Its probably not a good idea to give an opinion on a game like that straight afterwards. Disappointment , frustration and downright dejection can sometimes lead to perhaps being a little harsh on the team.
So I will try to be generous….
Manager Neil Lennon had got a system that worked away from home in Europe. It involved holding the ball, keeping possession, and everyone working hard to help each other out.
So, it was obviously a time to change all that.
Celtic started at a snails pace and got slower while Ajax looked lively and threatened to swamp the uncertain Scottish champions. As the Dutch side kep up the pressure, Celtics defence simply kicked or tripped them to keep them out, which gave Fraser Forster a chance to get in some early confidence boosting saves.
Ajax would have taken the lead in the first half but for the keepers heroics, and it looked like Lennons decicion to go with just two midfielders was going to backfire. The Dutch side had dispensed with their wingers, deciding instead to play narrow, and without the protection of a holding midfielder, it didn’t look like Celtic would make it to half time.
But , against the odds , they did. Which gave us a chance to re-organise…
However, took Ajax just five minutes of the second half to take the lead, when the defence forgot to kick any of the ajax dangermen, and they passed it between themselves too quickly for Celtics backs, , leaving Lasse Schoen one on one with Frser Forster, who stuck out a leg in a half arsed attempt to reach it, presumably thinking it was another back pass, and that was that. It did force Celtic to step it up a bit, but as usual when you’ve been playing in slow motion, thats incredibly difficult to do.
Celtic nearly got an equaliser when, oh, sorry, no we didn’t. Not nearly, not nowhere near. We did have a corner though, which was cleared by Van Dijk.
Forster made some crucial saves, which at least kept his hopes of a move high. Lustig, Izzaguerre, Amvrose and van Dijk were immense, both going forward and defending, but when going forward they were let down by the players in front of them, who either couldn’t control the ball or ran down a blind alley, and its fair to say they wouldn’t have had to do so much defending if those same players had put in a decent shift backtracking.
Izzaguerre, in particular got no help from Georgios Samaras, who, not to put to fine a point on it, was bloody useless. He couldn’t pass, dribble or head the ball, and should have been removed early on. Say about teatime yesterday. Kris Commons tried, but was clearly not fit, and Anthony Stokes was, well, Anthony Stokes.
James Forrest fell over a lot, but at least didn’t wave his arms about as much as he usually does, and Charlie Mulgrew , every time he got the ball, wanted to stop and have a look around. Well, when you’re away for a few days, its important to take in the sights.
Beram Kayal put up a fight, and tried to stop Ajax from dominating the game, but he needed help, so it was a relief to see Joe Ledley enter the fray. But, as is often the case with Neil Lennon and his substitutions, he’d missed the point completely, and it was Kayal who came off.
Samaras was allowed to stay on, probably because he wouldn’t have been able to find the tunnel had he been replaced, and it was left to Derk Boerrigter ( for Stokes ) and Teemu Pukki ( for Commons ) to try to salvage something in the dying minutes ( for fucks sake )
All in all, a woeful performance which now makes it a little difficult to make the next stage of either European tournament, but fortunately its Milan who are next up at Celtic Park, and we haven’t lost a European game against them for weeks now.
And we were all so optimistic this morning…..
Ach, well, I tried to be generous.
Jeezus, supportin Celtic can sometimes be as beautiful as ah severe kick in the Ali Mcraws wi a pair of wet steelies.sake man.
What a summary. Couldn’t agree more. Except I thought stokes was ok?
Look let’s start with why was Samaras beaten to every ball tonight and why was Forrest kept on the fookin park and why did Commons hit that free kick! When it was set up for a long driven super free kick from Mulgrew! Btw Mulgrew was pish but at least he can cross a road whilst Commons couldnae cross a word! And can anyone tell me if the players where window shopping before the game today and did Adam Mathews and Scott Brown get their hole? Anyway fuckit we’ll smash AC @ Paradise and Barca will just lie down cos they’ll be wanting to rest their players for the last 16!! Cheers Barca we’ll no doubt see you later in the tournament HAIL HAIL !!!
so, the great Celtic buy and sell strategy is finally exposed for what it is – simply a way to ensure that we keep on the coat tails of the truly big clubs and no more than that.
im sorry, but the tic family have been sold this ‘ more than a club’ bullshit for too long… the reality is that our great Celtic FC is indeed more than a club, but that comes from the fans NOT the club.
the club, OUR club, have peddled this ‘how great we are’ line whilst shopping in the bargain basement for players at the same time as selling on our best players.
enough already, the game is up, stop selling the ‘greatest supporters in the world’ line and giving us, the fans that pay for all of this, a middling to mediocre team.
ffs my granda. my da and now me….. the great Celtic forever undermined by the fkn biscuit tin mentality…im sick of it.
Sorry for this post guys,
Is it just me, or is Neil Lennon tactically nieve? Why oh why do we always play a different formation away fae home? And why did our players look as if they were drawing air through their arses? And why does it take well intae the 70th Minute tae bring oan a sub, when we were crying out for a change?
Typically sad occasion. Samaras and Commons clearly not fit and should have been subbed early. I thought Stokes wasn’t too bad and could have been better if he’d had support, same for Forrest.But Celtic really can’t expect much with their buy cheap policy. There was certainly no game changer on the bench.
W.T.F. wiz at aw’ aboot a mean c’mon, that gemme ra night wiz the biggest pile WILFID HYDE WHYTE in europe that i have seen in a long time, but not to worry there’s always A C MILAN, thats as long as they don’t come tae celtic park and kick the shit oot a uz like JUVENTUS DID L A S T Y E A R, TA TA FUR NOO, SEVERELY CONCERNED
An accurate analysis of the game and how shite Celtic were, Ralph. If you include a few bits about Peter Lawell, the Pope, the KSC and the unseen fenian hand controlling Scottish football then you could get a game with the MSM. haha
Celtic tonight = sh1te. Usually I watch an away game and think ‘I wish I was there’, tonight i thought ‘thank f*ck i’m not’.
The only players I would give pass marks to are Forster and Lustig (even though he was abysmaly out of position when he was moved to centre half). The rest of the team should thank God that i’m not not in charge because some of those guys would never play again and I would be jailed. There is no excuse for not trying.
Anti-MOTM = Mulgrew, I’ve defended him on here a few times but tonight he was worse than a man down. At one point he nearly broke into a jog, couldn’t be arsed tracking his man for the goal and gave hee-haw support to Izzy and Sammy which killed almost every attack down the left we had.
Is Charlie really that bad? Was there problems that prevented him trying? Do we really miss Scott Brown that much?
I feel sorry for the folk who paid good money to travel there and witness that, terminal, lack of effort.
Thought Big Sammy was woeful, he cannot pass to a team mate, his effort is lacking, never won a header, ran into blind alleys, could not control any pass that came near him.
PS – cut and paste above and use for his next 50 appearances, and his last 50.
Didnt start off the group too bad, but seems we are getting worse every game.
We have only scored goals in one game out of 4 and I honestly cant see where any goals are going to come from.
I think as far as the forwards we bought are concerned, we have gambled and lost.
The fans are being sold by Lawwell, having not replaced Wanyama and Hooper effectively. We’ve gone backwards since the last campaign, so typical of Celtic. We need a penalty box striker in the mould of Chalmers/Dalglish/Larsson/Hooper. Lawwell may ‘smile and grin at the change all around’ but WE ‘won’t get fooled again’!
Sorry for stating the obvious but we deserve better!
Sold down the river I meant 🙁
I knew that last minute goal two weeks ago would come back to haunt us. A draw against AC at paradise and we go level with Ajax, but behind on head to head. We both lose (or draw or win!) our final games and they still get the Mickey Mouse spot ahead of us.
Sadly, I think this is how it will turn out.
Also, the late second goal we conceded against Milan (when Brown gave away that needless free kick on the edge of the box) might come back to bite us! There is an outside chance that if we do manage to beat Milan we will end up on level points with them (ie. if Barcelona then beat us and Milan draw with Ajax)
Highlight for me was seeing Pukki come on and manage to actually trap a ball with his back to goal and pass it then actually look for it back. He should get a run, theres a player in there.
The rest, thought wee Jamesy was unlucky at times but the feckup when 2 on 1 was abysmal. Stokes, limited, decent player but no more. Same for the rest really. While watching that game and the free kicks, I suggested we bring Nakamura on, as wee Gordon used to say, theres a difference between a decent player and a really good one, the really good one can produce when it really matters..when pressure is really on…we have no one near that quality, maybe Forster and ultimately Big Dick and Jamesy but rest are journeymen and no more.
As for Lenny…did someone gub him, that was some bruise on his chin. Did they suggest he play 4-5-1 and he started a fight. Imagine going out not to lose a vital game…imagine a CL clean sheet….thats all we can do, imagine as we’ve never seen it!
Another “Learning exercise” complete..back to Fortress Paradise and hope the crowd can lift the team over the Milan line. Once again, its more hope than confidence.
Hats off to all the Celtic fans who paid lots of hard earned dosh and took holidays off work to go watch that FEKIN PATHETIC EXCUSE of a football match, i would say we were woeful but we weren’t even that good, to me lenny is learning fek all in tactical awareness, that set up was a shambles, with brown missing he goes even lighter in midfield, and mulgrew shoehorned in AGAIN ahead of ledley, and as for Forrest, still the most overated player iv seen at Celtic in a decade, if Celtic is a selling club then fekin sell Forrest and mulgrew for a start, the only players i thought did themselves any justice was van dike, forster, lustig. My major worry as usual tho is the terrible tactics and team selections of Lennon, get ur arse in gear bhoys or get ur arse oot the door. Rant over!! Hail hail, 126 YEARS OF UNBROKEN HISTORY+
Agree with your assessment of the back four but apart from them we were totally inept.You can tell in ten minutes how Sami is going to perform. Perhaps the captaincy was too much of a burden for him. Forrest had an early run and shot which promised much so nobody gave him the ball after that. The team was completely rudderless with no one taking the role of leader. I wonder how Scott Brown felt spectating when he should have been out there doing his job. He has let everyone down badly.