I don't think this changes anything.

I know it’s a one of game but Club Brugge is a pretty solid barometer of where we are to me. A club who in recent seasons have done well in European competition and won domestic titles in a league better than ours. Semi final of the conference league last year, last 16 of CL year before and had a couple of good performances in the CL group against high level opponents in prior years despite not advancing.

They likely have a similar budget to us that they operate from but as a club have a better youth set up and sign players from obscure markets before selling for a profit. Their top sale is similar to ours just they probably sell good players for reasonable fees more regularly. Bring through some good young talent too.

A win against them at Celtic Park would be a good achievement and give us a mark of where we are in terms of where we should be in this CL, similarly beating the likes of Dinamo Zagreb and Young Boys as they are likely the level of opponents we could face in a final qualifier next season should we win the league.

I do agree the variance in quality of opposition must be difficult. But getting 4 wins in this CL Group stage to me even if it is against the teams mentioned would be a success and a step forward.

 

Changes morning in the grand scheme of the UCL this season.

It was one of the 2 games we assumed not to get anything from. The feel good leading in to the game was nice and the come back down to reality hurt, but that's on ourselves for allowing it.

This games taught us one thing (again), defensively we are woeful and absolutely not setup for this level.

The middle and front are acceptable at this level, for our size of club. No one is asking that we have Benzema or Ronaldo leading the line, but Kyogo, Maeda and Kuhn are fine (well mostly if they don't panic).
Same with the midfield trio, can't really expect much more than the quality we have middle to front.

It's that backline we are bad with.
Rodgers got "backed" in the middle to front areas. He got Idah and he got Engels. Albeit also McCowan, he wasn't (I don't believe) the number one target for him. So an extra body in there would help.

But back to that backline, Trusty and Valle are panic buys at the end of the window for me. They weren't properly scouted or first picks for signing.
No one is convincing me that we scouted Trusty last season and based on last season thought he was the quality to partner CCV.
Everyone is going off his previous potential as judgement when he signed. Not anything we may have scouted over the last 12 months - which begs the question what was we scouting in the last 12 months, because it seemingly wasn't a CB.
Same goes for LB and Valle. I like the look of him and anyone from a club like Barcelona, we are gonna get a wee bit excited and hopeful about. But again, an area needing invested in and the best we could do was a left back loan signing? Not buying that.

So for me, what we've learnt, although nothing has changed after the Dortmund game, is that Rodgers still needs to be backed further. The defensive line most certainly.

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Great post. I don’t doubt that it’s obvious to those who run the club that our league is a problem. I do see us being proactive in other areas but when it comes down to it we need the practice and we need good competition. Hopefully we can find a way to keep improving, it’s kind of the same scenario for our youth playing at a poor standard. Hopefully something can be done in the long term

 

I agree that Valle and Trusty were panic signings. However, I wouldn't assume that the board will have the same conclusion that they need to back the manager more with signings. They might look at bad losses in Europe and conclude that spending big was a waste of time. If we're within spitting distance of a run, they're more likely to invest than if we get gubbed off teams because what makes money back is winning games and progressing in the competition.

 

The results don’t change much. They’re what was expected.

The manner of the defeat was appalling.

The tactical naivety Rodgers displayed isn’t a change of form, but we were hoping it would be.

 

Agree with most of what's been said; don't think anyone really expected us to take anything from Dortmund but the manner of defeat is tough to take. Don't think Rogers takes as much blame as some have been giving him; we clearly still have some recruitment issues which need to be addressed if we're gonna compete at this level and you can't account for some of the individual mistakes, however this isn't a one off, this is his 4th season managing us in the CL and we've conceded at least 6 in a game in each previous season. Hope we learn from it. Thought when the fixtures were announced that we'd end up with 13 points; 3 wins at home and a draw against Leipzig, plus a win away to Zagreb. Still on for that which should put us in the play off places.

 

I support Aberdeen now

 

Teams confidence look shot to pieces - this all stems from that hammering on Tuesday night - conceding 7 goals doesn't instill confidence in any one - can only be a negative and it has quite clearly showed in this first half.

 

We aren't a crippled team, but it's clear we can only work miracles in Scotland. We aren't at the level required to truly compete in Europe.