Ange Postecoglou

Aye maybe he can change things, but love his attitude.

 

Not a great result, but again a lot of chances weren't taken.

Ange won't change his broader philosophy, but he will tinker around the edges. To that end, I thought our press was really ineffective tonight and needs looking at-, especially in the second half. Real simply did what they wanted and worked through it with ease. The worse part was the players who were hopelessly out of position simply trudged on, becoming wearier as it progressed.

Didn't get it right and we were opened up as enthusiastically as a new bike on Christmas morning.

 

I'd play him over Mooy its more defensive in a sense but the flip side is it lets Hatate and O'Riley play their more natural game

 

Hope he stays on for the foreseeable. I can see there being clubs interested in him so hopefully he's supported by the board with what he wants to do.

I'm realistic about what Celtic can really achieve in the Champions League. I get annoyed watching our games and can become unreasonable, even against class teams like Madrid, but I love the squad we have at the moment in all honesty, and the way Ange tries to implement his ways.

Not sure many fans of teams would feel the same way just after being skelped and coming away with 2 points overall, but I hope we can keep the majority of the players we have, add in more and even better quality players and work with what we have.

 

We were at the Bernabeau, against the reigning CL gold medalists. Realism is needed but so is improvement in future.

Time to win the league and come back next year aiming for progress.

 

Yep. Particularly in harder games whilst McGregor's out..

As you've alluded to, we actually lose more from our attacking game with accommodating Mooy by putting O'Riley back..

I still think Mooy can be effective for us domestically but Abildgaard doing the dirty work and letting Hatate and O'Riley go forward, giving us more leg's and defensiveness....is much smarter for what he wants..

It would've worked better tonight if Abildgaard had been played more and at Tynecastle as well..

For me he's firmly one for domestic games in the main where we're dominating completely and he has space..

 

Nothing wrong with the high press IMO. Once it’s broken, you need to fall back into a strong defensive shape where everyone is drilled to know their responsibility.

That doesn’t happen right now. It’s all over the place and no one in the midfield knows who they’re marking and when to close the space.

If we put 50% of our effort into a defensive unit as we do our press we would be through in that group.

Philosophy, tactics have nothing to do with it. It’s like having no organisation whatsoever at corners and when you concede from every corner you blame the high press. Completely irrelevant.

It’s just a side of the game we aren’t interested in working on and that’s why we’re one of the worse in Europe at doing it. We’ll get no where until we put the hours in as we’ve done everything else.

Being someone in to coach it if you need to, Ange.

 

Tinkering around the edges is exactly what's required. Upgrading key positions (goalkeeper? A more athletic midfield?), improving our press, working on composure around the box, etc. There are lots of areas where we have to improve. But suggestions about us completely changing our style - apart from being a complete fantasy under Ange - would be self-defeating.

You just have to look at the number of chances we've created in every game we've played home and away. That's not an insignificant thing and it has happened specifically because of the system. We should be doing everything we can to maintain that, whilst also looking to improve all the other details which will make us harder to beat. That at least gives us a shot at progression, as opposed to reverting back to the days of creating 1 or 2 chances away from home and still getting beat anyway.

 

It's because we don't have the players for it..

How can you have a high press with a guy like Mooy in the middle and then an attacking midfielder as 6, who isn't that mobile his self. It cripples us everytime. Happens too often even with McGregor in also to be fair.....and we get bypassed by any good counter/transition..

If we had an athletic trio in the middle with the energy to maintain it....our press would be spot on..

It actually started as well as I've seen it for a long time tonight with the front 3 getting it on point. Was never gonna be sustainable though..

I do agree we need working on when the ball turns over. It's unbelievable how often we're completely exposed from our own attacking corner and outnumbered in our own third tryna stop the next wave of attack. Its happened over and over in every game in this group..

 

That's spot on for me, the system doesn't need changing, take just a handful of the barrel load of chances we created in some games and we're sitting on 6-8 points now instead of 2, it's the extra bit of quality and composure in key areas that's let us down, not Ange's style of play.

 

Should have scudded donetsk over two games if it wasn’t for mudryk and * finishing we would have


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Aye there was twice tonight he was outpaced by a 97 year old Modric. One at the edge of the box where he tries to trap it as well and kicks it about 10 yards in front of him

 

Im watching sevilla against city. Sevilla are leading at the moment. City have all the possesion but sevilla are playing a line of 5 and a midfield four staying close to them not allowing city any space in their third.

I think ange has to recognise that every team in this competition have to adapt when they're playing superior opposition.

 

Agree with both posts. Press works very well around their 18 yard box. Yes it gets broken sometimes (so does every press in the world) but we also win the ball back loads, even against elite opposition. Problem isn't the press, like you both say it's the ability to then transition when it's broken, and that comes down to our midfield lacking the legs. Only one you see sprinting back in those situations is Hatate and he gasses after 45 minutes. Improve that element of our midfield and there won't appear to be the same issues with our press.

 

To be honest we could have the perfect team but if they’re not drilled as a defensive unit when the other team has possession from halfway onwards, the result will always be the same.

I’ve never seen a team so hopelessly lost so often. It’s like we don’t consider the possibility the other team might break the press.

 

It's pretty simple. Don't press against the elite teams because we'll get skelped. Cut your cloth accordingly.

 

Or find a happy medium if possible.

 

You can’t rely on the press as a defensive strategy. That’s ridiculously naive.

Sometimes it will win you the ball
Sometimes it will force them to go long.
Sometimes it will force them to go long in an uncontrolled way.

Many times, they will break it and retain possession in your half and put you under siege. That’s not to say you’ve even done anything wrong, it’s just what will inevitably happen quite a lot.

At that point you need to rely on a block. A 4-5-1, working in pairs and threes closing the space until you can regain possession.

It’s not about become a Walter Smith/Neil Lennon. It’s about defending properly when you need to. Even with players not suited to defending you should be able to do it to some degree if you’re properly drilled.

We are shambolic at it for no clear reason.

 

I guess I am talking about the same issue which tonight was Real in transition. They had time and space and cut us to ribbons on the counter.

To me the issue was the structure of the press. Several times the top three would push in only for Real to move it to an open player with miles of space who then started the transition.

The gap between the top of the press and the middle was all out of whack and I think this was exacerbated when they tried to fall back into shape as they were all over the shop.

I guess it is a chicken egg scenario but it really fell apart towards the end and when you throw in the fact that Real had the skill to skin us 2 on 3 or 2 on 4 when we did get numbers around them in transition you do end up where we were with our trousers pulled down for all to see.

The pitch looked wider than normal not sure if it was just that Real made it look that way however

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