{"id":5874,"date":"2014-10-24T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T11:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=5874"},"modified":"2014-10-24T12:00:51","modified_gmt":"2014-10-24T11:00:51","slug":"dad-we-need-to-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=5874","title":{"rendered":"Dad, We need to talk about Ronnie.."},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ll never forget that day my 23 year old daughter said those chilling words that no Father wants to hear. It was a Thursday, it was 11:30am. I was sitting alone when she walked into the room. I looked up with a smile that was soon to vanish as my daughter said \u201cLook Dad, I got us tickets for the Astra game tonight!\u201d. \u201cBugger\u201d cried my inner voice as I faked a half smile and said \u201cOh great\u201d in response whilst watching the rain continue to fall outside in a grey miserable Glasgow.<\/p>\n

6 hours or so later we were heading to the game. The Rain was still falling but the mood had lifted and the bets had been placed. Talk of \u201c3-0\u201d or \u201c4-0\u201d filled the car as we drove round and around Dalmarnock way looking for somewhere to park. The difficulty wasn\u2019t the vast amount of cars due to a massive attendance, no, it was the lackof actual parking places now the big green fields of old have been replaced with a cycling track which had approximately no-one on it by the time we ditched the car on a blacked out street and headed up to the ground.<\/p>\n

To be fair, the Emirates Arena-Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome is a welcome and impressive addition to the East End landscape and it was good to see the five aside pitches were all full as we walked\u00a0up\u00a0towards Paradise via The Celtic\u00a0Way, the newish entrance up to Celtic Park. It\u2019s a lovely sight with white and green lights showing the way towards our beloved stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No doubt come our return to the Champions League, reporters will stand up on the Velodrome step talking to camera whilst taking in the new impressive walkway in the background. As this was just the Europa League, there were no reporters, hardly any police and not even traffic on London Road. A few folk still gathered for photo\u2019s as always, just for that \u201cI\u2019ve been there\u201d feeling:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"IMAG2204\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0So it was with a wee nod to statues of Jinky, Jock and brother Walfrid, we walked round and into the less than half full stadium. After half an hour mulling about inside to avoid the rain, we ventured out for team arrival and kick off. Who knew the Europa League had a tune? Nope me neither but I suspect Pensionerbhoy remembers when it first topped the Harpsichord charts. With Guidetti ineligible ( who\u2019s brilliant planning was that btw?) Celtic lined up with :<\/p>\n

Gordon<\/p>\n

Izzy, Denayer, VVD, Mikel
\nMulgrew, Broon, Johansen, MacGregor
\nStokes, Scepovic<\/p>\n

Celtic were in the Hoops while Astra from the back appeared to have lined up wearing Celtics old Black and Gold Away top. Im sure my daughter still has one in the loft with ‘Maloney’\u00a0on the back somewhere. As it was to turn out, we really could have did with a ‘Maloney’ in the Hoops.<\/p>\n

I could go on and on about the dire first half from Celtic. I could rant about Danayers obsession with passing to an opponent or big Virgils lackadaisical attitude. I could moan about Tony Stokes having a Tony Stokes European Night. I could suggest Callum McGregor would have been better off in his bed for school in the morning given his lack of input. I could sigh at the defence for switching or backing off so many times that Craig Gordon was yet again our ONLY player turning up having to make numerous saves to keep Astra out.<\/p>\n

But I wont.<\/p>\n

Instead I feel the excitement of the first half can be captured by this one poignant image, an image that brings to mind a classic Only An Excuse match report sketch from Dundee when \u201ca chip poke has blown onto the park\u201d. Yes folk,I was so bored watching Celtic that I ended up taking a photo of a pitch invasion:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"IMAG2213\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mind you, I wasn\u2019t the only one searching for something decent to watch ( look at that banner\u2026and try not to cringe a little)<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"IMAG2210\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The second half could only get better. And it did. Well kinda. Celtic scored. Twice. One a header from our \u00a32m striker Scepovic who is now off the mark. Scepovic scored\u00a0after putting home a Tony Stokes free kick that actually met the danger area for once. The Serb had missed a few chances and finally got one on target and hopefully it\u2019s the start of a decent run. It was clear to see the whole team were glad for him.<\/p>\n

\"IMAG2214\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And Im glad to report whilst the striker thanked the support for their backing and applause, there was no badge kissing to sigh at.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"IMAG2247_1\"<\/p>\n

Scepovic to be fair had some decent touches and made some excellent runs which often went unnoticed by a Celtic midfield who were bereft of any vision.Oh for a Lubo, a Nakamura or even a wee Shauny, just someone who can make that split second pass into the path for a\u00a0rushing forward.<\/p>\n

Of course for that killer pass, the strikers need to do their bit and we\u2019re back to Tony Stokes. He offered nowt bar the free kick for Scepovics goal and you wonder just how long it will be before Deila gives Griffiths a go or considers changing the front line to Guidetti and Scepovic,for the domestic encounters for now at least.<\/p>\n

Celtic did perform better in the second half after the dire first 45 and the points duly\u00a0seemed sewn up when Stefan Johansen rattled in a loose ball following a fumble by the Astra keeper. At 2-0, with most of\u00a0those left in the stadium expecting the Hoops to steamroll the Romanians, Astra duly ran up the park and managed to score with 10mins left. The crowd found ourselves transported into that \u201cOh mammy daddy\u201d territory watching the clock on the big screen.<\/p>\n

Thankfully there weren\u2019t any true heart in mouth moments but the bloodpressure was raised every time Izzy forgot how to defend and kept bombing up the park. When youre relying on\u00a0Wasako for cover, that does not fill anyone with confidence with the game on a knife-edge.<\/p>\n

The ref blew for time and the points were on the board. Ronnie Deila soon after on the radio was clearly relieved to win but was honest in his assessment whilst respectful to Astras performance.<\/p>\n

Deila highlighted the first half slackness from Celtic and he has to make sure this is curbed. I would suggest benching Denayer and giving Efe a role back at Centre half. Sadly with the focus being on Craig Gordon passing it out from the back to a centre half to start the play, Efes bombscare dribbling seems to mean this suggestion is dead in the water. Regardless of how pretty it looks on paper or how\u00a0expensive they are deemed in \u201cpotential value\u201d, Big Virgil and Denayer are nowhere near the finished article and are still very much a work in progress.<\/p>\n

No-one in the Hoops came out the game well bar Craig Gordon.The only worrying thing about Gordon is the way that Ronnie Deila says \u201cWe hope we can keep him\u201d. Is this just a short term shop window arrangement? Will we see our best player head away despite proving his fitness, robustness and importance to the side? I really hope not as he is\u00a0vital for results and\u00a0he really is the only inspiration to any young Hoops fans at present.<\/p>\n

At the back,Lustig is showing his class and is a welcome return but we still need decent back-up for Izzy. In the centre, I would even suggest Charlie Mulgrew could be considered as wellas Efe, as the current 2 were far too complacent last night and may need a challenge to buck up their ideas.<\/p>\n

With Kris Commons still carrying a glutimus maximus (aka ‘a pain in the arse’) \u00a0injury, Celtics midfield\u00a0were totally bereft of any vision and its clear come January we need to find a creative player. A midfield of Brown, Mulgrew, Johansen and McGregor may be able to run about or help break down attacks but they\u2019re never going to consistently have the other sides defenders backing off fearing that clinical touch forward.<\/p>\n

John Park, for whom the Jury is still out,\u00a0 found Nakamura, and\u00a0hopefully he can find us someone with the same football brain. Then again hopefully Peter Lawwell\u00a0will then authorize the wages needed. Living, minimal or otherwise.<\/p>\n

As many on Etims know, Ive championed Ronnie Deila and still back the guy and his methods. He made a few positive changes (Tonev,Wasako) when it wasn\u2019t working last night and it helped Celtic go forward and ultimately win the game. However there is no hiding the fact that overall it was an ugly, depressing performance and the buck for that ultimately sits with him.<\/p>\n

If Ronnie\/Park\/Lawwell cant find that playmaker or find a system that fits with what he has ( with or without Kris \u201cHe says hes happy here\u201d Commons), then our progress in the Europa League will be lucky to get passed the next step and the pressure will only increase on all parties concerned.<\/p>\n

The league will be won, of that I have no doubt, but I hope somehow we can find a way to play Guidetti and Scepovic as they both clearly have a football brain, its up to the manager to make it work overall and for the men behind the scenes to deliver the personnel he needs.<\/p>\n

So, the intriguing\/despairing ( delete as appropriate) rollercoaster continues to run and next stop is Kilmarnock at home. Its part of a 2 for the price of 1 scheme which along with all those empty seats last night must have Peter Lawwell wondering if this plan really is working?<\/p>\n

Only time will tell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ll never forget that day my 23 year old daughter said those chilling words that no Father wants to hear. It was a Thursday, it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5880,"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\/2014\/10\/IMAG2259.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-1wK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5874"}],"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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5874"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5886,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5874\/revisions\/5886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}