It’s been a few days now since Celtic decided they didn’t want a treble after all and it was only fair to help plucky newcomers “rangers” retain an interest in their domestic season, but that feeling that someone made an arse of things won’t go away.
Maybe it wasn’t the traditional Old Firm helping hands policy after all, maybe we just didn’t get it right on the day.
Maybe the managers decision to play his way doesn;t always work after all.
It certainly didn’t on Sunday, and worryingly it had been fairly obvious from the last few meetings between the teams that three in midfield, looking to exploit the space with pace and technique, can’t actually do that when the opposition put five guys in there to close them down.
Apart from the first half in the 3-0 win, Celtic have laboured against the cloggers from south of the river.
That’s five forty five minute periods when they’ve had to endure quite a bit of pressure, and play the game largely with their backs to the wall.
Even the first half at Ibrox was more a sort of blood and snotters affair, and whilst Celtic did score twice, they weren’t the usual tearing the opposition apart type of goals we’re used to.
And let’s face it, in the second half we were clinging on a bit, and when Nir Biton gets singled out for praise for his role in steadying the ship then you know you’ve had to work for your win.
That’s the bit I cannot fathom out.
Postecoglou must have noticed that by and large when his midfield is crowded out, it becomes ineffective.
When it becomes ineffective, the system breaks down.
If van Bronckhurst has spotted that, then more seasoned managers in Europe will be well aware of it from the first video tape they watch.
That brings back memories of Brendan Rodgers and his unwillingness to change and adapt when Celtic were being ritually slaughtered by the continents top teams, it even reminds us of Tommy Burns thinking that attractive football is far more fun than actually winning things.
The honeymoon period is well and truly over now for the Australian, not because he lost a semi final , but because it was avoidable simply by tweaking the way he approached a game that most of us could see needed a little bit of steel in the side to combat what was always going to be a more typical Scottish match than perhaps a free flowing festival of football.
He may well be aware of this, he may well even be tailoring his shopping in the next transfer window to adapt to this, and he’s done more than enough to warrant patience while he does, but I still have this nagging feeling that whilst belief in your own ability is admirable, the more times Celtic lose in the way they did on Sunday, the more the players will begin to doubt him.
There’s little point in telling them that we don’t stop if we struggle to get started.
Incidentally, it’s worth mentioning that Bobby Madden did what he does best, using his influence to alter the patterns and pace of play with some novel and refreshing interpretations of the rules.
There’s no need to go over them again, you all saw them.
It’s what Scottish referees do when they feel they have a chance to influence the outcome of a game, especially a one off cup game, and Madden did his bit for the brotherhood which means he can sleep peacefully in his sash of an evening.
Scottish football will see VAR ( video amended refereeing ) introduced by the end of the year, which measn the man in the middle will now have three more assistants in a wee room with a wee telly in case he’s missed anything that might be important, but you can be absolutely certain that what they deem to be important will have little bearing on sporting integrity or lead to a levelling of the playing field in Scotland,
It’ll have the opposite effect, as those watching the screen can now spot things that they want to spot, and of course, they can do so without fear of recrimination.
Until Scottish referees are forced to declare allegiances to any club and be prevented from taking charge of their games, then nothing will change.
Even explaining some of their more, er, unusual decisions would be a start, but that’s not going to happen any time soon.
For some reason, VAR ( Video Assisting Rangers ) is seen as the ultimate solution in guaranteeing fairness in officiating, and those in favour will point to it as infallible the first time “rangers ” get a penalty or their opponents get a goal chalked off…
They’ll claim that it was the only way to prevent controversy and ensure fairness for all, when in fact , as with any computerised system, it depends entirely on who is running it.
And that’ll be the same peepil who are in charge just now…..
Excellenty said. ! How very true that the same knuckle crackers are in charge, and as we saw on Sunday, they will still give nothing too Celtic. But watch for little things going on and Celtic will suffer big time. Hoping that it may also work against sevco getting so many Penalties, but I do not think they will review many of them. Lets just call it selective decisions!!! After watching Beaton in one of the “telly ” rooms, as usual the Hun seems to think he knows it all and he is only training!! That says it all!. Hail Hail.
Nevermind VAR I’m more interested in Ange getting the system right,teams from Ibrox have always in my memory overloaded the midfield,it’s pathetic why we don’t do the same and give ourselves a chance,Ange has to take the blame for our last two performances against them,this letting them have possession is so unentertaining nevermind anything else,still fuming!
I’m pretty sure Tommy Burns knew the importance of winning, maybe the guy who walked away with £45m could have spent some of it on a few quality defenders.
£45m tax-free but let us spend money to build a statue to him for “saving’ us.
Yeah I’ll not be puting into that one.
Monti
Would you sell a house for £200,000 and then build an extension for £50,000
for the new owner? The person with all the money who bought his shares
was responsible, and far richer even, for buying new players and you can see how much he has done with his billions.
£45,000,000 in 1999 would be around £80,000,000 today so I think that is a bit exaggerated.
Fergus made around £40m in profit from his £9m Investment in 5 years.
£1.5m of which he gave back toward building The Youth Academy.
Yes he saved Celtic from the same fate as Rangers in 2012 but ultimately he did so knowing his £9.5m Investment would reap huge rewards in the long term.
the £14m Share offer was the biggest in British Football at the time and helped towards the rebuild of Celtic Park.
In effect he took a gamble ,spent nothing and made a 444% Increase on his Investment in 5 years.
I doubt the very much maligned Dermot Desmond has made anywhere near that amount in his 20 Year involvement since.
One can only imagine what Brother Walfrid made of the obscene profit he walked with.
The point remains Fergus McCann walked away with at least £40m while he was selling or ‘ trading ‘ the three amigos and tying rope around one arm of Tommy Burns.
All I’m saying is Fergus could have helped TB to give him every opportunity to preserve our 9 in a row….he didn’t & we didn’t……I would have and I’d have given the three amigos every thin dime they wanted!
Shouldn’t be surprised after all these years following Celtic but we are either sugar or sh!t according to some people. Now Ange is coming under pressure and we were lucky to get a result at Ibrox? Ange didn’t change his style at Ibrox? Maybe not but his team showed another side to them, the ability to soak up pressure and survive. And let’s face it Abada should have had us out of sight and comfortable.
Yeah with hindsight maybe Ange should have matched them up in midfield but after his previous success against them why would he? Remember one key difference this time out is we lost our focal point, big GG. Maybe it’s true what they say, you’re a better player the longer you are out the team but I think we definitely missed the big guy.
And do you really think that with Brother Madden allowing them to foul with impunity that us playing 5 in the middle would have allowed us to dominate in there. They gave Lundstram the man of the match for god sake! I counted at least 4 yellows he should have got.
I had the misfortune to catch 10 mins of superscoreboard last night and they were saying that the only decision VAR would have looked at was whether Bassey was offside at their 2nd. So there you have it, Bro Madden can carry on with his underhand tactics and never be called out. The Celtic board have shown themselves too cowardly to do so, or maybe I am being harsh on them and they are playing a blinder behind the scenes. Aye right.
The path to glory this season is straightforward, play our football and start this weekend by taking 3 points in Dingwall. Then when Sevco come to Paradise we make sure the referee (they couldn’t pick Madden could they?) gets put under the sort of pressure only 60k tims can apply. Don’t do us any favours just do your damn job.
COYBIG.
Great comment McK! Could not agree more.
Bang on.
With a neutral ref our starting 11 and tactics would have seen us into the final.
No matter who we played or the formation we used madden would have just done what he had to do.
Everyone seen that on Sunday.
Rogic was never in the game because anytime he got the ball he was fouled.
A neutral ref would have stopped that early.
Without the spoiling/fouling tactics sevco had zero else to stop us.
Only thing I’m starting to hold against Ange is his silence on the refs, he’s far from stupid, so he knows exactly what he’s up against.
This’ll be the tactics used against us in the last 5 games
If the cheats ignore the fouling then there’s not much our players can do about it.
Calmac can hardly show lundstrum a yellow for blocking Joe Harts kick out.
That’s supposed to be maddens job.
I agree wholeheartedly with this if football was an exact science it wouldn’t be watchable what’s the point of having a way of playing if your just gonna chuck it, we’re nowhere near the finished article. Bed wetting is never far away
I remain convinced Ange is the man for the job. In the second half we were second best. If Carter Vicars had scored they were fine. They wanted it more than us, then again I want the League more than the cup. Madden made strange decisions but if we had been good enough it would not have mattered. I always feel blaming the referee when we lose, which isn’t very often, is a cop out. We have a much bigger snd better squad and they snd Ange failed on Sunday. I believe that will guarantee us the League perversely. I am with Cal Mac in that one.
Ange is still at the start of his journey, he won’t have all the players he wants in the squad, with better players other teams in Scotland can put 11 players in midfield and we will still beat them, I’m still believing. The difference for me between Rodgers and Ange is that Ange can spot a player that will enhance the team, Rodgers pretty much had the same team as Ronny for his full time in charge and his signings where nowhere to bee seen.
those inverted full backs are supposed to give you extra numbers in midfield. Sadly Hatate and Rogic were 2 men down so we were back to a 3 man midfield.
Knee not jerking… Regan Charles Cooke any time you like
Not Sunday, hopefully.
Lundstrum tackle on Hatate after 3 minutes set the tone for the game. Not a foul but hard and Hatate was too busy looking to see where he was going to pass the ball to see the tackle coming.
Just win the league get shot of the baggage and build a competitive European team because for all our domestic success we have been crap in Europe for too long. Beating that mob has never been enough. Our players are held to a higher standard and our history will not yield to a lesser endeavour.
Try reading the last bit in a JFK voice.
Sh, don’t mention JFK, you’ll have our resident conspiracy nutter all hot and bothered.
I don’t give a fvck about JFK.
If VAR isn’t going to make a difference ask yourself this, how would the semi final against Inverness have played out? It may be the extreme example but it’s valid. They might be cheats but they’re not feckin stupid. VAR will limit what they can realistically get away with in terms of the big decisions. The level of scrutiny that they will be exposed to will dictate this. Declaring allegiances will only lead to season tickets at Firhill that are never used.
Never mind the four yelliw cards lundstrom should have got. Never mind rogic conceding a foul after bassey wrestled him and tried to mount him from behind. Never mind our quick free kick that put jota clear with 3 minutes left of extra time only for it to be pulled back and a mysterious free kick given to them. Never mind an uncontested drop ball being awarded to them after we had cleared it from our box where madden bends down and rolls it in front of them so it doesnt bounce. Never mind aribo jumping into juranovic, nowhere near the ball and poleaxing him whilst already on a yellow card….madden waves play on as juranovic is prostate on the turf and they attack. Never mind the fact he stopped play when aribo went down with no foul or head injury even though he had ignored juranovic down earlier to avoid a red card and let them attack. Never mind we had 5 players injured. Never mind the offside winning goal.
Apparently it was our midfield lost it and therefore our own fault.
I’m going to make Juranovic’s prostate my new user name. Sure the ref was gash but we lost it.
Aye, but the refs are NEVER gash against them, and if our players retaliate in frustration they get carded. Therein lies the proof of bias and corruption.
Sunday is the next big game nothing else matters now.
We have to dust down and go again. The huns will be thinking this is one where we can drop points.
Well fuck them let’s do it Celtic, and put it to bed early doors.
Don’t think my ticker could take another helicopter Sunday. HH
Third time lucky….4-1 Celtic on Sunday.
Meanwhile on Saturday, who’s to say Murderwell won’t shock the huns?
It’s a funny old game Saint.
Bassas…a penalty when they were down to 10 men…who’d have guessed that. When in need the ref does his bit.