SPFL Celtic V The Huns Sunday 16th March kick off 12:30 Sky Sports football

What frustrates me is that I think Rodgers is more than capable of addressing it. Hes not a poor manager. It seems purely overconfidence / arrogance / ego whatever you want to call it that leads him to believe we couldnt possibly need to change anything.

Dont think its major surgery needed. Just being smarter about playing in the right areas and recognising where Rangers are leaving the gaps when they press.

 

No one likes losing to the huns but I can forgive the players for how it's went this season. We've won the league at a canter and had a decent go at the champions league, and another treble is likely on its way home too.

It's been a long season and the players have worked as hard as ever to bring us all that success. It must be difficult after so much effort to keep going for games that are essentially dead rubbers.

This season has been yet another outstanding achievement from the team and those matches v the huns won't even be remembered when the confettis raining down on Parkhead in May.

The fact that all those mutant * think that they are the best team in Scotland and that wee barry is some kind of managerial genius is nothing but laughable. They're just setting themselves up for another year of the same * they've been dealt up since the newco started.

If that game had anything riding on it we'd have scudded them off the park. They can win all the friendlies they want, we'll take the trophies.

 

We didnt scud them in the League Cup final or the Scottish Cup final before that though. We just about got over the line. And the opposite reasons were given. "Its a Cup final, theres so much on the line, the games bound become tight etc etc".

Il never understand how players couldnt be up for these games. They play so many uninspiring SPL games each season that these massive games should be a no brainer to be up for no matter how much of a lead we have. Especially coming off the back of the hiding in Ibrox with a full week to prepare. Struggling to find excuses for it.

 

We clearly have a competition problem in Scotland and the lack of urgency is impacting the team, the manager, and I think the fans as well.

I just don't believe that if we were even on points going into that game, there wouldn't be more fire in the bellies of everyone involved. Only from watching on the TV, but I thought the atmosphere felt a bit flatter than usual, the players had no real urgency about them and even Rodgers pre and post match interviews felt a bit passive.

And I don't think it can be fixed until we get a proper domestic challenge. That may well be next season, but until we get it I honestly think we're a team coasting at the moment. From our players, to manager, to scouting and recruitment, we look like an outfit that knows it's winning and doesn't need to go above and beyond to guarantee it.

 

The thing that really annoyed me yesterday was our reluctance to try the ball over the top and turn them. We had three quick forwards, 2 exceptionally quick and despite early on being close twice to this working we just seemed to completely stop doing it until 2-0 and Jota got one down the left and almost scored which led to a spell of pressure just before half time.

It’s not just that, it stops us turning it over deep but it actually forces their back line to drop and the space between their lines becomes stretched, then you have that bit more room to play into your central midfielders. Even Idah, use his dropping deep as a decoy and go right over his head for Maeda to come centrally on to. It’s all these sorts of things the dross in the league have actually done against them and caused them issues.

All in I actually think where they have found a system that is effective against us, yesterday was as much down to attitude and application as it was tactics. We should have still won that game even giving them the first 35 minutes and a 2 goal start.

 

Couldnt agree more. No variety in approach. Our pass from the back strategy was so predictable to Rangers (again). Even if you lose the ball going direct its not like they are any great shakes in possession. Most of the time they just launch it back and look to win a second ball. They had a tough mid week game. Let them tire themselves out pressing. When they start to drop off, then start playing from the back more when they start to drop back and leave space in midfield.

 

Can't do anything but accept it, annoying as it is. We are masters at our own downfall in this fixture. It's ok having more skilful and better players but not if they are pressured and bullied off the ball. Most players can find a good pass when they have time to. We can't handle when teams "celtic" us. Sometimes a simple ball over the top, we have fast enough players to get onto them. Turn them, keep them guessing, put them on their toes. I find us sometimes to be too pedestrian, too predictable. Have we become too complacent? Hate to say it but do we need these kind of results to up our game? Has being so far ahead in the league made us so stale that we can't raise our game sufficiently enough in this fixture? We seem to start so slowly as of late, thinking all we have to do is turn up,
We've had the "very little rest between games" period. Got through that.
The treble is no less than we deserve so far this season, brilliant should it happen. It'll ease the frustration of yesterday.
I suppose I really want another "Green and whitewash season" but I'd take putting them back under their rock after our next meeting.
Seems they are fast becoming our "bogey" team, irritating as it may be...Bless 'em.

 

We got absolutely bullied off Barron and Raskin who are about 5 foot 8 standing on top of each other, * embarrassing. Ref let them away with a couple early doors and after that they essentially knew they had free rein to leave the boot in every time and not one single player did a single thing in return.

I’ve said it for so long as a team we’re incredibly soft, it can’t always be beautiful football sometimes we need someone to show a bit and when we’re getting kicked off the park you need to give a bit back. Normally Johnston can be relied upon to step up but for whatever reason he was just so far off it yesterday.

For all his faults and I’ve been critical of him in the past but there’s no way Ralston would just sit back and watch wee * like raskin and barron stick the boot in on every occasion and just sit back and watch it happen without consequence.

 

I would tend to agree with you league wise but it was the exact same in a one off cup final. They've sussed the way we play and Rodgers just can't see it

 

Rodgers made changes at halftime that brought us right back into the game... Not sure I'd pin the whole kit and caboodle on that... Needs to answer for why we appeared to stroll onto the pitch without doing up our laces in the first half though...

The bench was threadbare though... Half of it were kids/development...

 

I think the game yesterday showcased what IMHO is one of our biggest weakness' the lack of a genuine big physical number 6 in the team. Normally that only hurts us at champions league level but it has definitely for me been an issue in recent derby games. Having said all that and as disappointed as I am in yesterdays performance overall one silver lining may be that the result could see the zombies giving Ferguson the managers job on a full time basis. If they do that for next season yesterday well turn out to have been something of a pyrrhic victory for the zombies.

 

I think as much of that was down to Rangers having a 2 goal lead by then, tiring and starting to sit back more though. That gave us more room to play in the second half. A similar thing happened in the first Bayern game.

 

Oh I see... All negatives, Rodgers fault... All positives, not actually anything to do with us at all, just luck... Gotcha!

 

Didnt mention luck at all. Simply said in the 2nd half Rangers had a 2 goal lead and began to tire which gave our us more room to play our game.

Theres plenty you can credit Rodgers for. I dont think the last two Old Firms are examples though.

 

Day 2 and its still a sore one, being beat by barry the Ned tactically isnt pleasant ffs. Even though Ned boy and his team of pundits just copied the orc print from previous games… which makes it even more of an embarrassment for elite level rodgers.. (my sides).

 

We've been needing a bit of physicality in the team for a while now. Hopefully we don't have to wait as long as we did for a decent LB

 

One of our worst bits of play yesterday. Weak and cowardly this is.

 

Over 24 hours later and it's still sore one to take. Should not be losing at home to anyone and certainly not them. Bullied by two * midgets in Raskin and Barron.

 

We did that 'going back to change the point of attack' constantly first half, minus the attacking part..

 

You would think it shouldn’t be that hard to identify some big unit who can win a header/the ball and then just make a relatively simple pass to a more technical player. Bobo being an example from recent, ish, history.