Celtic Diary Friday October 23: What Now ?

Celtic improved hugely last night…oh, stop it.

We were bloody awful again.

Milan took a 2-0 lead and then spent a while wondering what the ground would look like with people in it.

Celtic sort of looked a bit hungrier but only because the Italian side left some food unattended at the table.

The game against Aberdeen on Sunday now takes on an enormous significance, but very little will change unless the manager finds out what is wrong.

And there could be any number of things on their own, or everything coming together in one big tsunami that threatens to drown any ambitions of ten in a row.

In any normal season clam heads would prevail, it’s still only October and there’s plenty of time to sort things out, but with the clubs already discussing what to do in the event the league is cancelled or postponed, our own club needs to be prepared for any situation.

Everyone has his own ideas about problems and solutions but most of it is knee jerk and overly critical.

There is an awful lot of bullshit doing the rounds, which may actually be the product of fertile imaginations, but may also have a little bit of a bearing in truth.

For example…

Let’s be honest, it probably didn’t happen like that. It seems like someone has taken a lot of rumours and written a synopsis for a comedy sketch, yet there is little doubt Lennon is under pressure, and as for a dressing room split, there are whispers about loan players being paid an awful lot more than regulars without actually bringing anything to the table.

Players that cannot get a game for sub standard EPL sides turning up and expecting to be part of a historic achievement may well have realised that it’s not as easy in Scotland as they thought it might be.

Shane Duffy added Vassilis Barkas to his list of victims last night, and with Chris Jullien unlikely to be back any time soon after the Irishmans intervention it seems our new hero has caused more damage to Celtic than any defender since the unfortunate Willie Garner all those years ago.

But hey, he’s Irish and a fan, so let’s blame that poor sod of a goalkeeper who hasn’t played behind the same defence two games in a row since he got here.

And at least he committed himself for a few years, not a few months.

Then there’s Ajeti, who finds it easy enough to score domestically, often joining a game when the defenders are tired, but struggles against better opposition. Again, only a loannee , like his international comrade Mo Elyannoussi, who runs with his head down and manages to lift it in time only in tandem with the ball which he usually lifts over the bar.

These three have failed to impress, and are included ahead of others such as Klimala, Soro, Turnbull and of course, Griffiths.

Though Griffiths did start last night, but was exhausted after running out to take his position at the start.

And Griffiths starting shows just how much the manager has lost it. Maybe he’d got him ixed up with anthony Stokes, who single handedly saved him his job a few seasons ago.

The transfer window, roundly hailed as one of the best in recent years , is proving to be a disaster.

Only Uruguayan Davie Hay Diego Laxalt looks anything like the real deal, and he’s more of a forward than a defender, which is where the problems lie.

Look at this, the defensive “wall ” before Milan’s first goal…

Was only ever going to end up one way….

Complete shambles.

Don’t be fooled by the second half performance, Milan could have scored at will last night.

If the dressing room is indeed a little disjointed, then what of the management team itself, seen here, well, I’m at a loss to see what they are doing….

Is he taking orders for the half time carry out ?

The look on their faces and their body language suggest they are not focused on the pitch, which is where the action is. Action in the loosest possible sense of the word.

One of the biggest changes in football over recent seasons is the reliance on data, on models and projections, when in fact that might be useful when picking a team for a computer game, it’s only a guidance for the real thing, for instance if you want to know how tall a player is so you can order the correct size jersey.

Data is retrospective, and as football has so many variations on play, it’s bloody useless when planning a match, as when things don’t go to plan, the damage is often done because it’s too late to change.

Sitting trackside with a laptop serves no purpose whatsoever, as it distracts from anything thats going on in the real world.

Pencil, paper and a voice are all thats needed, and the pencil and paper is only in case you need to mention something at half time.

Since the arrival of Strachan, the team has not functioned.

There’s an obvious solution to that issue.

Since the introduction of several loannees, a system which failed under Tony Mowbray, the tam has not functioned.

There’s an obvious solution to that one as well.

As for the shape and formation, it’s not working.

There’s an obvious solution to that, and a pattern emerging….

Several players have been affected by the Covid virus, Edouard and Biton apparently have had it bad.

Along with Forrest and probably Julien we can forget seeing them at anything like their best …if at all…this side of Christmas.

We’re in trouble, a lot more trouble than we think, and it can be fixed, but it’s going to have to be now, and it’s going to have to be decisive.

At the moment we’re still at the angry stage, when the gallows humour kicks in, then we’ve lost it…