Champions League Celtic v RB Leipzig Tuesday October 11th Kick off 8PM BT Sport 3

reflection...

1) strange ref - some strange calls, reluctant to hit their players with the cheese slice - yellow card, the refs we get in europe all seem bizarre boyos.

2) why do we always do them wee back heel flicks - o riley, hatate, JJ and GG love them, often fail and leave us exposed.

3) i thought sead should have stayed on and perhaps pull maeda off and out turnbull or the danish lad on and push o riley higher up

4) kyogo - gotta head that ball to the ground, just shows how ruthless henrik and sutton were with their head

5) can any player in the team cross the ball with zip and zing, the last i can recall was tierney.

6) corners - we get plenty but fail to create anything shocking, cant even hit the target

7) we lack core strength, too easy pushed or cant protect the ball - we are too slow

8) we lack steel / brown affect etc - even look at JJ a good player sometimes he can shy away but imagine lustig playing last night he would win headers and frustrate and even help with an attacking corner

tough group - we all said the shak game will haunt us, but how did they get RB, it was a fluke game and I think RB will beat them... we beat shak and then beat real all to play for lol

in fairness we look very tired and leggy, we now have some deadwood in the team... ange needs a sit down and think for jan recruits.. now look to the league to points to be dropped for the rest of the oct and get players back with sharpness and work on finishing in training.

CCV and O Riley - be lucky to keep these lads for the next 18 months.

 

I don't agree. If anything I think the last few games have shown we can compete at this level playing this way. We matched RM for at least an hour. We outplayed Shakhtar for most of the match and should have won and on balance of play and chances created last night's game could have gone either way. Our players on the whole are young and inexperienced at this level and will improve - the only problem might be holding onto them as they improve. There's no guarantee that we'd get different results playing more defensively and it's possible we would lose more heavily.
What we do need are our best players on the park playing at the top of their game. Having McGregor and Jota out and Hatate having his worst game of the season made a difference.

 

When was the last time we were competitive in europe? How many projects?

 

Thinking back if we take a few of our chances we could be easily on 6 points , I know its a BIG if mind

Watching the highlights how much of a Hun is that wee * Hamilton on commented

 

what is wrong with going 2 x strikers up top for the last 20 mins, modern coaches could learn something from o'neill / fergie

we can only play one way, when a european team snuff us out we fall apart. werner was never tracked.
until we play tight, compact and astute in europe we will always be easy to pick off away from home / and at home.
but for 3 seasons our finishing has been shocking - corners, free kicks, shots outside the box are seldom - look at KTs goal against them a few years back, and the goals in the man city game a few years back - we used to be able to have a rattle in the last third nowadays we are powder punch.

i seen the greek have a good chance blocked (slipped in by mooy), in the league it is on target and more than likely a goal, but playing against better players in europe we need to think quicker, act quicker and be more ruthless same with kyogo's header - these chances can impact games.

 

i always thought it was a battle with shak for 3rd - their freak result on first set of games blew it wide open, and our failure to beat them leaves us with a 15% chance of sneaking 3rd, not overly keen.

would you really want to sneak 2nd and get dicked in the next round or come third and go on a 2/3 game win in europa (at best).

i think we will beat shak, will rb beat shak in the last game (on paper they should), will real beat rb away from home and allow out game against real to be a dead rubber and sneak a point?... it is like getting 3 numbers in the lottery not impossible but hard to come by.

 

This.

The team has only been together just over a season. Much more has to be done, as the manager keeps saying.

 

I agree with a lot of your reflection points but the how did Shakhtar beat Leipzig,
Just see all the chances we missed against them. Shakhtar got 5 chances and scored 4 that’s how they beat them. Was there an element of luck, yeah but they earned it as they were clinical. They will have had less good chances in this group than we have but have 5 points to our 1 by being clinical. We should have scored 3 or 4 goals last night and a few in the away leg 2 or 3 goals.

I agree our super squad we thought we had looks light in midfield and our forward options are mainly out of form.

We need to make sure we don’t drop league points.

 

in matters of principle stand like a rock, in matters of style swim with the current - thomas jefferson - great managers can adopt and change etc - o neill had the idea in europe a point away from home is like a win and you need a draw and win at home to even make third.

Ange isnt perfect, the pressure is on him learning in europe as a top rated manager / coach.

 

the first goal was replica of joe hart last week - once they got the lead i think RB pulled it back and then they (RB) pushed on for the 2nd and shak done them on the counter tbf they have a cracking winger with pace and direct who can hurt teams, and tbf they defend like * and take broken nose, they play compact and can frustrate - all things we should mirror in europe esp away from home.

a good team has a solid spine - we look small, no ball protection, no aerial threat and look limited in how we play. the left back coming on for maeda even looked a better call - maeda looks like he doesnt even want to start games atm.

 

Yes we missed chances (again) but it still doesn't hide the fact that we are just not good enough at this level. We are still lacking in big, physical, athletic players and we are playing a system which better teams will punish. Worryingly though, some of our players were blowing out of their *'s last night and don't look fit enough to play Ange style football. This has also been evident over the last few weeks against St Mirren and Motherwell and although we all love it when we play our fast flee flowing football and scoring for fun, we have to realise that it doesn't always work and that we might need to adapt our style to suit. Hopefully we could also sign a couple of big solid feckers like Leipzig's RB or the big CH who plays for Maccabi Haifa in the January window. .

 

Can't really say what already hasn't already just that thst was a very frustrating watch last night. I really thought we would have enough to do that mob last night but wasn't to be. I was very tempted to jump on the early flight over for only 9.99e but after the result, that * I never although still ended up missing work today because of a * of a hangover. The aul I'll be home straight after the match is difficult to do when the pints are flying in a lock in. 3am left the pub I'm always a glass half full type of guy and 6 points in the next two matches isn't that impossible. So, hopefully we'll get them and finish third. If not, * it. Always next year. Well just focus all out attention on the cups and league.

 

1. 'Can Postecoglou get more from this Celtic squad?'published at 10:41
   10:41
   Amid the gloom of Celtic's Champions League exit, John Collins insists there are "lots of positives" for Ange Postecoglou and his squad to lean upon.
   
   “Bitterly disappointed with the result, but not the performance," Collins told BBC Scotland Sportsound after the 2-0 defeat to Leipzig.
   
   “Can the manager get any more out of this group of players? I don’t think so. The players are giving him everything – the attitude, desire, effort, that every player gave was magnificent. They created good chances but never took them.
   
   “Maybe next year in the Champions League those chances will go in, because it’s fine lines. The hardest part is putting the ball in the net, but if you’re creating four or five chances at Champions League level, you’re not far away, you’re doing a lot right.
   
   “In all four games Celtic have created chances with good football. It’s a learning curve, but lots of positives.
   

I'm not usually a big fan of Collins but I agree with everything he says here.

 

Everyone can see it. We have been playing decent. It's just getting that ball in the net they are struggling with. Some times it just doesn't happen, other times it does and unfortunately for us, it's not. I'm not going to slate the team. It's a young team still learning. Thst team stays together for another few seasons with add ONS, well be putting them chances away. We're moving in the right direction.

 

Dragged back by Hendricks, should have been a penalty.

 

Lots of cop outs go around for this guy. He got decent service last night and didn’t make the most of it. Made an * of a perfect half-volley chance and another cross into the box where he failed to get away from the defender.

 

Had a look at the highlights. We had 4 chances that "should" have been goals. Taylor after O'Riley's shot (not sure if it would've been called offside), Maeda twice (but any chance he has is like a 40 yards shot), and Kyogo's header.

4 shots * up. Not a whole lot, is it? Also, keep in mind Taylor is a full back, not a striker.

 

I think our chance creation abilities are being a little overstated in Europe. We haven't actually had many clear cut chances that we definitely should be scoring from. No doubt we should have been more clinical but most of our chances aren't incredible misses (give or take a few) over the 4 games.

Leipzig x2 and Madrid created loads of chances against us too. Heck, even Shakhtar had us on the ropes after they equalised. An argument could be made that Leipzig missed far more sitters against us.

The CL was a step too far this early on for us. The players' lack of quality, fitness and Ange's naivety have stood out like a sore thumb in these last 2 games. No way should Leipzig be dominating the ball as much as they did. Why can't we get our foot on the ball like we do in Scotland? Because the players don't have the composure, and Ange doesn't realise that you can't play at 100mph in the CL for an extended period of time without burning the * out early on.

 

Spot on. If our players can't control possession, then the basics of Ange's gameplan have failed. And this is with 3 technically apt players in the midfield. Ange needs to learn that football is played between 2 teams, and the opposition get to have a say, not just our tactics. And that consequently, 100% possession is impossible. TBH, Leipzig were wasteful with possession in the first half, from what I could see. We were wasteful with chances, but only Taylor's chance was easier to score than miss.

The one true sitter I've seen missed is not on our game, but in the Shakhtar-RM game. Traore had a 1 on 1, clear of any defenders, and * it up, costing Shakhtar a win. We get headers...by Kyogo and Maeda. Not experts at heading by any means. Meanwhile, GG never got header chances. I believe RBL defenders knew exactly how to defend against each of our players, and whom to focus on. They knew Kyogo would most likely miss headers. Also, Abada got no chances. None.

 

Hopefully they are working on their finishing as some of them couldn’t score in a brothel with a £100 note wrapped round their *.