Brendan Fraudgers!

I hope your right about us getting the players under Rodgers and things changing. He had just as bad a record at Liverpool in Europe though.

Hopefully we get dealt a better group if we qualify next year.

 

BR: "I think the context of the game affected our performance, especially in the first-half. They were much brighter than us and played much quicker."

BR: "We were poor in our ball possession and needed too many touches so midway through the first-half we had to change it tactically.”

BR: "I was thankful to go in 0-0 at half-time and in the second-half I thought we were better. Overall the best team won. They were better than us tonight.”

BR: "Our aim at the beginning of the competition was to be in Europe after Christmas. We have immense pride in doing that but it’s hard to feel that after we lost.”

BR: "We have got to have a touch of realism. There’s going to be much better teams than ourselves. We were the fourth seeds of the group and there won’t be many that jump up to third place and go through to the

BR: "For a Scottish team to have European football after Christmas is a huge achievement. Now we can put it to bed for a few months and we’ll be better when we arrive back in February.”


CELTIC secured European football after Christmas but only after enduring a nervy 90 minutes at Paradise as Anderlecht won 1-0 in the last group-stage game of the UEFA Champions League.

The Hoops’ 3-0 victory over the Belgian side back in September ultimately proved to be the crucial result in the group for Brendan Rodgers’ side, who finished third and qualified for the last 32 of the UEFA Europa League.

Speaking after the match, the Celtic manager was pleased to have achieved the target of progress in Europe, although disappointed with the performance and result on the night.

“I think the context of the game affected our performance, especially in the first-half,” he said. “Anderlecht were much brighter than us and played much quicker. We were poor in our ball possession and needed too many touches in possession, so midway through the first-half we had to change it tactically.

“I was thankful to go in 0-0 at half-time and in the second-half I thought we were better. Overall, the best team won on the night. We need to be better than what we were tonight but we’ve shown enough over the course of this competition that we can be better.”

Celtic came out of pot 4 in the draw for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League, but the aim was to secure at least third place in a group which also contained Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich.

That they have done so represents progress for Brendan Rodgers’ side, who will find out on Monday who they will face in the Europa League when the competition resumes in February next year.

“Our aim at the beginning of the competition was to play in Europe after Christmas,” the Celtic manager said. “We have immense pride in doing that but it’s hard to feel that after we lost. We have a lot of work to do before we can affect that level. We are through and can look forward to the Europa League come February.

“We have got to have a touch of realism. There’s going to be much better teams than ourselves. We’ve done absolutely amazing. We were the fourth seeds of the group and there won’t be many that jump up to third place and go through.

“Tonight is an example of the long way to go and the gap that is between the teams at the top end of European football and below that as well. You have to run alongside that and give the players great credit. The players stuck with it, stayed strong and for that deserve a huge amount of credit.

“The most important thing is we are sat here and talking about having qualified. For a Scottish team to come out of the Champions League and have European football after Christmas is a huge achievement.

“Beyond that I’m not really thinking about. Now we can put it to bed for a few months and we’ll be better when we arrive back in February.”

 

Celtic TV interview

 

I accept that we have to be realistic but that doesn't mean ignoring what we can see with our own eyes. Anderlecht are not world beaters and, as BR admits, fully deserved to win tonight. You can't live on past performances - Sinclair has been average in a few games this season at best and a waste of space in the others. Based on the Motherwell match, I'd drop him to the bench and at least give Hayes a chance. As for Armstrong (his performance was simply embarrassing), I'd drop him out of the squad for the next few games. Ntcham and Kouassi deserve a chance ahead of him. If we got any sort of acceptable offer for him in Jan, I'd * their arm off. A few others weren't great tonight but that's football. However, both Sinclair and Armstrong have been consistently poor this season - it doesn't matter what they did last season - they don't deserve to be picked on current form.

 

I honestly believe that if you said to Celtic that they would consistently get into the champions league but wouldn’t win a game then most people at the club would bite your hand off for it. Yes we all want to compete and win games against the bigger European clubs but those days are gone. Champions league is all about the money. The money keeps us out in front in Scotland and let’s us build up our infrastructure. Anderlecht spent over 14 million in the summer as well as loaning that boy from Arsenal. We bought Ntcham and Hayes and loaned Roberts. We did well to finish 3rd and Europe after Christmas is a big bonus. We must buy players that are better than what we have no projects or fringe players, we must improve the first team we didn’t do enough in the summer window.

 

Not good enough again in Europe. I said before he had won every big game he was expected to so I had more confidence than I usually would have, but honestly, I don't get his team selections and set up in Europe a lot of the time. Too stubborn.

One of the most flexible managers during a game, but seemingly reluctant to alter his philosophy in any way to match the opponent.

 

As infallible as he is in my eyes, he's defo got a lot to work on. Drunk me thinks he thinks he's better than he is. Armstrong over NtCham was psychopathic. Easily one of the worst performances I've ever seen going on ability of the squad. Strange

 

We didn't even play our game tonight it was constant punts up the park that just went straight back to Anderlecht, the movement was slow the players could barely pass the ball five yards to each other, genuinely don't get how the same team could play so well against Bayern and be so abject tonight, surely personal pride to get a home win should have spurred them on.

 

Next season is when he’ll be expected to do something in Europe. If we get similar next season questions will be asked.

 

Hopefully he'll get the backing that makes the squad his own..

 

I’ve had the same thought I think he hasn’t considered that we aren’t near good enough to play his style of football in Europe and has been fooled by our domestic form

 

Why do we think he went Armstrong over Ntcham tonight? It made no sense to me. Especially as he went off early-ish Saturday..

I'd be surprised if many had Armstrong in (did I ) but I'd be majorly surprised if anyone would've left Ntcham out..

 

If we get pumped out of the next round of the Europa I would be very disappointed with our season in Europe.

I feel really down after tonight but I think that will ease off in the next day or two as the context of the game was a tricky one, our players seemed more afraid to throw away qualification than they did willing to take the game by the scruff of the neck and it’s kind of understandable tbh, as frustrating as it was to watch.

 

Here I am again in this thread. Another terrible result in Europe. He’s getting it very wrong and I really hope we can turn it around.

 

He was poor in Europe with Liverpool. He is poor in Europe with us. Naïveté? Perhaps. But when will he learn?

 

In all his time here I've never heard Brendan be as blunt or sound so terse as he did after tonight's game. I think that performance was quite a disappointment, and maybe even a wee bit of an eye opener, for him. Truth be told, this season we have been well short of the performance levels we saw last season. Why this is I do not know, but it's Brendan's job to find out and it's also his job to fix it.

Over to you Brendy bhoy...............

 

I agree with this but as long as we play in Scotland we will never achieve this long term goal. We simply won’t keep our best players (as a unit) long enough to compete.