against him so he has never been given a fair chance.
Meanwhile same coach keeps picking Bitton who has a bad mistake in every game he plays.
Fan- why does Ange not pick McCarthy?
Goodwin given permission to speak to Aberdeen
Bada Bing
Who knows why coaches pick some players over others?
Mourinho at Chelsea had Mo Salah and De Bruyne at his disposal and rarely played them and sold both cheaply .
Sometimes your face does not fit.
Goodwin would be a sound choice for Dons.
TGM
An excellent assessment of where we are at the moment. A decent winning run against mediocre Scottish teams and a misfiring overconfident Sevco had us all believing we are a decent team.
Did Ange really say we controlled the game, GVB style, after our being bossed for the entirety of the game despite our having 63% possession? 🤔If you did Ange my advice would be to “Catch yerself on”
Let’s try and put the defeat into context rather than just shrugging it off and saying “it was just one of those nights”, which some of the emerald-tinted spec wearing optimists are now pushing.
Bodo, a club with a fraction of our resources, arrived at Celtic park not having played a competitive game of football since mid-December, the end of the Norwegian season. The team they fielded at Celtic park had not played a competitive game of football together as a number of changes in the playing squad had been made during the transfer window, players leaving / new additions.
Bodo’s entire team was not match fit.
Celtic’s starting lineup included a very weak midfield. Just about every supporter, pundit, and layman spotted this straight away. Great if the opposing team was just going to sit back and allow Rogic and O’Riely to spray the ball around but bugger all use if tracking back and battling for midfield possession was required. Who thought this was a good idea? Was the choice determined by overconfidence or lack of real preparation for the game? Anyway, this should have been sorted early doors with Hatate being introduced as soon as they scored their 1st goal.
As mentioned Celtic were bossed the entirety of the game, rarely did we trouble the Bodo keeper early doors, a Jota shot being the only thing to make him earn his money yet it took most of the game to pass before a tactical change was made. Only one person at fault here
Taylor had a nightmare of a game why he was allowed to remain on the park so long is a question only AP can answer.
A team that was not match fit still matched us fitness-wise, I’d even say they looked fitter than us which is very concerning
In short, we were bested by a team that hadn’t played a competitive game of football together and hadn’t played competitive football in 2 months. A team who had obviously done their homework on us. Had we done any on them, sure didn’t look like it.
Ange has done a brilliant job domestically thus far but does he have the tactical knowledge required to see us progress us in Europe? However, being tactically outmaneuvered by ‘alleged’ inferior teams in Europe and our receiving a doin’ is something we have come to expect from Celtic managers of late.
This is not I told you so posting but I did advise that talk of winning the Conference League was premature.
In truth, the warning signs of a fall from grace have been there since the Motherwell game. The question is why? Are the players running out of steam? Is the manager running out of steam?
Jota was a shadow of his former self. He was content/instructed to stay out wide on the wing, as was Abada. That made it easy to box them in. Any crosses they got in were hurried and unfocussed, thus easy meat for the tall Norwegians. Silence Celtic wingers and you throttle goal chances. Maeda does not have the ball control to go it alone.
Once the wingers are closed out, the goal threat has to come from the midfield. Did you see any of that last night? Did you see any midfielder get a shot away like the Norwegians did for their third goal? O”Riley and Rogic roamed all across the park to no effect, often opting for a horizontal or back pass. Calmac led the charge for useless possession in the midfield.
So with the forwards managed, and the midfield ineffective in an attacking sense, all the strain was shifted onto the defence. Little wonder they cracked. I thought Starfelt had a good game….he was one of the few that tried to move the ball north/south. Taylor was the main weakness on the left….too small, too light, poor passer. I am afraid he is wrong for Ange’s system bit he never hides, never gives up, plus he is all we have, given Scales does not get selected.
Progress was bound to halt at some stage, or, at least, occur more incrementally. It looks like we are at that point now. It is not a bad place to be, given the omni-shambles of last season, however, that old genie “expectation” is out of the bottle.
The team badly needs a talisman, which we have, but he was overplayed and over crocked.
Whatever the Bodo coach is drinking, we should get a supply, bottle and store it.
Rebus
JTT53
Diocletion 2pm Kelso might be worth going on your line if you have not placed it yet
Is Goodwin going to Aberdeen? He has the potential to go all the way.
Rebus
Craig. 👍
FFS
Someone forgot to tell the horse to start running when the flag went down ……sorry JTT53
AFTERNOON ALL and JIM, tgm tfw great assesment on last night as was yours rebus👍 cant make my mind up if we just had an off night, or they were just too good for us,???
Craig, 5th out of 5? 🙁
You owe me one!
Craig, a pint!
JTT53
Big Packy says he’ll buy it next time you’re in the ludge 😀
for you Craig
for you packy