Celtic V Utrecht [All post match discussions]

Absoloutly gutted that my broadband decided to go super slow, causing me to miss it all.

Saw the goals on YouTube, but still gutted.

 

Good games last night guys.

One word to some it up "hussle".

I watched evry player in that team run till the end of the game chasing lost balls and fighting opponents for the ball!

The energy and stamina was unreal!

Can't rememeber the last time I seen energy and will like that to win the ball back. The were hassling and hussling everytime the opposition had the ball. Fantastic!

Cha for example was making lung bursting runs 85minutes in after doing the same for 85minutes before.

As mentioned in another thread about Kayal being a lenny double but with a bit more in his locker looks like he's proving me right, he looked great, never a wasted pass.

Felt sorry kinda for ledley, he played so well in that position but he still doesn't want to be there. Nice competition for places though.

And a shout out to Big Dan. Great first game, a real desire to keep a clean sheet, shame we don't have 2 of him as he looked easily the most comfortable CB we've had a for a long time.

Was the formation like a 4-5-1 into a 4-3-3?

Hopefully we can keep it up and clean sheets breed confidence, we need another on Sunday.

 

Highlights are in Celtic Vids mate.

 

I missed 1st half, saw the 2nd half and watched the goals this morning, Scott Brown, Kayal played very well from what I saw. How did Ledley play?

 

He done well after he let a ball go over his head in the first 10mins ,the boy volleyed it but went wide ,,but he played well after that and backed up the Midfield well aswell.

 

Cheers mate, think him Kayal and Juarez could be such good players for the club, im not getting my hopes up like last year but this Celtic team have the potential to achieve thing imo.

Brown had superb energy in midfield last night, Kayal was very tidy and our Majstorovic has been the dominant defender we have missed since Balde left, nothing stupid kept it silly and that is what we want!

Anyone know why McCourt didn't feature last night? My stream was stuttering badly so I might have just missed him

 

We played a sort of pressing game last night, every player worked their socks off! Lennon knows that he's not going to get much energy out of McCourt, magic maybe but energy...no!

 

I can imagine the reason McCourt didn't feature is in small part due to the injury but mainly because his defensive limitations. The key to the first leg at home is to not concede so playing a more "hustle" type player (which we had loads of) made it extremely hard for Utrecht to string any passes together. With McCourt they would have had that bit more time.

I thought it was a solid performance last night, wasn't too impressed by Utrecht to be honest.

Solid 7's all round and well done to Ledley for slotting in successfully at LB.

I found it a little strange that we started the game with a cautious 4-1-4-1 and after Kayal's injury at 2-0 up instead of a like for like replacement (Ki) Lenny brought on a winger and we went even more attacking 4-4-1-1 / 4-2-3-1. Perhaps a case of "attack is the best form of defence".

The new guys are all looking pretty special. My only gripe is Cha who seems to be the highest up playing right-back I've ever seen and often instead of getting back into position he was seen to get stuck into the midfield(!!) with Loovens moving to the RBish area. Very strange.

Samaras get's a mention for fulfilling the stereotype - moments of sheer class (both goals) which led to a second half of pure awfulness (although punctuated with some good stuff). He was essentially the match winner tonight but I doubt he'll get that credit.

 

Great performance. It was nice to see how hard everyone worked for each other and the fans. Can't fault anyone. Special mentions to Ledley, Kayal, Juarez, Danny and Cha. The have sloted right in!

 

Just to follow up on what mmmikey has said above I know a lot of fans dont like Samaras but it shows if he's confident and not getting pelters from us he can be a match winner. He was excellent last night so maybe the Samaras haters should just think about that the next time they are shouting abuse for him trying something and it not coming off.

 

Quite confident for the second leg with that performance. Not one of Utrechts players seemed like they knew what to do to score, though they had a couple dangerous balls in.

 

really impressed with the performance,

Special credit to Ledley as he cant have been happy being asked to play left back but he kept his head down and put in a good shift (he might have to get used to LB until the Honduran gets up to speed)

Kayal & Juarez buzzed around to devastating effect which liberated Brown to play his natural game - charge around breaking up attack after attack with no pressure on him to create or break into space (which are the limitations of his game)
Danny Damage was top quality, tough in the tackle and composed with the ball, great interation with the other players.
Samaras was good, created chances, involved in Juarez's goal and scored, he kept defenders honest with his constant movement, visably tired though.
Fortune was a mixed bag but we'll need his strenght and ability to hold up the ball next week.
Maloney needs 1 goal and he'll be firing on all cylinders

suprised no one else has mentioned the clear penalty when Maloney was tag teamed by 2 of their defenders late on.

Roll on St. Mirren, i'd expect to see Murphy, Mulgrew, Hooiveld and McCourt start with a view to keeping some players somewhat fresh for next thurs..

final point, some on here saying Samaras and fortune were poor not linking up with midfield - given the team a chance to settle and the lads get used to the new players over the next few weeks in training. we can only get better and more fluent.

 

Quietly confident for next week. IMO their team didnt threaten that much from going forward and like taking shots from the edge of the box which they can do all night next week.
The midfield,even brown,were superb,maybe thats what brown needs playing alongside quality players.
Ledley did a good job in at left back,hope to see him back in midfield soon though.

Hopefully Izaguirre will be up to speed soon and slot perfectly into the the team. For sunday i think brown,sammy and maloney should all be rested for the return leg and ledley moved back into the midfield,murphy and mccourt should all be brought in.

 

Can Izaguirre play in the second leg? I don't think there's another registration period.

 

For the first time in ages I can't really criticise anything about the performance. Only time I was worried was when Zal came out and tried to play it round their strikers then realised he was * and kicked it out.

 

To be fair I was more impressed by Juarez, Samaras and Majstorovic, really wasn't paying attention at Kayal, don't even know where he played actually.

The reason why Mertens was invisible is your strong rightback Cha, he had one nice action where he both passed Cha/Loovens I thought, it was in the first half, did you see this?

Nesu and Cornelisse couldn't handle Fortune/Samaras, Samaras is far too fast for Cornelisse and Fortune is far to strong for Nesu, I've still got hopes for Thursday though!

 

I seen that bit by Mertens going past cha/loovens

i thought he was going to go down in the box. It had that feel about it.

 

zal does scare me tbh.

 

Praise for Samaras AND Fortune? On TC?! Never thought I'd see the day. Surreal

 

I praise Fortune' a lot !

I think he is inconsistent but when he's good he's very good. Like Samaras !!