[Matchday] Celtic V The Huns, Sunday 29th December, KO 12:30, Sky Sports football

PSG played us off the park, the huns didn't, yesterday.

 

Of course. However you never mentioned that when you criticised Frimpong.

 

I know the place is in Chernobyl cleanup mode, but let me, a fan who came to love Celtic as a foreigner, try to calm you lot down with some "dispassionate" analysis.

1. No, Rangers won't stroll their way to the title. They dropped points to Aberdeen, who's to say they won't drop it to someone else? Of course we'll have to rectify yesterday's atrocious performance in the remaining duels, but it can be done. Lennon will demand better next time, and plan better. He does learn, unlike Rodgers. It just might take an initial defeat to start the process.

2. About that plan. People here are saying we should play a wingerless formation next time. No!! That just plays into their hands, and further nullifies our advantages. We don't have enough butchers to win in a congested midfield bloodbath- Brown is the only scrappy player at the moment. If I had to recommend tactical changes, I'd go for 2 strikers, so that any press is easier to execute. Also, their centre backs would be kept busy.

3. The real reason we lost: accumulated wear and tear. McGregor, Forrest, Christie and Edouard play (nearly) every game, sometimes full 90. They aren't immune to fatigue. The art of rotation is what Lennon must study. Yesterday, I remembered something important. During the St. Mirren game, I at one point heard the commentator mention how Morelos went in from the bench, and scored. Gerrard is smart, he knew his best players had to be charged up for the game. He probably rested other players, too.
Long-term solution: Lennon ought to start Griffiths or Bayo every so often, and only if the team struggles to score (which we don't- our midfielders and wingers are super prolific), then send in Eddy. Ntcham can let McGregor take a rest, Morgan or Johnston can be used instead of Forrest. Rogić can play instead of Christie. I'm not saying we should swap the whole team at once, but 3-4 players is reasonable. Slight problem: we need a CB and DM to let Jullien, Ajer and Brown rest. Hopefully that is bought within the next weeks.

 

For me yesterday the players and the manager got it wrong nothing knew * I said it all week we got lucky in the cup.final. they ran over the top.of us crowded us out in the middle and allowed them.to have an extra man when attacking and defending Forrest and Christie should be coming deeper at times to help brown and McGregor Forrest abandoned his full responsibility of what he was supposed to do by dropping back helping frimpong and didnt show for him or anyone else when attacking and the exact same with Christie at times eddy was going out right wing to get the ball trying to force the play with 3 men round him.

Lennon should have started ntcham.in place of Christie he has done nothing against them.ntcham has bullied them.time and time again we actually looked better when he came on aswell. Putting bitton on was a mistake aswell it should have been Griffiths instead this result is down to poor team selection the huns knew their game plan from.the off everyone else did and Lennon didnt change it to match them we need to match their fight first win the battle then let our quality yesterday we spent the full game toiling and trying to combat their fight our quality couldn't take over.

The basics werent there we couldn't even take a shy without giving possession away Davis has cleared 2 off the line yet we didnt have a man on the post for.their goal this is basic football. Frimpong had no one in front of him to use he was gettin forward to face 2 or 3 men everytime.because Forrest and Christie were occupying the same position instead of one dropping outside right to drag a defender away and give frimpong an option of the overlap this is basic basic stuff and it looks like complacency on our part.

 

Looking down the pitch yesterday from the Jock Stein upper you could see our players were all down the sides there was a big empty space in the middle of the park and they stuck with the 2 lines of defence got tight to our players who couldn't get any real passing going. The players we have seemed worried about what they could do to us rather than what we could do to them we need some strength in the middle and some more guile upfront

 

It's actually quite dangerous to blame tiredness for our failings because then we won't address the real problem which is tactical and the same thing will happen again. Our players didn't look any more tired than their's, our tactics of standing off them instead of pressing them were all wrong and have to change. We pressed them at Ibrox and bossed the game with the same players (apart from JF) as we had on the park yesterday.

 

I think we should match them up with a 4-3-3 rather than 4-2-3-1and get on with our high fast press

Still can't get over how pish we were

 

Hopefully Elhamed will be fit next time we play them he is our best and most reliable defender.

Ajer has been poor and Julien can’t Help himself always fouling and giving away free kicks that put us under pressure.

 

I agree, men on the post is school boy stuff, as you pointed out Davis saved them on two occasions being on the post. I think we miss Elhamed to steady up right back plus he brings a more physical size to the game, or even revert to a 3-5-2 if needs to and frimp can push on up and take pressure of forrest. ( id like to see shved come into the team, prob wont be until next season). elyounoussi would have started if fit and brings a different dynamic than mikey, I also think taylor deserves an opportunity from limited time I think he has fitted in well. any thoughts on rogic coming on in the last 20, griff seems lost atm. The pitch looked heavy yesterday and suited them more than our playing style. Points will be dropped after the break that along with injuries could be crucial to the run in. I think both teams in Europe suits celtic.

 

Victims of our own success,we have had a really good run of things lately and our players have come complacent.

They have lost the passion,hunger and desire to win these games.Ye we can beat the other teams in out league(their just rubbish)but when that extra bit is needed against hun we no longer have it and they do.

Its something they havent had for a while (success)and its something they have a hunger for,imo the answer lies in lenny.

I believe he can see this but how he deals with it will be interesting to see,i hope he gets new players in January which will create some competition for places and perhaps drop some of the players who have been regulars but not been playing so well.

Either way we need to bring back the fight in this team while we still have everything to play for,yesterday was a set back but not the end of the world,all eyes on the board and lenny.

 

I hope your right and to be fair it was a toss up between griff and rogic I understand why he put griff on trailing 2 1 at home with no one helping our striker put Griffiths on to give them something to think about and free up eddy more but it should have been done at half time how Lennon thought that first half was decent enough to warrant the same starting 11 in the second half is something I cant get my head round it was clear forrrest and Christie werent at the races yesterday

 

What PSG did was absolutely dismantle us. I've never seen anything like that at CP and hope never to see it again.

Possibly "played us off the park" is a slight exaggeration, I don't know. However if I change that to "outplayed us and beat us comfortably", would that change any of the points I made?

 

Totally agree, mate.

 

I think age and experience are important in these fixtures - frimp / mikey / eddie / boli (24) - there wasn't much physical presence in that team. We need to play to out strengths but ntcham from start of second half. In hindsight the two goals were sloppy. Very frustrating to watch yesterday..in terms of new signings and players to move on in jan, I don't think too many will be brought in. we had 2 starters missing (elhamed and mo) against their full line-up. hopefully this a rocket up their hole to hit the ground running in jan. long season ahead - any ideas about kent and moreslos getting extra suspensions? did Christie miss a pen a few weeks ago and score the rebound, let eddie hit the pens!

 

Yesterday was brutal. Hard to know if the game-plan failed because the players played so poorly, or if the players were so poor because the game-plan was so poor! Either way, it was a failure yesterday.

We were sloppy in possession, often under little pressure, and were second to all the loose balls in that opening half an hour. If you fail to get those things right quickly, it will be a long afternoon. Contrast that with our visit to Ibrox earlier in the season where we got our foot on the ball, competed well in midfield and gradually felt our way into the game. It's so simple, but so easy to get wrong as yesterday shows.

Rangers are a decent, well-organised team and do deserve to be taken seriously. That was a bit of a statement win for them, and there will be real belief in their camp that this title could be theirs. They have a system that suits the players they have, but it has to be said that they are really reliant on Morelos for goals and, in games like today, to win fouls and get them up the pitch.

There are definite flaws in their team/system, but in the last two games we haven't exposed them often enough.

 

Aye it was men v boys, literally..

Our boys will be class, but we need some experienced additions, the blend isn't quite right at the moment.

 

That’s where we miss Elhamed and Elyounoussi.

Having Frimpong, Johnston, Boli and Forrest in the same team is far too weak.

 

I cant ague that the last performances have been poor but we were never going to keep beating them 4 and 5 nil and if standing still means we keep winning trebles then that's not too bad but some performances this December have been below our standard. I strongly believe well come back stronger after the break. We do need a couple of fresh faces definitely a striker and cdm

 

Nah.

 

About the pen I said at the time when have you ever seen a player have a bad game and score pen it never happens give it to your striker hes ice cold in tht situation the extra suspension thing for me is OTT maybe morelos but this is a derby game at the end of the day we have wound them for 9 year it happens in big games morelos though is a different one you cant do that but Henry used to do the gunner celebration so Kent's celebration for me are nothing. That being said in this age its frowned upon to do that I think we lack dig and fight big time we have good footballers but they are scared to take a sore one the huns have been slapped about by us for 4 year they went signed standard players who will put a bit of dig in similar to what Lennon done first time round he went put signed players who have a bit physicality about them