{"id":9790,"date":"2016-09-13T09:04:06","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T08:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=9790"},"modified":"2016-09-13T09:04:06","modified_gmt":"2016-09-13T08:04:06","slug":"thoughts-on-the-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=9790","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts On The Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"

El Cormaco<\/strong> considers life as a Celtic supporter when we have two levels of football to contemplate and enjoy<\/em><\/p>\n

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Schizophrenic Celtic Supporting time again!!<\/p>\n

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Here I\u2019ll be pondering the weird nature of following Celtic in a Champions league season, and wondering how we can play in Europe in the same manner and with the same mentality we do in Scotland. I should point out I have no idea how we can do this, so if you are expecting answers you\u2019ve come to the wrong place!!<\/p>\n

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The Champions league eh? Great stuff, the glamour ties, money into the club, the support getting acknowledged all over Europe for our passion and unity of purpose, players testing themselves against the best, jumpers for goal posts, innit marvellous eh?<\/p>\n

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Yes, it is, absolutely. There really is no down side if Celtic is in your heart. But it does create a strange duality in my mind at least, a form of schizophrenia, watching games over the next 12 weeks or so.<\/p>\n

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We have our domestic football \u2013 we are the biggest club in Scotland, the most successful club in Scotland, pre eminent in our league, able to buy players in our market just on a whim or to annoy other clubs (hello & goodbye Scott Allan). Our under 20s are able to progress well in Cup competitions, we stroll the youth league set ups, have the finest young Scottish players coming through battling to get into the strongest first team line up in Scotland, we can outspend any other team in the league, have the finest, best maintained ground, the largest and best fan base, are coming off the back of 5 consecutive league championships and while Aberdeen and maybe Hearts will make a go of it, we are odds on the take the league again this year.<\/p>\n

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I have to admit to a strange sense writing that last paragraph. I got seriously into Celtic around the centenary season; the centenary strip was my first Celtic kit. Obviously that was an incredible double winning season but was the exception rather than the rule for the years ahead, as Murray\u2019s spending (in reality the Banks and ultimately our money as taxpayers) sent Rangers out of sight and by the time I came to Glasgow in 1994 to go to University Celtic were miles away from challenging for the league. Something I soon learned made the Press very happy indeed.<\/p>\n

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But as they say, karma is a bitch. Rangers got theirs for \u201cloading the dice\u201d for years and we are now the biggest and best in every sense, something a little part of me is still getting to grips with. The fact that this dominance is happening from what appears to be a controlled and sustainable platform means I should have a long time to get used to it. As should our rivals. Which is nice.<\/p>\n

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So domestically we can win two leagues under Ronnie when the team were dysfunctional, low on quality unmotivated and directionless, but this is where the schizophrenia comes in, for our Champions League ties everything about how we view ourselves going into the game changes. Well, nearly everything.<\/p>\n

For domestic games the recent league cup game against Motherwell is the model \u2013 Celtic attacking for 90 minutes, bossing the ball, playing energetic, aggressive football always asking questions of the opponent and being ruthless when chances to score come along.<\/p>\n

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We would aim to average a minimum of 65% of the possession over the domestic season, score over 100 goals and concede less than 30. Win a cup, or even two, entertain the people and generally swat teams away bar the odd inevitable off day.<\/p>\n

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When it comes to Europe though suddenly we are playing with 30% or less possession, are looking to score from set plays or errors by our opponents, holding out for as long as we can against waves of attacks, happy to see our team come off and not be embarrassed by the score. In short we experience what it must be like for every other team in the SPL when they play Celtic. We become Ross County, or Motherwell or Ranger2 \u2013 well not quite that honking but you get my point.<\/p>\n

Then the weekend comes and we are Celtic again, bossing the ball, asking the questions, scoring the goals<\/p>\n

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I wonder how players and management make that transition. Barcelona play the same way every game, league or Champions league, and they know that that will usually be good enough to beat the opponent. Bayern, Real etc the same, but we switch entirely from huge favourites expected to win to huge underdogs holding out for a minor miracle back to huge favourites again in 7 days.<\/p>\n

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The Be\u2019er Sheva game was a classic example, and a comment in the diary on Monday when John said \u201cI hate when Celtic fans are confident\u201d got me thinking about this. Monti replied it was a strange statement, well I get it, 100%.<\/p>\n

Be\u2019er Sheva away should have been a chance for Celtic fans to be confident and the team to play like they do in domestic away games, to dominate the ball and manage the situation. Fans online were confident, and like John, that always makes me a little anxious.<\/p>\n

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Of course that game turned out a gut churning, time standing still nightmare and a tie we could easily have lost. They are a good team, better than SPL opponents sure, but we should still have been able to play with some more authority than we did. Instead it was the inferiority complex European Celtic that played the minnow against the giant, afraid to be on the ball and hoping for the end to come soon.<\/p>\n

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So what to do? How do we switch mindset to believing when we play in Europe we can be dominant, can ask questions of our opponents, win games by playing football rather than the Barca game model of a dozen rosaries, a set piece, a mistake and a couple of good strong lines to pep up the goalie?<\/p>\n

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I don\u2019t know. I should probably have said that. Oh I did., so I m not apologizing now for wasting your time, I told you at the start, go and check if you want.<\/p>\n

The one thing that doesn\u2019t change is the belief that is always there some where in every fan. I remember walking into the \u201cTony Watt\u201d Barcelona game and there wasn\u2019t confidence in the air, but there was something tangible, a feeling of \u201cwe could do this here\u201d.<\/p>\n

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That feeling of believing it can be done, if it can be transmitted to the players seems to be the way we can hope to transcend our minnow status in Europe. That feeling will be a given, Celtic fans never have a game where their touch is poor and they miss chances. As Tommy Burns said, \u201cThey\u2019re there and they\u2019re always there\u201d but the players need to believe in the same way we do, and play with the courage to make a mistake but come and try it again, relish the challenge and know that if they come off having lost but given the opponent a real challenge we\u2019ll be right with them.<\/p>\n

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So basically I got nothing, no tactics, no bright ideas, just a rallying call that its alright to be schizophrenic, to demand we keep the ball and look assured domestically and moan when a pass goes out of play and then applaud a guy wildly for winning a throw in against Vincent Kompany and company in a couple of weeks (there\u2019s only one of them \u2013Ed) so long as we keep the faith that anything really is possible and one day we can go into Europe and play like lions again. We\u2019ve done it before after all.<\/p>\n

Before the Champions League we have the return sic of the old Firm sic. We are using this game as preparation for the real test in Barcelona, our \u201crivals\u201d went to Belfast to play sister club Linfield. Which is like sparring against your wee sister before you have to take on Conor Mc Gregor in a UFC bout. It was also a bit grim to see photos of the *Rangers squad with a Shankhill road flute band. An organisation built on sectarianism, division and bigotry, with the Shankhill Road flute band.<\/p>\n

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It also saw fat salary re \u2013appear for a Level 5 PR thing for a restaurant or something. There was \u201csuper\u201d standing beside a cheap looking sign with some horrendous looking food on a plate he was holding<\/p>\n

There was something very familiar about seeing his big grinning face standing beside a cardboard sign while serving up unappealing fayre that no one wanted. Can\u2019t quite place it\u2026<\/p>\n

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Win lose or draw tomorrow its Tuesday that\u2019s really important. What I\u2019m looking forward to tomorrow is seeing the Green Brigade tifo, it\u2019s going to be pretty special I think. And Scott Sinclair running at their defence is getting me excited too I must say.<\/p>\n

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Hail hail\u00a0 and roll on the Champions league schizophrenia!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

El Cormaco considers life as a Celtic supporter when we have two levels of football to contemplate and enjoy   Schizophrenic Celtic Supporting time again!!…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9791,"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\/2016\/09\/UEFA_Champions_League_logo_2.svg_.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-2xU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9790"}],"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=9790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9792,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9790\/revisions\/9792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}