Ground passing game-not for Celtic?

After witnessing the failure of the passing football that Mowbray likes, against the very good Russian defense, I realized that we are actually going the wrong path. The threats we made towards Gabulov all came after crosses to Killen, mostly. He has played well, managing to win aerial duels against the Russians, but we failed to take advantage of it. The crosses were too rare, considering our losing situation, and that was due to having players that rather prefer to dribble and shoot, even when it's not the best option. I think we should scrap this idea of Mowbray's, as it is not feasible and worthwhile against defensive teams. My approach would be somewhat like the German NT of 2002, with crossing to tall strikers as the main attack option. They almost won the cup.

 

Mate we created some good chances and played nice football, on another night fortune would have buried his, mcdonald would have scored the one from a good save by the keeper not to forget we had one cleared off the line......dont give up on it yet.

 

Passing football can work out, but only if people can pass! We need Naka to pull the strings from the midfield, too bad we lost him to Espanyol. Now, our crosses were fine, I guess, but there's no-one to get the header. Skippy and Fortun'e can't function when paired up, although I strongly believed that it's the recipe for success. We need Killen up front, no question about it. And we need good support from the middle and N'Guemo was great today, but we need creative force, though.

 

imo, that usually makes for crap football terrible to watch. i wish mcgeady could dribble in and shoot more, rather than being forced to put in crap crosses when they doubled him up when he was outside. i like killen coming on in games like this where he adds another dimension, but overall i hate the target-man set up where every ball is hoofed up. imo, this should only be used as it was today, right near the end when needs to be forced into the box.

 

I agree with you to a certain extent, yeah he would be brilliant in the side but we have played good football during pre-season and tonight.

 

He wouldn't be brilliant on the side, we need him in the centre of the park. Pair him and N'Guemo and you'll get creativity, skill and hard-wokind and good-tackling midfield. All from two players. Our problems were also crosses, which we had decent amount of, but never hit anyone's head. Tall striker, Killen if possible is needed.

 

I know it isn't pretty, but it breaks bunkers, and, considering we've not got Naka anymore, it's a good choice. Germany with Jancker and Bierhoff were dangerous, even if without a lot of flair.

 

You have picked me up wrong, when I said he would be brilliant in the side I meant the squad.

 

That is the antithesis of what Celtic is about. That's Rangers you're thinking of.

 

Aye but Jancker and Bierhoff where far better than Killen and sammy.

 

Well, we know Mowbrays stance on this, he sticks to his guns on the playing football things! So you suggesting we sack him after one game?

 

the passing game will work imo in the spl anyway...cause no team in the spl will get near us...make no mistake thats a good russian team we played tonight...i for 1 does support the passing game....

 

I know, but, didn't Rangers beat us last year? They are defensive, but it works, because they know how to play defensively. We don't know how to play offensively.

 

Yeah, but that takes time to come. Mowbray will need at least four months with them before it really starts to happen.

Don't lose hope yet - there a lot more to come from this team...

 

But that's the problem with McGeady... he can't shoot very well and his crosses aren't that great either. He's a badass at getting around guys but his end product just hasn't developed.
As fun as it is to watch him weave around the opponent... it doesn't do us much good unless he ever gets serious about doing something with it at the end.


As for the passing game -- I'd really like to see it. But, above all else, you need players who can pass the ball. Mowbray is probably going to need some time to find those players and get them to gel as a team until we see the kind of game he prefers.

 

Passing game is brilliant if you have decent players , from what i see we don't have decent players, Killen, donati, naylor, caldwell,maloney,hinkel,samaras,mcdonald, fox, in fact the whole lot of them are average players and even then only just. Its ok selling crap players but you have to replace them with better. Hopefully we will get better but Mogga won't get that much time to get it right i'm afraid.

 

from my point of view, twas nguemo who at least tried that kind of passing, sting trough their back four...and by the way, i loved his ambitious efforts. his passing was on spot,tight and not really easy to make out for the opposition. problem was just that strikers couldnT really deal with it and lost possesion or wasted it. but more important donati was dull tonight, i wouldvE loved to see croasas instead of donati, donT get me wrong he does deserve being in the first team after the pre-seasons, but i woulndT ve let into starting XI
so a balanced approach from wingers crossing, cutting back inside and a creative centre that sticks it through, would do the job imho...at least not too easy to make out for the other team

 

Although tonight was one * of a disappointment, it's far too early to bang on about styles of play not being suited to Celtic. Save that for the end of the season, bro.

We have Tony Mowbray, he will play football his way, everyone knows what that way is, from Leith to Ipswich to the Midlands, we brought him in for that very reason.

Wait and see, Celtics season is not over because we are (probably) going out to Dinamo Moscow.

To be honest, at the end of last season, before the draw was made, I never expected us to reach the group stages. I was content at that time to think of a good run in the Europa League, so Mowbray could find his European feet so to speak, whilst all the while aiming to win the SPL crown back from the huns.

Now of course I'm disappointed it looks as if I may be right, and we are not heading for the CL group stages, but * it, we've got what we asked for, we wanted a guy who would implement a new style of play to take over from what was unarguably dross from Strachan in his last season in Glasgow, we've got him, it's a crying shame we couldn't get a result tonight, but it's the start not the end.

Hail Hail

 

Just back and if Mowbray wants to continue this passing games he needs a new cm. N'Guemo was really poor tonight in terms of passing and somebody in the mould of Fabregas (not crosas !) should be brought in to play with Brown.
Also, Caldwell seemed frustrated at not being able to play long forward balls like he used too, as he was only allowed to do this in the final 5 minutes.

 

we should have got Jack Charlton instead of Mowbray for that style. The ball used to have snow on it when it reached Niall Quinns head.