UCL: Ajax vs CELTIC,Wed 6th Nov, KO 7:45pm, Live on SS4

Celtic have been * away in Europe for far, far, far too long. Since the 80's give or take the odd season.

 

We just have to put it behind us now. What's done is done in we have a massive game v AC Milan at home which of course we can win.

 

Your * hole !!!, inability to see that Forrest was pish by half time and commons wasn't at it lost us the game , blaming mulgrew ?, go and * do one you * , kayal was one of our best players tonight , his shot was pish but there were worse !

 

We haven't kept a clean sheet away from home in the CL/EC since 1988 against Werder Bremen

 

Your common sense has no place in a match thread :icon_mrgreen:

Seriously, how many teams with our resources (compared to the other CL teams), and playing week in week out in a league ranked the same as the SPL, have achieved the same results as us?

 

We weren't great. However, just like in the away match, we were better and deserved the win. The difference this time was that Celtic didn't get their lucky goals. That goal by Schöne was just brilliant. And it says enough about Celtic's level of football when the only chance one can refer to here on this forum was that bad shot from outside of the box by Kayal. The real big * up you made was when you were two on 1 + keeper and one of yours gave the worst pass ever, that's when you should have scored you nitwits! But it would have been undeserved.
I didn't here the away section one time and I think I know why, I am kind of disapointed in that since I always thought Celtic had great fans. I guess I was wrong.

 

I think that even with an out an out striker we wouldn't have had much success tonight. We're lacking real creativity and only a creative midfielder with the vision to pick a killer pass will change that. Commons isn't it.

I can't have been the only one getting frustrated with the lack of runs made by our team tonight. Nobody was making an effort to get into space. Ajax had an easy night.

 

Although I fully accept we were pish tonight, it really annoys me the expectation level of some of our fans. When you break it down and analyse how difficult the CL is in terms of the seeding system we always get the raw end of the deal of and the amount of money most of the other team spend, then we should be getting praised to the high heavens.

Which ironically we do get from lots of "outside" sources. Just wish more of us would realise it. Even the likes of Anderlecht, who got pumped five by Paris, are spending £5m on players. We've not come near that amount for years and we still nearly always put up a good show.

 

we were shocking tonight lads, no one could take the ball and hold it or create something with it.

samaras was a wasted jersey, forrest flattered to deceive, mulgrew and kayal gave no protection at all to the backline.

We haven't got a goalscorer, it is plain for all to see.

Gutted to be honest, just hope all the fans who have went get home safe.

 

Give it a rest for * sake. As per usual you show your face when Celtic have a bad result and a poor performance. You then proceed to stick the boot into our manager and waffle on about uber fans/fans that cannae see past the team/green tinted specs brigade. Your patter is entirely * predictable and there's more than a handful of people on here who are fed up listening to it.

By all means post your views on the team but stop throwing your hook in the water trying to bait other people into an argument.

 

This could be a long one.

Forster,Van Dijik and Lustig were stand outs tonight and maintained a level of quality throughout the game. The rest(maybe with the exception of Izzy and Efe who did OK), well the Ajax casuals showed more fight than them.

Worst 1st half of football I`ve seen from a Celtic team for the last few seasons.

Completely lacking in any sort of ball retention in midfield,poor passes over 5 yards,1st touches going 5 yards away from the player and a general lack of common sense and awareness. That was with the ball.

Without the ball was even worse, stupid fouls and making challenges when not needed. Kayal done it on at least 3 occasions, where he was right up the guys shiter and making silly challenges where all he needed to do was stand his man-up. Numerous players diving in or over committing when closing down players (Stokes,Commons,Samaras and Kayal); instead of making them play backwards we tried to make tackles that weren`t needed. I get the game-plan was to make sure Blind (who is by far one of the lesser more prominent of the Ajax side) never started attacks. Commons was meant to be on him for the majority, was away shutting down the goalkeeper. The ball then found Blind and forced Kayal or Mulgrew out of position and then by-passed to Serero on into Schone and De Jong. Made it so easy to play through us in the 1st half. We had Stokes,Sammy,Commons and Forrest to pressure the 2 centre-halfs and Blind.Yet time after time they were passing the buck instead and selling Mulgrew and Kayal short. However Kayal and Mulgrew should know better than to go chasing; thus leaving big gaps between the midfield and defence for De Jong, Sigthorsson and Schone room to play and bring others like Van Rijihn and other midfield runners into the game. On the subject of Van Rijhin, Sammy as he tends to do even in Scotland, is allow the full back to much space. Almost cost us a goal barring a fine save from De Jong header by Forster.

I understand that it may happen once but for all of the above to happen time after time in the 1st half is unacceptable at this level.

The 2nd half was more promising without the ball, the problems of the 1st half appeared to be sorted. Although a really poor goal conceded; whilst it was a decent interchange between a few Ajax players. They virtually walked the ball through the centre of our midfield and defence.

Our bigger issue in the 2nd half was what we done( or never done) with the ball. Wrong selection of options and wrong type of pass at key times being the biggest issues. While I don`t think there is a great deal between the teams; Ajax players were miles ahead of us in this area. When we had the chances, the decision making was really poor. The most prominent example was the 2 v 1 with Forrest and Stokes against Veltman. Veltman should never have come away with the ball in this scenario; to not get an attempt on goal is criminal at boys level never mind full-time pros(this stuff is worked on at training week in week out). Forrest should`ve had 2 choices in this situation, he had 1 and half options and choose the half. Stokes position was poor. Even if he dropped a yard to give Forrest a better angle to pass; he would still have had a clear shot at goal. Instead he wanted the pass played in behind Veltman; who cut it out (you could argue it was good positioning on his behalf).

The poor choices taken by players wasn`t just in this situation. Commons tried to lob a goalkeeper positioned on the 6-yard box; when he had options to develop the play wide left to Samaras(Stokes despite making several runs would have been offside). Speaking of poor choices; Sammy never once got passed Van Rijihn. Time after time he ran himself into situations where he was outnumbered and lost possession; it may have been every time.

It was incredible to watch so many really poor decisions by the majority of players; sometimes it`s one but the front 4 of Commons,Stokes,Sammy and Forrest done it time and time again. Indeed at times it bordered on pure laziness with player getting caught offside and giving up the ghost.

The minimum is that players give effort for 90 mins but I`m afraid that some chucked it after 60 mins tonight.

The defence, goal aside and Denswil header from the corner were pretty good. Ambrose(apart from his now obligatory moment of brain freeze) and Izzy were decent;Van Dijik and Lustig were exceptional. Van Dijik time and time again stepped in at crucial moments; Lustig, like Van Dijik covered well and his ball usage was much better than his more creative compatriots.

Set piece delivery was a let down and were a missed opportunity tonight.

Pretty abject performance all-round; many players looked well off the pace. Those coming back from long periods on the side-lines showed it; we need to be at full strength and all players playing at their best. However with selection issues through suspension of Brown and Biton played a part tonight. Tonight we were a million miles from it and given how important a game it was tonight (even to get a point); it irks a wee bit.

 

You sound like a total walloper, away to *.

 

At Least Kayal tried tonight. Lennon to blame for keeping that "athlete" commons on far too long. They showed Ajax far too much respect and he's watching the same pish we did so why not rip into them ? As for him awarding Samaras the captaincy is like him knowing how to show his players how to trap and kill a ball stone dead, Clueless.

 

Well said Marky.

Looks like (as per usual) Coatbrigbhoy is the only happy one on her after a defeat.

 

Although he has his faults, my biggest worry is that some team from a bigger league is going to poach Lenny from us. He has performed miracles for us given the budget restraints. I know he loves the club etc but there will be a time when he realises, that if he's not allowed to go for a slightly higher level of player, he has gone as far as he can with us.

He has put us in a position to make us a regular and strong (ish) CL team and should be allowed to push the boat out a little more imo.

 

Shut up scum

 

Forrest never got any service

Our midfield were terrible tonight and lost us the game. Watch their goal again, they both shitebag out of 2 50/50 challenges on the edge of the box.

Our set pieces were dreadful as well, which is the only reason Mulgrew should even be on the pitch in the first place tbh.

 

Go * yourself, you daft, wee, * Hun *. We'll have you out of Europe by December.

 

spot on, deliveries were pish tonight.

I actually thought samaras was to blame at the goal, just stood lazily and let them play around us, was at it all night leaving izzy up against it.

Lads lets not fight with ourselves, beat Milan in 3 weeks and European footie is still within our grasp.

* Ajax, theyre *.