Brendan Fraudgers!

I'm not saying we should sack BR. My point is that he has been backed by the board, maybe not to extent we all believe he should have been but, he has been backed by the signing of the players I've mentioned all on BR's list apparently!!

So for me the issue lies with both parties. The board for not making the direct funds available for a quality CB and RB. Brendan for not being able to identify anyone to fill these positions. Remember he brought in Congerton to replace Park as our head scout.

But on the strength of his LIST, that I stated above would you trust him?

If, he has identified quality players for these key areas and the board have told him NO. He should come out now and state publicly this is the case. Never before (Stein apart) has our manager had such strength and backing from the Celtic support over the board.

 

They wouldn't be digging their own grave. A narrative would be put out that we were lucky to have Rodgers, and now is time to cut costs so as not to end up like Rangers. It'd be lapped up as per.

 

Last Celtic defence to qualify for the last 16 of the CL -

Lustig - Free from Rosenborg
Kelvin Wilson - Free from Nottingham Forrest
Adam Matthews -Free from Cardiff
Efe Ambrose - 900k from Ashdod

 

The fact he’s so reluctant to give Musonda some game time is a strange one as well.

 

FFS,just goes to show you with the right scouts in place.

 

He’s injured ya idiot

 

Thing is though, if we sign 2 defenders on a free, this place would go * mental.

Canny win.

 

It was also their system; they were excellent at pressing in twos and threes at the right time, at denying space centrally, and staying compact in two banks of four. The system Brendan plays is not conducive to solid defensive displays, but better players would make less mistakes, and a lot of our goals seem to come from players not tracking runners or just not defending very intelligently.

 

Well...this is embarrassing!

 

Depends who they are. If the names are any of the following: Reyes, Terry, Wollscheid- I think the place would go mental in a positive sense.

 

It doesnt matter the cost. If you look at the post underneath, the defence that got us to the last 16 cost us 900k. The fans wont care the fees, as long as we progress.

Of course money typically gets a better quality player, but if we dont have the right system and we are not organised then we are set up to concede goals.

Its been the case three seasons in a row now that we make continued and costly errors in europe.

 

He needs to stick to a centre back pairing now, chopping and changing all the time only makes things worse. Hendry has played left and right side cb, same with Ajer and Jozo plus they’ve played as a 3.

It works for midfield and up front since they have the quality and experience but our defence doesn’t. The only player trustworthy in the centre of defence is Ajer, a 20 year old with still a lot to learn.

Hopefully we get a quality left sided cente back in and pair him with Ajer, even better if we can get in a quality right back as well who can play right side of a back 3.

It’s a straight forward fix if we actually go and try to buy players. Only other option is to put Eboue in the back line.

 

Another point is that it is a bit more difficult to implement BR's style of play and get results. I wouldn't say it's all that difficult to do what AEK do as it's just sitting back, getting men behind the ball, being resolute and resilient and either waiting for mistakes from the opposition or scoring from a set-piece, counter attack or mistake. It's a very simple way of playing but incredibly efficient if you get it right, and a lot of the time it doesn't take a lot of money to build that kind of team. And, you still need the right players with the right mentality for it to work.

The way BR wants to play is a bit more complex to implement although still isn't that difficult but I would say it's much more difficult to implement that and achieve consistent results. I would also say it generally takes more money to do that as well as you're generally needing a better quality of player to play a more open and expansive game.

So, people can look at AEK and the prices of their defence and think that they would take them over ours but that is a very simplistic way of looking at things.

What is worrying me about Celtic at the moment is that we seem to have lost that killer instinct at the top of the park and although the defence is generally doing quite well in terms of restricting chances on our goal, the chances that we are giving up are resulting in goals. And, that is a sign that things are faltering somewhat and although it's early in the season we need to guard against things regressing to a point where it really damages us although losing out on £40 million is pretty damaging.

I hope missing out on the CL and £40 million is a wake up call because it is difficult to rely on the same players time and time again, and although we have wasted money on signings, that is generally how the transfer market goes with every club. You have your good and bad signings, and BR has earned the right for a bit of leeway in the transfer market because of what's he's done in the last couple of seasons.

 

You tend to get a bounce with new signings coming in each season eager to impress to freshen up the team and keep everyone on their toes.
All we have brought in is Edouard so far and he was here last season it's not enough.

 

But you had Wanyama, Brown and Ledley protecting them

 

Irrespective of who was in midfield, there were far less errors both individually and collectively as a defensive unit in Lennons defence.

Two of the goals AEK scored came from cut backs from the byline and a unmarked attacker in the box, one of those we had six players defending to their one attacker. The other goal came from another poor kick from Gordon that out us straight back under pressure.

Iv watched Celtic for the past three seasons in europe under BR and there is a string of imdividual defensive errors that have cost us.

I think there should have been more money invested in the team. But lets not ignore the fact that money HAS been invested into the defence.

Comperr £1m
Hendry £1.4m
Gamboa £1.5m(?)
Boyata £1m

Jozo (i dont think was a BR buy) was reported to have cost £2-4m

Not only has the investment not been good enough, but what it also boils down to is that we are a shambles in terms of defensive organisation.

 

Ronny Deila signed Jozo.

 

I wonder would the swap them for a set of nearly new lights

 

Rodgers isn't the only manager we've had thats signed a load of * though, Lennon and Deila just happened to sign * strikers rather than defenders which suggests that the way we do business in general is just as culpable.

Rodgers ability to develop players offsets his poor transfer business imo as its meant that in certain positions we don't need to buy players because we've got guys here already who can do a job, Mcgregor, Armstrong, Rogic, Boyata, Forrest even Brown are guys who improved massively under Rodgers no way we would've even dreamed about getting £7m for Armstrong and £10m for Boyata without Rodgers.