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<\/p>\nI haven’t changed my mind. Shakter Karagandy are still a bloody awful team. They just happened to come up against another bloody awful team and deal with it better.<\/p>\n
Shakter made up for any technical disabilities with enthusiasm and organisation, while Celtic just passed the ball sidieways in midfield and waited for something to happen.<\/p>\n
It did. Shakter took it off them and ran up the park and scored twice.<\/p>\n
Actually, not so much took it off them, but had it given to them.<\/p>\n
Celtic looked tired, nervous and uncertain of how to deal with the sort of problem faced in nearly every Premier League game ever played-that of a team sitting in and hoping to take advantage on the break. There were chances, but with no predatory striker on call, the hoops failed to make them count-a recurring theme-and Lennon must either rely on the ones he has, or do something to get someone else in.<\/p>\n
Anthony Stokes, Amido Balde and Tony Watt all sat out the game, with Balde only making an appearance with eight minutes to go. Stokes has still to sign a contract, and a real fear is that if Lennon doesn’t start to show some faith in him, he’ ll join the exodus south that has apparently crippled a promising young side.<\/p>\n
Q: Where did it all go wrong ?<\/p>\n
A: On the pitch.<\/p>\n
Forster looked uncomfortable in goal, perhaps because of the new central defensive partnership in front of him. It must have looked okay in training, or surely Lennon would never have risked it.<\/p>\n
Ambrose must have been too tired to start, and Matthews was left benched due to his hamstring, meaning that Lustig could not play in the middle. Charlie Mulgrew was supposed to be the extra defender, but seemed prone to wandering wide, and this left Brown and Ledley overwhelmed when the Khazaks did break.<\/p>\n
Izzaguerre and Commons tried , but were often crowded out, praise is due , though, they kept trying, but received little help with movement or running from Samaras, Forrest or the midfielders.<\/p>\n
We made an arse of it, but there is a game next week in Glasgow where it can be put right. The Khazaks will play exactly the same way. Celtic cannot afford to.<\/p>\n
But we will cross that bridge when we come to it. Unless we fall off half way over, which is likely based on last nights efforts.<\/p>\n
After the game, although few of us could bear to watch, Shakter milked the occasion, celebrating as if they had won the tournament, instead of just giving themselves a decent chance of \u00a0qualifying.<\/p>\n
Which really got to Lennon, who wasn’t in the best of moods;<\/p>\n
“I don’t know (if they think it is over),” he raged,<\/p>\n
“They are definitely in the ascendancy and there is that euphoria straight after the final whistle.<\/p>\n
“But they have to come to Glasgow and they will have to defend well because we will come at them from the off.<\/p>\n
“They didn’t (surprise me). We knew exactly how they would play. ( Don’t suppose it had occured to you to do something about it ? )<\/p>\n
“We knew they would be physical and a threat from set pieces.<\/p>\n
“But if you look at the game in the cold light of day, we had six or seven clear-cut chances to either take the lead, equalise or get back in the tie so it gives us plenty of encouragement for the second game in Glasgow ”<\/p>\n
“They will have to defend” ? They kind of showed they can do that.<\/p>\n
“six or seven clear cut chances ” ? They don’t actually count unless you score them.<\/p>\n
He continued;<\/p>\n
“It is a big task but the tie is far from over,”<\/p>\n
“We have plenty in us to turn it around. The players will be very motivated.<\/p>\n
“There will be a few players who will be disappointed with their performances tonight but we are still well in this tie although we have a lot to do.”<\/p>\n
Worryingly, he seems to think the atmosphere at Celtic Park will play a big part in rescuing the tie. It might, but its unlikely anybody in the crowd will score a goal, and thats the problem.<\/p>\n
Celtic are predictable, and easy to play against. The players are capable enough, but a different system is required, and a wee but more guile in possession.<\/p>\n
Joe Ledley was a little angry as well, when asked why he thought Celtic would finish the job in Glasgow, he replied;<\/p>\n
“We should have scored six goals easy, that’s why.<\/p>\n
“To be fair to them, their keeper was on fire but we dominated possession and had more chances but lost sloppy goals.<\/p>\n
“It is definitely frustrating, we dominated them away from home and two sloppy goals killed the game.<\/p>\n
“Away from home you need to keep the door shut and it just wasn’t good enough today but we believe we can score against them.”<\/p>\n
Told you we should have mentioned what they did to the sheep to him before the game.<\/p>\n
Mikael Lustig summed it up best;<\/p>\n
‘Of course, it is a very bad result,’ said Swede.<\/p>\n
‘We wanted to come here and get the right result, but we did not do things the way we wanted.<\/p>\n
‘I would say we were the better team and created most of the chances in the game, but we were simply not good enough in our own box and not good enough in theirs.<\/p>\n
‘Both of their goals came from set-pieces and that was so disappointing.<\/p>\n
‘We knew before the game that using the long throw was a tactic of theirs and something they use to bring the bigger players up from the back.\u00a0To be honest, we didn\u2019t handle that well enough.<\/p>\n
‘We knew exactly how they were going to do it.<\/p>\n
‘It happens for us sometimes when we are facing a team and we are bigger than them, you feel that something special can happen in the opponents box.<\/p>\n
‘Shakhter did it well for their own side, but were are very disappointed with how we dealt with it.’<\/p>\n
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