Charlie Mulgrew

I thought the other day he was World Class if he had pace?

 

I can´t remember his exact positioning, mate. It´s something I only started noticing last night. He certainly had a good game in Maribor, I agree with that.

You could be right TBF, and if you are, it´s a decent point.

Edit: changed recently to last night.

 

That was me that said that. I genuinely do actually believe it too. :smiley-laughing002:

 

Mulgrew was terrible last night.

No ifs,no buts,no excuses.

I was cringing at the amount of times he was under hitting passes.

Or what about that time he hit tried to pass the ball across our back 3 with his back to their striker which almost resulted in Astra scoring.

Or again when they had us under alittle bit of pressure in our box..the ball breaks to him and he has plenty of time and space to pass it out and he passes the ball straight to a * Astra player !

Yes he might have high passing totals but he also nearly costs us in every game with slack passing.

 

Mulgrew WAS is a great Left back, that's it. He's older now, lost a yard of pace and he's too slow on the ball and has no awareness when he's on the ball.

He cannot play midfield, for me- personally he's the worst midfielder in years simply because of the fact of him being out of position.

The sooner Ronny Deila and indeed Charlie Mulgrew realize this the better.

 

I have to add i am not solely blaming him for how * Celtic have been playing.

 

I agree with the thrust of what you're saying but even taking that into account I'm not keen on Mulgrew playing in midfield.

In the past I have thought to myself that he isn't mobile enough to be a midfielder or that he isn't creative enough. Neither of those arguments alone are probably fair because Neil Lennon was neither mobile nor creative yet he was tremendously successful at playing in a deep lying midfield role. So it must be something else.

I think the real problem with Mulgrew is that the game slows down when he gets the ball. He seems to almost kill the impetus of our play and our attacks. I don't like that. In general I would say we need to inject more tempo into our passing rather than slow things down. Mulgrew doesn't help with that.

For me Mulgrew's best position is at centre back. Unfortunately for him his limit at that position is probably domestic football. At European level he'd be exposed.

 

He's just another player who looks decent when given all the time and space in the world but the minute teams start pressing, he, like a lot of our players, enter panic mode. It's a Scottish footballer thing.

 

I would agree with that. Last night, we struggled to break Astra down, as more often than not, they had every man behind the ball. However, when they counter attacked us, or had a set piece and pushed men on, whenever we won it back, we should have been looking to break quickly. However, our passing was laboured, and it allowed them to get back into their shape with numbers behind the ball. Our passing was poor throughout the game, and all too often we went from side to side.

 

Being honest I can't really remember how well Mulgrew played in that game, I just remember noticing him dropping as deep as Denayer and Van Dijk.

I can see what you're saying about him being a good passer and its good to get him on the ball in space, however I Think VVD and Denayer are good enough to play the ball out from the back without Mulgrew having to come back and do it for them all the time. Fair enough if he does it once or twice as a way of getting himself into the game,but doing it all the time isn't going to be very effective, it's just one less player for the opposition to worry about through the middle.

Top players are able to find space in much better positions higher up the pitch where they can hurt the opposition. It doesn't even have to be on the edge of their penalty area or anything, just high enough to actually commit an opponent and in turn drag their players out of shape a little.

 

I agree with you mate. I just find it strange that last night, a few seemed to be looking to blame Deila for Mulgrew's poor performance, even though he played a very similar role, doing exactly the same things away in Maribor, and nobody batted an eyelid then. In fact, many were very happy with his efforts that night. Some folk just seem hellbent on blaming Deila in my opinion. As I said, it wasn't Deila fault that Mulgrew nearly cost us two goals by misplacing passes.

 

He is a left CB and that's his best position by far. He won player of the year playing there!!

 

I blame Deila for the shape of midfield, for limiting the options for our players to pass to, for making it a nervy game, for not setting it out so we would control the midfield. I blame Mulgrew for his individual errors.

In Maribor he had people actually operating in midfield ahead of him, that makes a major difference. It means you can pass to more than just out wide for one, it also helps you outnumber the opposition midfielders. I blame Deila for the space between our 'central midfielders'.

I don't think that's odd at all. It's not just about individual players, it's about playing as a team. Brown and Johansen were shocking last night as well, except they didn't make the individual errors and Johansen at least got a goal so * it, they two I completely absolve for not playing like midfielders.

 

Mulgrew found out again at European level.

Total liability. Almost gifted them two goals from slack passes.

 

For me, our biggest problem last night, once again in Europe, was our distribution. We are utterly woeful in possession at times I feel. In the early stages of the game, we totally dominated the ball, but we done absolutely nothing with it. It was the individual errors that you are talking about that let Astra into the game, and gave them belief. We went through a spell when it was a comedy show almost, littered with errors. It was a nervy night because our mistakes allowed them into the game, a game that we had been controlling, without creating anything of note.

 

So poor, yes he's under orders to drop deep but his passing ( which is one of our best) was woeful and he doesn't deserve sticking up for..

 

I entirely agree there Murphy, I think the underlying reason for that was the set up though.

Can't get the image of Lustig out of my head, hands spread, looking for support for someone to pass to and coming up short. You know when that continually happens to a player like Lustig, there is something wrong there.

 

Our forward movement is utterly horrendous

 

Non existent..

Every team no matter what level at least has the.ability to break/counter in a balanced number and do the same when defending..

We do neither well..

 

Ronny's formations and gameplans arent working. We struggled at times to play the simple passes that should come as 2nd nature to a pro footballer. we give the opposition way too much space to play in due to a woeful formation and we struggle in the final 3rd as, i believe, we dont have someone special that can open a team up with a good pass or run.