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.<\/p>\n
So I will try to be generous….<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
So, it was obviously a time to change all that.<\/p>\n
Celtic started at a snails pace and got slower while Ajax looked lively \u00a0and threatened to swamp the \u00a0uncertain 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.<\/p>\n
Ajax would have taken the lead in the first half \u00a0but for the keepers heroics, and it looked like Lennons decicion to go with just two midfielders was going to backfire. The Dutch side \u00a0had dispensed with \u00a0their 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.<\/p>\n
But , against the odds , they did. Which gave us a chance to re-organise…<\/p>\n
However, \u00a0took 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 \u00a0Lasse 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. \u00a0It 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Forster made some crucial saves, which at least kept his hopes of a move high. Lustig, \u00a0Izzaguerre, Amvrose \u00a0and 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, \u00a0and 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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 )<\/p>\n
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 \u00a0for weeks now.<\/p>\n
And we were all so optimistic this morning…..<\/p>\n
Ach, well, I tried to be generous.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Its probably not a good idea to give an opinion on a game like that straight afterwards. Disappointment , frustration and downright dejection can sometimes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/bollocks.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-114","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3910"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3912,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3910\/revisions\/3912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}