Normal service was restored yesterday when Celtic overcame St Mirren 3-0 in Glasgow. The buddies put up a fairly decent performance but were undone by two goals from Nicolas Kuhn, who seemed to be over whatever affected him at Ibrox, and Auston Trusty, who had been restored to the team having promised to do as the gaffer told him.
Combined with “rangers ” dropping two points at Easter Road, that more or less restores the league table to what it was before the hoops collapsed at Ibrox, and although there are still a few niggling doubts, the train has settled back onto the rails again.
Bizarrely, but rightly, Brendan Rodgers post match drew attention to the support…or lack of it…after fans seemed to be a little frustrated with his charges.
“I have a big respect for this group of players, especially on a day like today, because when it was 0-0 for the first 20 minutes, we’d make a backward pass and the crowd would be on to the team.
“That cannot happen. One, if you know about football, and two, if you can understand that when teams come here, they’re going to make it really difficult.
“You can’t turn up every single week and be 3-0, 4-0 up in 20 minutes.
“Teams are well-organised, teams are well set-up, you have to work the game.
“So sometimes you have to play a backward pass to change the point of attack. We make a backward pass, and then they get on to the players, and that’s why I was proud of the players.
“I don’t need the cheers when it’s 3-0, and the support when it’s 3-0 or 4-0, or 5-0.
“You only need to look at the facts and how this team plays to know they’re an attacking team, a creative team that creates goals and scores goals.
“So when we decide to go back to change the point of attack, clap the players, don’t panic.
“And that was my annoyance today. We need the support when it’s 0-0. We want to attack. Look at our numbers, look at our stats. Trust the team. Trust the management.”
He’s right, and wrong. But mostly right.
Criticising the support never ends well, it merely widens the audience for whatever complaint they have. In this instance, he’s drawing attention to the frustration shown when one of the defenders fires the ball sideways or backwards across the face of the goal, which invites pressure, and makes everyone nervous.
Nervous fans lead to nervous players, and that leads to mistakes.
On the other hand, he’s right. If a player cannot see a way forward, then it’s right for him to look elsewhere, but because play has slowed down, it invites pressure from forwards….which makes everyone nervous, and so on.
The solution would be for the midfield to come back a little and increase the options available, or at the very least move around a bit.
There don’t seem to be many outballs if Calum McGregor is marked.
Maybe the rant from Rodgers was partly because he himself was frustrated with the lack of forward movement, and there seemed to be more anger the manager wanted to get out of his system regarding the fans when he defended Greg Taylor, who , for some reason, gets more stick than others… even to the point where supporters are singing about another player who they think would be a better option at left back.
“A total lack of respect. Of course it is.
“Greg Taylor, he’s been absolutely amazing at this club. How does he feel? He nearly breaks his nose (today), bleeding for the club, for the cause.
“I’m more worried about the players that are here. It’s not very respectful to sing for another player, no matter what Kieran’s history is. I don’t like that.
“I have a young player who’s given so much to this club over a number of years, consistently. His robustness, ability, what he’s done for the club. So, that needs to be respected. He might decide to go elsewhere.
“But at this moment in time, he’s here, he’s very much a Celtic player and we want to support that. Hopefully we can get to some agreement to let him stay.
“I hear the stuff around, oh, maybe Champions League. But I’ve had hundreds of Celtic players that haven’t been good enough in the Champions League.
“What I know is this is a man who gives everything for this club. Hopefully we can keep him here because we’re trying to build a strong squad.
“I put myself in his shoes playing left-back in the game and we are singing the name of someone else.”
In this instance, he’s absolutely right.
Keiran Tierney almost joined Everton, just weeks after his heroic charge with a megaphone at Hampden. Brendan Rodgers talked him out of it. Tierney had accepted the Everton offer, which at the time surprised Rodgers and Peter Lawwell.
Then Arsenal came along, Celtic assessed the fitness of Tierney, and away he went.
Unless he’s grown a new hip, his fitness isn’t any better than when he went. And Taylor certainly doesn;t want to sign a new deal if he’s going to be downgraded to second choice.
His loyalty is beyond reproach, but as ever the football fan remembers players as they were when they leave, and not as they are now.
Although bringing Tierney back does fit the company policy of signing players who can’t get a game for their club, it doesn’t make sense to herald him as some sort of homecoming hero.
Fans are a fickle bunch. All defenders make mistakes, but some pay a higher price than others.
Liam Scales had a nightmare against “rangers “, and as a result will probably have to save Brendan’s puppy if it falls into the river before he gets another chance. He, too, suffered unacceptable abuse from the support after the game, a game in which pretty much everyone had an off day.
Cameron Carter Vickers, on the other hand, is beyond criticism, despite what could prove to be a costly own goal against Bruges when he couldn’t be arsed looking to see of there was anyone on the end of his pass while his mind was elsewhere.
He also has a habit of turning around while in possession and running towards his own bye line, he did it again yesterday where he was bundled off the ball, but as far as hoops fans are concerned he’s our best defender since Virgil van Dijk.
That might be right, but it says more about our defenders than it does Carter Vickers.
Celtic have tried several players alongside him, none seem to fit. Maybe it’s time to try it without him.
Then again, someone has to help keep Schmeichel awake when he starts to doze off.
The Champions League restarts in ten days or so. Rodgers was simply trying to get the players back into European mode, possession football played patiently and maturely. It’s worked so far and clearly he’s worried that fans screaming at players isn’t going to help.
Especially when one seasoned campaigner, Taylor, is getting a wee bit fed up of always being the fall guy.
It’s January, and with that comes the usual speculation around signings, and the eternal worry of upsetting the balance in a squad which is doing very well. Obviously there’s room for improvement, and there’s the added headache of Champions League qualifiers in the summer.
Rodgers will have to keep this team firing and at the same time plan ahead for next years competition,
To do both will require an enormous amount of luck as well as judgement, and in that context it’s easy to understand why he lets off steam from time to time.
Elsewhere, and over at Ibrox there is a sense of resignation in the air…
That brief period when they were just eleven points behind has gone, the window of opportunity slammed shut. At least, that’s how they saw it.
Quite why they figured they ever had a chance is largely down to the media throwing their weight behind manager Clement, following a remit from the Ibrox board to help them keep the Belgian in place for doing pretty much what they’d asked him to do…finish second and have a good run in Europe.
Clement, though, knows how to solve the problems at Ibrox.
He’s written to the SPFL asking if they can play their remaining games on a Thursday, as his players can handle that. It’s the other six days that are costing them.
On Friday, we had this…
Police release picture of man suspected of eating Ally McCoist
Today
Caption: ” pass it back more “
The criticism comes from the regular passes across field, from the likes of Taylor, Scales and Hatate that are easily intercepted to our cost recently,
Slagging off CCV and the potential return of KT is a rather strange take , considering CCV is consistently our most important player , and Tierney is a significant upgrade on any of our current left sided defenders
Brendan sings ‘ I’m a little teapot ” to team after going 3 -0 up, game management skills at there best
Brendan uses his mystical powers to control all the coins thrown by the demented Orc hordes and immediately invests it in a correct score bet of 3 3 at Easter Road.
In Brendan we accumulate (trophies)
im a gucci teapot
Ralph just stop it. Stop saying all
The things I want to say and stop saying them better. Taylor has been a superb signing. I once described him as the ‘ beating heart of the team,’ and a clown who wouldn’t k ie a football from his ar’e said ’ if he’s the hearing heart…
I am not sure about Tierney’s fitness. We play 50 plus games a season . If Tierney comes back there is in the words of General Custers scout ‘ plenty for everyone.’I cannot understand the boo boys, Peter Grant, James Forest, Taylor Scales . They seem to hate Celtic.
Taylor is the weakest link
Goodbye!
Where are you going?
I thought that was your message to Taylor. There always seems to be someone in the squad you take a visceral hatred to – remember Boyata out!!!?
I well remember Boyata OUT and wholeheartedly agreed. A FN impostor, a character actor where the character is a centre half!
Monti, big heart never stops running. If he is the weakest link we are unstoppable. Doesn’t hide like the midfielders do, not all the time but sometimes when it gets tough.
Fully agree. Not good enough. A good hearts player or captain of Dundee United. A journeyman who has lucked out
Snap, couldn’t agree more. Taylor will be missed when he’s gone.
The boo boys want the team to evolve from spl wonders to European contenders. Guys like Taylor should be thanked for his time and told in no uncertain terms that the days of mediocrity are over. You can go to Swindon town and have a good career. You’re not what we are looking for. This sentimentality of keeping favourites is what’s killing Celtic. Let’s be ambitious
“There’s ma toys oot the pram”
Caption: Rushed Matalan customer regrets affirmative answer to “do you want the hanger?”
Caption : ‘The first one that has a shot on target gets a sweetie.’
Greg Taylor has been a great service to this club and I hope he continues to be so for years to come. Tierney will be a massive waste of money as he will spend most of whatever contract he signs on the treatment table due to his crumbly biscuit knees. There are too many sentimental fools around our club that lack common sense, this shouldn’t even be up for debate. If they want to bring someone back get Jota FFS!
BR was absolutely right to call those fans out.
There is an element of our support who, as young folk, have been utterly spoiled by this period of absolute dominance that has been going on for most of if not all of their lives. This petulance is the kind of behaviour you’d expect from huns not us. Their parents need to slap a bit of sense into them and make them appreciate what we have now. Just because it looks like this dominance will continue it cannot be taken for granted that it will. With age comes the wisdom to understand that he world is a crazy place and things change rapidly, mostly for the worst. If any of our young fans ate reading this and feel like I’m being patronising…good! You little eejits need patronised FFS!
Some of our so – called fans shouldn’t be allowed near Celtic Park . No matter who we are playing that team & manager are doing their best to prevent us from winning . It’s their job , it isnt the responsibility of our so called fans to shout abuse or ridicule our players , this affects confidence and makes life easier for opponents . The referee yesterday gave our fans ample opportunities to hurl abuse at him as he failed to implement the rules relating to StvMirren. How did their goalkeeper get away with wasting time from opening minutes
Why shouldn’t they. They’ve identified a sh..house full back and don’t want him there anymore. Because they like staying in Europe as long as possible and don’t want a wee gubsh..te giving the ball away at crucial times and costing goals
I only came here to tell you that your writing is terrible and you should not even be platformed on any site to share opinions.
It is astounding.
There’s always CQN and others where all you get is inane ‘happy clappers’ so now that you’ve deposited your ‘wisdom’ here why don’t you jog on or even revv up and fukk off?
Caption
Rodgers fails in attempt to outdo Clement in Silly Walk demonstration.
St Mirren made a game of it !!… not from my balcony.
Couple of minutes in, Celtic corner, ball out at the flag, Henning gets the ball from behind his goal and throws it onto the park.
Maybe he’ll tell his wife and kids that one.
Prick.
“Calm down, calm down “
Strange behaviour from Rodgers, as he could’ve focussed on our lead increasing with a dig that leagues are won by teams playing well over a large number of games not a one-off but instead gave the press the gift of negative Celtic headlines.
Some commenters would be better off at the Tennis at Wimbledon, where the sycophantically clap when the umpire tells them off.
Venting frustration is natural with perceived negative play, its what supporters do everywhere, as do managers and team-mates. I get that clubs want happy, clappy non-critical automatons but thankfully (most) fans aren’t like that, as that leads to complacency, sterility and lack of ambition.
For goodness sake, we want these players to go into battle for us at largely hostile environments, domestically and abroad, and we treat them like a bunch of wee fearites that have hurtie feelings because of a few groans and moans.
Caption “You imbeciles, play it like I told you. What, hypocritical, me? No, I’m allowed to criticise the players”
What is BR on about re disrespecting Taylor? Chanting the name of a favourite old bhoy like Tierney is no reflection on Taylor’s contribution. It’s BR himself who is apparently negotiating to bring KT back to challenge for Greg’s position – is that not more disrespectful?
As for groaning at the negative passing at the back – didn’t we see enough of that at Ibrox? Of course fans are going to react to it when we seem to be continuing with the same tactic for the first half hour. Fans pay for their seats ffs – they’re entitled to express their disapproval just as much as their approval when the team finally got the finger out and went on the attack.
Bang on.
I find it risible that largely, non-match going Internet commenters criticise those that walk through a storm, the wind and the rain to go support the team, paying for the privilege.
At this time of the year, what with the weather and the extra costs associated with the winter solstice celebrations, a bit of appreciation of those who do make the effort would be more appropriate.
Support doesn’t mean mindlessly happy clapping all the time and deserved criticism is, er, deserved.
Almost every Celtic fan I know loves Taylor and appreciates what he has done for the team, i think you’ll find it was opposing managers and players who said they target him as our weak link. I think Taylor is on a par with Anthony Ralston, the difference being he’s been lucky with regard to being a first team pick, and Ralston very unlucky. Both are excellent back up players and can be completely trusted to do a good job in the SPFL, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be looking for better, just like we did with Ralston’s position, although he hadn’t done a lot wrong, even against Ronaldo, but them’s the breaks I guess.
As for CVV, It’s bizarre how the support seems to put some people on a pedestal and others as parriahs, even when evidence says otherwise. If any one is a target for the boo boys then it’s Hatate, who is seemingly to blame for us not showing up against the huns, when in fact our other untouchable, McGregor had an absolute stinker. It’s crazy how Callum gets all the credit for a good midfield performance, but it’s Hatate who carries the can for a bad one, when both have been equally bad, and some would argue McGregor was worse against the huns, go figure.
Agree on Taylor, he’s good quality SPFL level but not elite and is regularly exposed in Europe. He can’t even get a game for Scotland with all their injuries, although, to be fair, Steve Clarke is hardly a good judge.
I’m not sure that either him or Ralston are being harshly treated. Celtic play at a level probably far above anything else they could ever attain.
I’m baffled at Celtic fans who don’t want an improvement on any player and don’t know of any other ambitious club’s fans who think like that.
CCV does have a tendency to turn into trouble and although his strength tends to get him out of it domestically, in Europe its a problem. We do tend to over-hype our players eg Jota, Eddie etc who struggle outside of the comforts of Scotland.
Kuhn for Germany is the latest manifestation of this and its not happening, at least whilst he’s with us.
McGregor may be on a Brown career descent and it took a few years before Broonie started to lose his lustre with the fans.
re Hatate. If some fans have turned on him then its probably a reaction to the ridiculous over-hype he used to get for average performances with very few flashes of genuine quality.
.
Patience is a virtue when trying to break down the parked bus approach. It is also a virtue when the manger is constantly asked about players that play for other clubs and rightly says nothing about speculation around them. Getting behind the team at the difficult parts of the game would help them in my opinion and getting on their backs probably hinders them and makes them go for even more safe passes. As I have said before I have been to many Celtic games when people around me were abusing Celtic players more than the opposition due to their personal dislikes of certain players. It’s amazing to watch someone frothing at the mouth abusing our own team! Just stay home
I’ll say this about our manager if he was in my taxi but had to go into his mate’s house to get the fare I wouldn’t have a problem. But he could leave his phone with me.
Caption – Put your left hand in, your right hand out. Sing Offensive Sectarian Songs. Do the bouncy bouncy. Turn around. That what the huns are all about.
His comments were due to frustration, even he was taken aback at the Ibrokes mess. There are a group of Celtic supporters that do not remember the dark days, and continuously whinge about players not being good enough. The game on Sunday was pedantic, but due to the format Robertson set up. At least the Hibees had a bash against Clemetines mob.
Celtic appear to lack a leader on the field, Calum at times should be more aggressive and stand up to the idiots in the middle, on Sunday the refereeing was as usual dire.
Comment
Brendan pats an invisible Taylor on the head.
Think Brendan has done more harm to Taylor by highlighting the grumbling of the fans. Taylor Ralston and scales aren’t good enough for European football. Someone said everybody loves Taylor. Do they f..k he’s a Diddy carried by good players. Get some decent full backs at least Ralstin has a bit of height going for him as has Scales. It’s a modern game these days for built athletes. Send Taylor to Lilliput see out his contact there
Caption
Give it to Taylor to kick it out we got a man down!
For those not going to tomorrow’s game, its going to be available as a PPV Event, for the half-price of £5.99 in recognition that those who paid the full-fat £12.99 for Sunday’s missed up to half of it due to technical problems.
Shame for those who shelled out the full amount on Sunday and won’t be watching tomorrow.
The price of £5.99 is probably about right for PPV (perhaps not CTV though as it’s crap?) but the £12.99 was an utter disgrace probably arranged by the fat, greedy, tory slug aka Peter Thomas Lawwell, ‘a permanent embarrassment and occasional disgrace’. For the sheer inconvenience and amateurism of CTV that day everyone who paid should demand a full refund.
I wont get involved in some of the OTT stuff regarding our players but I think we all share a love of Celtic and want to see success, as we should, but we express things differently. That’s allowed!
The new huns will get every assistance if we even appear to stumble so it’s critical we keep focus and take the Title. The new huns game last week was an abberation (abomination?) and so let’s consign it to history. Come On You Bhoys In Green! (Going for 120!)
I hope the storm created by BR’s post match presser blows over very quickly and that all players and coaching staff can shut this out and put it behind them to focus on the vitally important games coming up. Personally I’d like to see an upgrade signed this window for the LB position and I say that without any disrepect whatsoever to GT. The scouting team in collaboration with the coaches should constantly be looking at ways in which they can improve the team in every position bar none so it’s sometimes necessary to be a bit ruthless in order to strive to attain higher levels.
Re tonights game, Dundee Utd are likely to set up 5-4-1 or something similar but I’m hopeful that the condensed fixture schedule will now be taking its toll on them and that we can find ways to break down their defensive set-up. Maybe Idah can rediscoversome of his earlier form and delight us with a couple of great goals.
Yes, hopefully we maintain our position as the 2nd most in-form team behind, er, Hibs. 😉
Yes, I’d like to see a lot more from Idah but I also think he’s been a bit unlucky, as he often wins the ball and flicks it on behind the defence into dangerous positions but no-one’s there to get on the end.
Hopefully, this will come, as he and the team get more used to each other.
One thing that was surprising to me, is that his hold-up game is virtually non-existent and he’s always looking to play it on rather than waiting for others.
Sorry guys but I just don’t see it with Idah. There’s a reason why he wasn’t getting a game for Norwich. Having the ball bounce of his shin for a ‘cup winning’ goal has raised him to a status with Celtic fans that ignores reality. We’ve spent the last six months trying to convince ourselves that we haven’t had our pants pulled down by Norwich but the truth is he hasn’t been the back up to Kyogo we needed and never will be.
I was unhappy with the length of time we spent pursuing him and the ridiculous money we spent on him but that was and is on our Execs not the player.
Having said that, we can afford the money, unlike in the 90s wasting what little money we had on a crippled Gary Gillespie, Slater etc.
Obviously, that failure (time/money) needs to be learnt from so that its not repeated and doesn’t cause us problems in the future.
As long as he’s a net contributor (pun intended) in terms of goals and assists then that’s what I’m looking for and any ‘bang for the buck’ analysis can wait for when and if we no longer have access to UCL money.
At the time, I noted that his Norwich career paralleled Mikey Johnston’s at us i.e. brief flurries but largely ineffective overall.
My hope was he’d be a more consistent and reliable performer. That clearly hasn’t happened yet but I’m still hopefully.
It’s clearly a difficult role at just being the backup but the more experienced Giakoumakis made a success of it but was frustrated at his lack of game time.
I think its unfair to characterise his Cup Final winner as ‘coming off his shin’. He was in the right position to put it in the net, which is what you want of any striker. Plus he beat £30m super Jack Butland. 😉
The Mikey Johnston analogy could well turn out to be chillingly accurate and it would be such a shame if we do find that we’ve blown such a huge fee on him. Another observation re big Adam is that he seems to lack a nasty streak in his character as we don’t see him bullying opposing defenders in the way Giakoumakis did. I think the latter was a more clinical finisher and better technical player too but Idah still puts in a shift and covers a lot of ground often helping out the defence. If he’s given a bit more game time at least we could have a clearer picture on his future prospects by spring. On tonight’s game, I really hope Dundee Utd surprise us by trying to take the game to us so we can enjoy a better footballing spectacle but can’t really see it. Hope you enjoy it anyway and that things turn out well.
Maybe just a tad harsh in completely writing him off as he hasn’t really had a great deal of game time but the possibility of him turning out to be a bad waste of money is very real. I just think it would be fair to give him a bit more time and, if possible, a decent run of 3 or 4 games as a starter to see how he goes. He did put in a string of fine performances with a hatful of goals in the latter part of last season in addition to the cup final winner, which is why most of us wanted him to join so badly in the summer. The whole thing dragged out and we ended up paying way over the odds for him but he’s still young and can hopefully develop a lot more. If he continues to disappoint this season I’m all for using Daezen as the main striker as an alternative to Kyogo as he has proven to be effective in this role for both club and country, unless we find a better option in this transfer window of course.
I fear Cha has a point when he talks about Mikey Johnston’s ‘flurry’ of good games. We seem to have had Idah on just such a flurry last season which he hasn’t been able to reproduce (neither has MJ in England as it happens). Was it all a flash in the pan?
As for the overblown transfer fee, certainly the club has only itself to blame for that, thanks to their stupid brinkmanship over the summer. Still, I’d lay odds that Idah will be gone 18 months from now at a considerable loss to the club.
Having said all that, I’ll be happy to be proved wrong. I wasn’t convinced by Engels either initially but we’re beginning to see the underlying talent there as he settles in.
Caption: EXPELLIARMUS!! Ya baldy bastirt!!