is Caldwell a help in Europe or a hindrance

i think he has made far to Manny mistakes, and he has never learned from them in Europe, always has his:bbpd: hand or leg stuck out defending

 

get rid of him. hes a liability.
the worrying thing is- hes better than mcmanus!!

 

His form has been very poor and I think it's him that's unsettling the whole team. We have to get him punted in January!

 

He was pretty decent last night.

 

He has been decent again the last wee while. I wish people would drop all this anti-Caldwell pish. He is POTY still, our captain and hasnt done anything wrong for some time. He played well last night. I think he is pretty important to our passing game.

 

If Caldwell can keep his focus i think he'll come good again, EVERY player goes through a bad patch and sadly Caldwell's was this season.

 

Unless you are in the dressing room, I dont think you can say that with any accuracy.

Caldwell is still the best centre back we have, which says it all really.

 

I didnt see much wrong last night, our defenders just look very nervy, like our strikers they need confidence to get back in their stride again.

 

We should be losing out worst CBs not our best. Sell Mick and give some of his wages to Gary. He is a far better player than Mick. Caldwell is just one of several players to have very bad patches this season but many fans turned on him big time after a few bad weeks. I think too many people are failing to see how important a passing CB is to our build up. A * of a lot of the game passes through him. He is like a sort of a sweeper type player and they do not grow on trees. When his defensive game is tighter as in the 18 months before this season started, he is a good and fairly rare type of CB. I would still like some sort of compromise deal with him staying, a new CB coming in and Mick and possibly OD being punted.

 

I think it has been proven over and over again that when Gary Caldwell comes up against top class opposition he is just not up to it. He has been sent off, scored own goals and been exposed on various occasions when confronted with top class forwards. He's good enough for the SPL, although sometimes he can be scary there too, but he's a poor player and a weak link if you are talking about playing at Champions League level.

 

I think all of our CBs problem is that none have the sort of pace that you need to recover at CL level. Will the club ever shell out enough for a CL level CB??

 

did anyone watch the game, i remember at least 3 occasions wen the striker ran past him with minimum effort, caldwell was going away from goal and left an open path for him to run into our box..not exactly top class is it?

 

Any Celtic player up against top class opposite number struggles. We talk about Scott Brown having a great engine, Fabregas covered more ground than him in both legs. He's not renowned for his engine. McGeady looked ordinary. Strikers, toothless. Yet Caldwell is slated. Thats unfair.

e.g. own goals - how did the opposition get into a position where Caldwell is facing his own goal?

In any match at any level, you allow the opposition to get your CB's facing their own goal on your attack then you are always going to have problems. Too easy to single out the spectacular OG's by Caldwell. Ya have to ask, how did he come to be in that situation?

 

That's fair enough but the fact remains that when an own goal is scored or a fatal pass is made it is more often than not Gary Caldwell that is involved. So either he is incredibly unlucky or he's just a bombscare at the top level. In my opinion it is the latter. Why do our other defenders not score own goals and he does? I think he is just one of these players who bad things happen to and things like own goals and the ball he gave away against Barcelona that led to Henry's goal do stick in the memory. Every time the ball goes near Caldwell in the Champions League I get incredibly nervous.

 

Henry often makes an * of world class defenders, never mind Caldwell! He made an * of FIFA and fifa fair play the other week! Is there any defender than can contain him for 90mins? How much do they cost in fees and wages? How much did Caldwell and what are we paying him?

He's not a top level defender but he's good given what we are paying for defenders. Celtic should be more inclined to hold onto better players and try to get a better player than him rather than let him walk on a free transfer and replace with a player of a similar calibre. Thats not squad progression in my eyes

 

That goal wasn't about containing Henry though. Caldwell needlessly gave the ball away in our half and left our whole defence out of position and one simple pass to Henry led to him finishing expertly. If Caldwell hadn't needlessly given the ball away in a vital area that goal would never have happened. If it was a goal where Henry skinned him and finished then I would agree with what you're saying.

I agree with your second paragraph. Caldwell is not our worst centre back so from that perspective he shouldn't be the first one we look to move on. In my opinion though, NONE of our current centre-backs are of the required standard and I would be looking to have a total clearout in that area and get new centre-backs in. That would of course be a major undertaking.

 

It's just hunch. However, it's difficult to view any player making disparaging remarks about the club management in public before a major European game, as anything other than a bad influence. It may have been a one-off but that's the point at which the team's form really started disintegrating!

 

* was lucky he didn't give away a penalty last night. I don't get how he was on the verge of being a competent player last year and goes to utter gash this year. Get him moved on asap

 

Think he played well last night. The defense in general seemed more solid than it has in previous games.

 

They were bad before that night and I doubt anyone else really cared about Caldwell's contract talks with Lawwell, if anything, they would have been on his side because they'd want the same when it comes to their time.