BRAGA v CELTIC all post match chat in here please

A very disappointing result, however I don't think it was truly unexpected. This is a new side which has to gel together, my question is this to our Directors, given that we want to qualify for the Grop Stages of the CL, why did they sanction yet another tour of North America, would it not have been more productive staying at home and letting Neil Lennon have time at Lennoxtown to gel the team together ?

What about Mc Geady and Hinkel, why were they even taken to Portugal ? If they are sold during the next week we'll know that our Directors are once again interfering in team selection. What is Samaras still doing in a Hoops jersey, he is totally useless, how many times are the Celtic supporters expected to tolerate his half-hearted approach to vital games.

For me our CL qualification has already gone, at 1-0 you have a chance, but concedeing two goals in the last 15 minutes tell's me it's all over.

 

mcgeady had a back injury and im fairly sure that its lennys decision to get rid of hinkel

 

After there penalty what is Zaluska complaining about? He seems to point to the spot and have a little moan.

 

I have time to read every site in this thread;

1) all respect to Braga. They was better than Celtic in any aspect. A very decent side. Well-organized, good skilled attacking player, and always secure in the back. I can't image many teams score three against this side!

2) After the poor penalty decision I could see it coming. A complete new squad (even some of the players who isn't recent signings haven't played many games for Celtic), against a team who denied Celtic to come back in the game.
It must be on one of the first pages in every book of coaching. And everyone knows that it's a pure gamble to change half the squad and then expect to deliever right away!

3) Lay this solo-striker utopia-* back in bed. Samaras couldn't do * alone against four defenders, and our midfield had nowhere to pass the ball. 4-4-2 (!!!)

Zaluska - fair play
Cha Du-Ri - was lucky that most of the play was in Mulgrews side. I think this "mean man" gonna be a failure at Celtic. I'm serious not convinced with this guy.
Loovens - average.
Hooiveld - average too. And * a lot of poor passes. It's difficult to restart the play when our defenders can't pass a ball.
Mulgrew - had a tuff night against some very decent attackers. Didn't pass the test. But it's a huge step from Aberdeen to Champions League, so didn't expect him to be a world-beater.
Juárez, Brown & Ledley - under the circumstances I think they did okay. Should be played against and learn each other better.
Ki - he didn't fit into our tactic. Should have been off in the half time.
Maloney - dissapointing. Didn't see much to the little guy.
Samaras - won a lot of headers, but couldn't do *. I can't complain about him, because his task was mission impossible.

I miss McGeady, Hinkel, Wilson and 4-4-2. But at least it can't get worse, and Lennon have my full backing.
We're all in for this guy, and we have letted him change half the squad so we know we have digged deep to step high.

 

It's illegal to stop toward to run, and that was he was thinking Alan did.

 

Deliberately waited until this morning until I 'd calmed down before posting.

The officials didn't help us, of that there is no doubt, the Braga players sussed out early on that he was one of these idiots that would blow his whistle every time they hit the deck, fair play to them. Penalty decision was a joke.

I thought Cha, Loovens and Hooiveld had decent enough nights but the 2nd goal was pathetic, the kind of thing you'd get slaughtered for up the park on a Sunday. Mulgrew looked like a lost wee boy and was miles out his depth, i felt a bit sorry for him at the end up. It's clear to see we need another left back.

As for the midfield? All 5 of them were rank rotten. Ledley anonymous, Ki anonymous, Juarez charged about but contributed little (although he needs time), Maloney looked unfit yet again and the less I say about 'the captain' the better. Lenny looks like he's the 3rd manager that just can't see he is RANK * ROTTEN. THE biggest imposter to pull on the hoops. Please just * go Broony, for the sake of my sanity!!

Samaras didn't do much but he chased shadows all night and never really had a chance.

As for Lenny, yes it's early days, but he looked every inch the inexperienced manager last night.

 

Well I said when he was linked we shouldn't sign him....


it was a bad signing

 

suprised to see both Maloney and Ki selected in a 'defensive' 5 man midfield.

things didnt go our way last night but we were expecting a lot out of Juarez, du Ri, when they probably dont even know their teammates names, Hinkel and McGeady should have started, we need as much consistency in the team while we give the new players time to settle in

dont believe Mcgeady had a sore back.

Early goal against Braga next week and who knows

 

Celtic were playing so badly last night I couldn't bear to watch most of the second half but just listened to the commentary hoping we got out 1.0.

This has got to change,looking back to what now seem like the golden days of Strachen we didn't play great football but at least we were watchable.

The problems are everywhere but its midfield where a teams style is found, if thats the right word. We seem to have no one capable of just holding the ball a bit & thinking about the next move.So what we get is a team that "passes" almost as soon as they get the ball,like they're trying to play one-touch football.Mostly they pass back to someone in a worse position than them or they lose the ball.

Brown is of course a prime example & I would like to see him go,he would be better alongside a creative midfielder however.

I hope so much McGeady stays,it could be a long long season watching Celtic if we don't have his occasional moments of sparkle.

 

erll am going to take the positives first, think jaurez will be a good player looked comfortable on the ball. positives over!

long ball game (as everyone identified) was never going to work.
midfield for most the time was non existent!
scott brown...well need say more!
and for once i actually felt sorry for samaras having the ball pumped up to him with no one within 100 miles of him!

overall what more could we expect from a bunch of lads who havent really played together, hardley any euro experience (mulgrew,rogne, hoovield,ki,ledly,murphey, Malony as hes always injured.) against a team who come second in their league and didnt get beat at home last season. i have been pleased wit the signings overall, but ffs leny bring in some proven quality at a top level not fuking donkeys like murphey!

 

Ref was atrocious! Never a penalty and i believe that knocked the wind out our sails, then youve got the Corner should never have been a goal we should have cleared that.

Only thing i can give Braga credit for was that great freekick and even at that it was Zaluaska's poor goalkeeping that let it in.

 

It's such an embarrassing result more than anything else

My facebook account is riddled with people laughing at us

I thought the whole team were gash and I'm not even looking forward to the 2nd leg now.

 

C'mon guys, its early days. Yeah we were crap last night but when you think about it we can't be any worse next week and I know it sounds strange to say it but that was never a 3-0 game last night, never really threatened to run us over atall. 3-0 and 3 set pieces.

Im quite confident we can overturn this next week. Hopefully a packed stadium a goal in first 20 mins and we will see what this mob are all about.

Keep the faith .....Mon E Hoops

 

Really awful. I can't blame our defence entirely because apart from a freak penalty and freak long ranger, you can accept to lose a sloppy goal away from home.

It is attack (or more strictly midfield) I'm most unhappy about. Everytime Samaras got the ball he was isolated and could only hold it up so long before 2+ were on him. Where was the willing runs from the likes of Brown, Juarez, Ledley, Maloney?

I thought Ki done his job okay but petered out as the game went on - which was to take possession in front of the back 2 and start playing the ball. He just had nothing in front of him - the other 4 midfielders were simply bossed despite our numerical advantage.

Mulgrew was out of his depth and frustrating the amount of times he was left 2v1 against him so I can't blame him 100%.

If only we actually had some convincing attacks I'd actually be happy with a 3-1 or even an unlucky 3-0 but the fact that we were spineless altogether made the viewing really unpleasant.

 

Player ratings!!!

Like many others, watched the game on a stream and got to say I wish I hadnt bothered. That was like watching sunday league football, I have never seen a team give the ball away as much as we need, couldn't string a couple of passes together.

Despite the recent positive threads, I dont buy for 1 second we still have a chance, all they have to do is to defend and dive all over the * place like last night.

I was VERY scepital when Mulgrew was brought in and last night he looked a bombscare, everytime they attacked down that side my heart was in my mouth, he doesn't look confident defending.

I thought Brown and Maloney were truly 100% AWFUL to night, no actaully I thought every 1 of them looked pish, from Zaluska to Samaras. Was it me or did that 3rd look like it could have been saved? Am I being too harsh?

Out of CL imo, and now we have to focus on the spl and the europa league, sorry guys but on last night's performance we might aswel just completely forget about europe this season.

I didn't like the line up, Zi out wide? Have I got that right? Ledley in CM? Doesn't he play LM? Where was Maloney supposed to be playing? He looked dreadful last night.

last night we really missed McGeady, alot more than what I thought we would, I thought Juarez was the only 1 to come out of the game with dignity.

My honest ratings

Zaluska 5 - Thought he was pretty poor, got nowhere near the goals

Cha Du Ri - 6 - Not a great debut, tried to get forward, very average performance

Loovens 5 - Thought he was his usuall self, *! The forwards ran riot and he couldn't deal with them, what a silly yellow card to get!

Hooiveld 6 - Slightly better than Loovens, not a hard task

Mulgrew - 3 - Looked incapable of defending, looked very shaky on the ball and didn't contribute anything going forward

Brown 4 - I like him but last night he looked pathetic, the term headless chicken springs to mind! Other than get in scraps I wouldn't have known he was playing

Ledley - 5 I didnt thing he was poor but wasn't great either

Ki 5- Poor just like all the team, unlucky with pena but didn't influence the game

Juarez - 7 - Our motm, not difficult with that team, thought he looked tidy on the ball and got stuck in, a decent debut from our lad

Maloney - 4 - Was he playing? Offered us absolutely nothing and kept giving the ball away, there is a pattern here!

Samaras 5 - Friendy games he looks good, important games and Sammy is back! On the deck most the night, kept playing too deep so we had absolutely nothing to offer going forward.

What would be your ratings?

 

Cant argue with that

 

I wrote a * essay on a thread last night about our perofrmance, must have took me 20 minutes to write on how bad we were, tried to post the thread and it said database error, went back to see if my words have been saved, gone!!! Story of my * night!!!

I know its early days but Mulgrew looked terrible, as did Maloney and Brown

 

Hopefully Neil will turn it around

 

* I just wrote out players ratings etc, a * essay but the thread got moved here and lost my work

Zaluska - 4
Cha - 4
Loovens - 4
Hooiveld - 5
Mulgrew - 3
Maloney - 3
Juarez - 4
Brown - 3
Ki - 5
Ledley - 4
Samaras - 6

 

Gif of the penalty decision

I've no complaints because Ki put his arm out , might have been trying to control the ball with it and looks like he tried to take it away at the last minute but too late..