Celtic vFalkirk,Post Match Analysis.

I though Crosas played well yesterday and couldn't understand taking him off and leaving Zhi on. Also, why take Hinkel off and leave Naylor on? O'Dea is * poor and his performance yesterday should finally signal to those who think he's the answer to our cente back problems that being Irish doesn't mean oyur good enough to wear the Hoops.

I'm not one of those people who think it is the duty of the board to make unlimited funds available but if we don't break the bank for a proven finisher during this transfer window we're going to gift the league to Rangers and lose a potential £10m from the CL and possibly gift this to Rangers instead - a net difference of £20m perhaps. Surely this should be enough to persuade the board not to make the same mistakes as last season by failing to strengthen the squad properly.

 

So if he hadn't have got back and the big lad had scored you would have said Thompson had done his job?

As a defender if you know you don't have the pace to match a striker then you don't get too tight to them for that very reason.

 

The team has no idea what they are doing on the park, not enough direction from the bench!!! Countless time boruc was pointing to both the strikers telling them to get closer together.....samaras drops way to deep and takes too long to get into the box!!! We had three wingers on the park by the end of the game and the defenders were still lauching the ball up the park!!! Crosas subbed even though he was man of the match!! Thompson's performance was the best of a central defender this season thus far and fortune done well without having many chances!!! Mcgeady might have tried hard but 8million for a player who couldn't't get past marc twaddle brings things back down to reality. Our bench was as week as I've seen it yesterday!! Would muxh rather have mcgeady up front with fortune and mccourt/mcginn on wings

 

The board do not seem to know this i think peter lawell was brought in with the long term plan of changing us into a seller club and this trying to buy youngsters and turn them into stars not to make celtic better but the balance sheet better.
They dont seem to get this that with tv money getting smaller and smaller buying young kids and no first team players will nto cut it. Our only real source of big income is getting in the champions league but we dont have a team organised enough to win the league just 10 individual players who look like 10 complete strangers.
Shocking decision making by the players, manager, cheif executive and board cost us dearly.

 

I really do wonder what the line up was all about? The players in the first half didn't know where they were playing at one point.

The fact is if Jos and Loovens are not not available in ANY match - we are *. Simple. We need another CB now and a Striker to have a hope in * of winning the league.

Caldwell should never have been sold - he was the best out of all they defenders.

I don't think we can win the league without a major addition to our squad NOW.

Edit: The truth is MOWBRAY was at fault for buying Fortune, he got money to buy that goal scorer we need and he bought Fortune. If he kept Caldwell and bought Jos I think we would have been good.

 

Are we the hardest fans 2 please?? yes!!!! Do we sit at games and expect 2 be entertained?? yes!!! do we SUPPORT our players ??!! NOO!!

We Celtic fans need 2 get a grip !!!!!

We are never happy , Gordon Strachan won 3 in a row , domestic cups , last 16 of champions league TWICE!!1 But still cos he wasnt a Celtic man we wanted him out ??!! we're turning into glory hunters . mind the days of the 90's comin 4th?? look how far we've come and wat we've acheived in last 10 years .

Even under Martin O'Neill we moaned about the style of play but it was one of the most succesful periods in history!!

Time to get a grip to be honest , start getting behind the team cos the abuse the players get from the 1st minute to last is EMBARESSING , im a season ticket holder and i know its a lot of money we pay e.t.c but does it really help moaning like * at every misplaced pass , no wonder their confidence is ripped to shreds . i know it frustrating we're losing pace in title but does it help with the negativity from the stands???

 

Although the performance yesterday was down to individual mistakes - I agree with you.

 

If you add the second half of last season to the first of this season we would probably not even be forth

 

What was that all about?

I refuse to join the "SAK EVERYWANNEAUM" reactionaries but Mowbray needs to kick to some * now. We are completely disorganised and when two 19-year old debutants are our star performers in a 1-1 draw with this years cannon fodder ...

We've slipped into the race for second place after that, and it'll take a miracle to get us back into the title race, never mind actually win the thing. That we may well have handed that shower of * a second consecutive title...

The Huns will slip up, sure, but will we be able to take advantage? On present evidence, we've not got a prayer.

 

Having watched the game again I have a number of comments.

1. We didnt play bad at all but the old weakness of not having a poacher and bad CHs came back to haunt us.

2. The above problems were exaserbated by the selling of Caldwell which came back to haunt us when we spend a lot of the game with a debutant and a Reading reject at CH.

3. Actually thought debut dude looked solid at CH but he looked very leggy when the striker ran at him at one point. I hope he is not another slow coach. Otherwise I liked the look of him. Seemed to have a nice sense of positioning and quiet dominance about him.

4. The stuff said about Naylor was very OTT. He actually played well other than towards the end when we were panciking and he hit a couple of bad crosses. Not much different from Fox but the fans always want a whippign boy.

5. Ki is serious quality. He looks like we have finally got someone as classy all round as Lambo in the CM. You can see he is superb, Looks like he woud fit right in at a really top European team.

6. Though Zi looked a clever if understated player too.

7. Crosas was absolutely immense. Obviously not to be played too wide but fck me he was superb.

8. Sammy did all you can expect from a non poaicher 2nd striker. Infortunately so did Fortime. I like having two 2nd strikers to compete but our only 1st striker/poacher is Skippy and we need another one and he neds to be a notch better technically than skippy. Again I would still keep skippy as back-up/competition.

All in all we actually played pretty well for a team with a novice CD and no goal scorer and as it stands (are you listening Lawell) this team STILL needs a quality CH (Jos just balances the loss of Gary IMO) and a quality natural goal scoring striker. That has been the case for 2 years now and still no sign.

 

Do you expect us to sign anyone else in this window gunt?

 

The so called hand ball from Boruc

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-js_sFRo9R0&feature=player_embedded[/YOUTUBE]

 

I thought Crosas, Ki and Zheng Zhi were out three best players yesterday but it was always going to be out of them who went off as we werent going to take off the strikers or McGeady when we need a goal.

I dont have any problems with Mowbray except his panic tactics at the end of games if we're not winning. Celtic have always had the patience of knowing we can get last minute goals, I dont like seeing us taking off defenders and midfielders for forwards and wingers throwing tactics out the window to try and get a goal at the end of a game. We're not Hibs or Aberdeen, we know we can score. Opening up like that just makes it harder to score cause we just punt the ball up the opposition win it and run forward then the whole team runs back because no-one knows who's meant to be playing there and minutes get wasted trying to get the ball back instead of keeping our shape.

 

Totally agree with that. The problem was though it should have been a straight 3 with McGeady just infront in stead of Zhi on the wing. I think Zhi is a great squad player to have btw,

 

It's so * blatant the refs in scotland are out to get us but what can we do we will just be told we're being paranoid and made to look like a stupid bunch.

I mean look at the fuss the media kicked up when they didn't get that pen against sututgart.

Why is nothing said about the sheer volume of decisions against us?

 

Totally agree with every single point there mate Good post.

 

I have no idea but I will be simply astonished if we do not sign a proper 1st striker and preferably another good CH. As I see it we have an abundance of talent in CM, wide midfield, FBs and goalies etc but that is all let down by a couple of weak links due to not having no good poacher and being short at CH. If we sign quality in those 2 positions then the league is ours and if we do not then its Rangers. I think it is as simple as that. If we do not we will carry on being a team playing nice football but dropping points because we miss and leak goals.