Brendan Fraudgers!

I thought we absolutely put the boot in especially in the 1st half..

Bravery on the ball, passing accuracy, tempo and being clever in possession are much more important than putting the boot in..

 

Playing out from the back is good and I encourage it in the main...but sometimes when it's causing us more problems than it's worth, then we should go long..

Sutton was right in commentary. It was just a matter of time with how sloppy we were in trying to get out from the back..

We've got Burke up top who is rapid and the only time we looked threatening was when we tried to get it to him quickly and had their defence turned..

Forrest, Burke and Sinclair. Use that directness and get them having to play it out for throws and corners giving us a breather and a chance to put pressure on them...is the way to go. Against other side's of a similar level as well..

Another thing is how naive we are in Europe. Ball's going out for our throw and we'll dangle a leg and they'll drop like flies earning a free kick. We are so basic to how clever European side's are at winning fouls..

 

Yes they are but when you are clearly * at that against teams closing you down then you need to come up with something else. We've always done that. Some of our finest results and best runs in Europe have come with teams that were very physical and hard working. We could struggle in games but had grafters in midfield like Lambert and Lennon who would win tackles and break up play and big physical guys up top like Sutton who would head anything & take the pressure off or win a flick on. We have none of that & are powder puff right now. In my opinion we weren't physical last night, we gave away alot of free kicks, yes but thats because we were mis-timing tackles all over the place. We were late to almost every ball as they were 2 steps ahead of us.

 

Id say in europe its how often we give away possession in our own half in dangerouse areas. Becuase of this, we fail to advance up the pitch. Our attack is starved of any kind of quality service.
But yes, we also lack a physical threat. Our strikers dont offer much in the way of an aerial threat.

 

Disagree- Lennon would be better for Europe. I would let go of a treble, if it meant a credible European run.

 

The game has changed since the MON era tbf..

BR won’t change his philosophy, as frustrating as that may be..

 

What baffles me is that he can’t look at what teams like Hearts and Kilmarnock do to us when we play them away.

Every player within a few yards of each other, no space to play through, battling for everything. Those players are all inferior to ours and they seem to do alright.

Some people forget we have a squad of full internationalists with a hefty wage budget and should be competing at Europa League level.

We’re closer in ability to Valencia and Salzburg than Hearts and Kilmarnock are to us yet you wouldn’t think it. You don’t need a massive budget to have some degree of tactical discipline.

 

Lenny is a downgrade on BR.. and I loved Lenny.

 

Be interesting to see his stats in Europe games won etc (outwith qualifiers) anyone got them handy?

 

In Europe he is an upgrade on Brendan. Now, the issue with Lennon is: his relationship with the board. Whatever Lenny could build, the board would tear down. But I have no doubt that Lennon is more flexible tactically. In Europe we need this. Brendan knows how to attack, but can't set up a defensively solid team. I am actually hoping he leaves, and that this causes a storm that brings the board down. Then get in Lennon.

 

Fair enough, I'm not saying I want to get rid of him. It irks me that it's so glaringly obvious that those tactics won't work in Europe though and we're essentially setting ourselves up to fail on that stage.

It does seem silly criticising a manager whos record in Scotland is right up there with the very best, but we are paying him a lot of money for his work so domestic dominance (as impressive as it's been winning back to back trebles) is almost an expectation now. It's just a shame he can't adapt his ideology for europe, as I think the quality is there in the squad but we were tactically weak from the get go last night.

 

you could spend 100m on the team and still get turned over by Valencia on any given day, on an off day with the squad we have and a bit of luck you can maybe beat them. there is no set rules or if you expect to win by how much you spend on a squad.it doesn't always come down to manager either that's football..we get beat we move on.

 

Lenny couldn’t handle the pressure of leading us to the 10..

He may be more pragmatic and in Europe but domestically he’s nowhere near Brendan..

The time fir change is after the 10..

 

Europa League proper:


Champions League proper:

 

It’s more than impressive winning back to back trebles, it’s amazing and had never been done and it should never be the expectation..

When you actually look at his European Record CL Qualification x 2 and progress from a EL Group that nobody gave us a hope of getting through.. it’s not actually that bad. It doesn’t mask some of the bitterly disappointing results and performances but his record is probably as expected.

 

For comparison, these are Neil Lennon s stats for Europe..

Europa League:

Champions League:

 

7 trophies in a row is a good stat aswell, yet to lose a domestic trophy think about that , that's not an easy thing to do regardless if we have more money.

 

Excluding qualifiers:

2016/17

Champions League
Barcelona 7-0 Celtic
Celtic 3-3 Manchester City
Celtic 0-2 Borussia Monchengladbach
Borussia Monchengladbach 1-1 Celtic
Celtic 0-2 Barcelona
Manchester City 1-1 Celtic

2017/18

Champions League
Celtic 0-5 Paris Saint Germain
Anderlecht 0-3 Celtic
Bayern Munich 3-0 Celtic
Celtic 1-2 Bayern Munich
Paris Saint Germain 7-1 Celtic
Celtic 0-1 Anderlecht

Europa League
Celtic 1-0 Zenit St. Petersburg
Zenit St. Petersburg 3-0 Celtic

2018/19

Europa League
Celtic 1-0 Rosenborg
Salzburg 3-1 Celtic
RB Leipzig 2-0 Celtic
Celtic 2-1 RB Leipzig
Rosenborg 0-1 Celtic
Celtic 1-2 Salzburg

Celtic 0-2 Valencia


Won: 5
Drawn: 3
Lost: 13

Scored: 17
Conceded: 47

 

I wasn't expecting one treble let alone 2 and potentially 3 mate! Of course it's amazing, and as I said his record is incredible and speaks for itself. I respect Rodgers so much that I find it strange he can't adapt is what I'm trying to say. He's been naive for me, as much as I respect his philosophy of us playing attractive football against these sides, performances like last night, are far from attractive - it was near on painful to watch as we looked devoid of ideas and confidence.

 

We are brilliant at the back playing the ball out......so long as the other team do their part and sit back and let us * about......but every team that has not read the celtic rule book and press us and makes us rush gets results as we fluster and make mistakes.
BR refusing to give up this system is costing us badly against better teams.
We just do not have the quality of player to do this in europe.