[Matchday] Celtic v St. Johnstone (15:00 GMT - 18/02/18) Celtic TV

Them being St Johnstone then yes. Them being St J and Beaton then maybe not

 

Yesterday's display was due to more than the number of changes made. One way or another i've seen almost every game live this season and have clearly witnessed a malaise come over our play. Last year we were sharp, direct, crisp and quick. This season, with a few notable exceptions, we are slow, sluggish, careless and over-pass the ball to a ridiculous degree. We have become too predictable and need to be more direct and up our tempo considerably. IMO we're actually playing too much football, just pass-pass-pass all the time, keeping possession but going nowhere. Where are the crosses or through balls or shots from outside the box? 1 good ball into the box will cause more problems and panic than a 1000 sideways passes, we're making it easy for these teams. We should be starting league games as if 85 mins have been played and we're a goal down, that's the sort of tempo and urgency that will worry the opposition. Having Griff back will make a big difference too, Dembele and Edouard spend most of their time outside the box with their backs to goal, Griff spend most of his around the box facing the goal. A big difference and we're far more dangerous for it. We're well capable of getting back on track but something fundamental needs to change.

 

Can’t use the red as an excuse either mate we should be good enough not to let these * influence games even big jock said that

 

Who wants to watch a game with no excitement? The referee? If any refs are watching, it's not about the rest of the team having to deal with playing a man down, it's the individual who committed the foul and the likelihood of it stopping a counter attack in the opposition half. Nothing to do with the rest of the team's ability with ten men. That's just how it looks from the outside.

It's more of a solidarity with the underdog. I'm sure they think because one team has more money/better, quicker more skillful players, chances are the other side won't be able to keep up.

Problem with that is, it's not in the rule book.

The only way to make the league more profitable to some, would be Celtic losing a league title.
To some it is more exciting if the league is closer.

Now onto the ref. Sometimes we get one who's just went out with a pre-meditated intention to keep all the players on the park, and he knows that's most likely to involve Saints players. For me that's ok, but if they'd just stick them on a yellow earlier and maybe give them a couple of warnings before the red card that would probably work out a bit better.

For the life of me i can't get refs who warn the players about getting cards -all the time - like every weekend. I'm fairly convinced warnings don't work and make the referee look weak.

It also looks like they are not differentiating one challenge for another.

What they'll do is line up like scripted lawyers and hide from the fact that in Scotland a red card offence is rare against Celtic and that's about the only thing that would have made the game yesterday more entertaining.

Around the 87th minute, the ref started carding like crazy, almost as if someone told him to in his earpiece, lol.
It was funny, like "* i need to make it less obvious". Of course it wasn't that, it was whatever he thought was right at the time......which was quite often a fear of giving yellows never mind reds. Which for a ref isn't very good police work is it More like community cops.

 

Yeah, Beaton was abysmal but that's not the reason we didn't win.

 

Not seeing the Europa league is a massive game, just saying that to say it was an important 0-0 draw against st Johnstone is scraping the barrel a bit, also think winning at pittodrie and Poundland is our bread n butter and would be more annoyed at losing them than a would Thursday
Would love to win all 3 though

 

Yeah but even Jock dropped the odd point or 2.
Besides I'm not blaming the ref solely. it was a combination of factors. How many times in the past have we fielded a weakened team in the league cup and got defeated by inferior opposition. Among everything else these players are not used to playing together as a team. Where's the understanding between Sinclair and Miller or Gamboa and Musonda.

 

We are so frustrating to watch in the league this season and to be honest unless Brendan changes something I can't see us getting any better. It's not an issue of the players needing a rest as they have just had three weeks off and even then in the summer we'll have to start at the 1st CL qualifying round, so they'll hardly get a rest anyway.

Of course our players can turn it on for one off games against the likes of Zenit where we we're immense, but in the bread and butter games like this we are at best doing the bare minimum to win games and at worst performing like we have yesterday or against Kilmarnock or hearts etc. Of course it's great to be top of the league and the players can't be great every week, but our performance levels in the league this season have been consistently really poor, performances like this aren't a rare occurance. It's actually rarer for us to play well in a league game imo.

 

Spot on it's games we need not a rest for gods sake three weeks off then play one hard game and Brendan gives
seven players a rest winning the League is more important than getting into the the last sixteen in the Europa
league , I think Brendan got it wrong this time we all know other teams in the League lift there game when they play
Celtic or even Rangers it's been that way for years change 1 or 2 players to start then change more if things are going
good Brendan changed SEVEN at the start that's why we drew. and no Broony.

 

There is next to no chance we won't win the league.

 

we should win the league but keep playing that way for the last 11 games that 9 point lead can be whittled down and we shouldnt be giving sevco any encouragement .

 

With regard to Rangers, there is no chance they are not dropping a good few points throughout the remainder of this season as well though, their defence yesterday was * shocking. Hamilton are appalling and still gave them a bit of a game and scored 3.

 

yeah their defence is bad but their forwards are banging the goals in over the last few games while our forwards are struggling .

 

Banging the goals in against a side that wouldn't look out of place in the juniors leagues. Hamilton should just fold honestly. Other than that they were lucky to score 2 against Partick and only scored once against Hibs at home, I wouldn't say they've been banging the goals in generally.

 

The result isn't gonna determine whether we win the league or not the games against aberdeen and the scum does

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we seem to be relaying on our midfielders and wingers to score goals at present as the forwards goals have dried up .