[Matchday] Celtic v West Ham Friendly Sat 24 July 3pm KO.

I like the way Ange speaks and how he comes across in interviews.

my concerns on the pitch at the moment are that we are trying to play the ball out from too deep when we dont have the quality of players.
Its obvious that we still need a lot of added quality to the team.

 

It did happen, when he joined Yokohama he was losing games and they were in a relegation battle. They managed to stay up but it was worrying for a few weeks.

 

I haven't seen the game but read this entire thread... (sigh)

I wouldn't be overly concerned. Ange will be focusing mainly on getting his systems going in full knowledge that there will be changes to personnel over coming weeks.

A top 6 EPL side was always going to be a massive challenge - especially for the second half second stringers. I'm sure he'll be a little more pragmatic on Wednesday.

 

The negativity and dooms day predictions are becoming nauseatingly exhausting in here.

Did anyone really expect a better result against a Top 6 EPL team when playing kids at CB and have the likes of Ralston and Taylor either side?

we got our * kicked, the young CB’s learnt some lessons today, and the board cannot hide that we need a new backline ASAP.

but * my life, the Danes and no Scottish premiership club, including Rangers, are anywhere near the quality of West Ham or any other top 6 EPL club.

* calm down, Starfelt is coming in, new defenders are coming in the next few weeks, and all will be good.

 

I watched the game live and the commentary is spot on. Unfortunately, after a bright start West Ham literally tore Celtic apart.

All on the counter mind you and often as a direct result of a turnover. In general Celtic had many periods where they attacked and controlled the play. Yet a smart passage was often all undone by a mistake and the sight of the opposing strikers striding through on goal. West Ham could have scored 8. No exaggeration.

My concern is that this is the type of setback that impacts the confidence of the players. Not good.

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And we should have had 3 or 4 too. We know what our weaknesses are, and the issue is being resolved, albeit slowly.

The result is hardly a disaster, but one expected considering our current squad situation and the quality West Ham have.

We're still gonna take it to the Danes and the Premiership. Let those huns mouth off social media, who gives a *, they'll be silenced when we have the automatic CL spot at the end of the season.

 

Considering the shape of the squad at the moment (particularly the defence) and the way ange wants us to play football I always thought that yesterday's result was a possibility so I'm not that disheartened by it, even if the result went differently we would still be in the position we are in now in that we need players in asap.
There were plenty of positives in that 1st half attacking wise and some very promising performances particularly from soro and abada.
To me if ange is successfull here it's going to be very similar to the rodgers era in that domestically and against teams of similar quality to us we will thrive but in Europe against the top sides we could be on the end of some hidings.

 

But will the board listen and act??? Worse case scenario is if they decide not to invest in good new players and think Ange can work miracles with current squad.
If they say "lets see how it goes by Christmas", we could be out of the title race again before season is half-way done

 

Just watched the highlights. We were absolutely ripped apart by a very good West Ham team. We were exposed badly down both full back positions, and most of the time we only had the two young lads back in defence. We can't do that against good teams. We definitely need two fullbacks.

 

Most of the goals came when the fullbacks had pushed forwards. That looks to be what they have been asked to do by Ange.

Right from the start you could see West Ham were pressing the 2 CBs when they were trying to play out from the back. If Ange is going to play this sort of system - relying on CBs playing it out and with full backs pushing forwards - then he needs to have a way to deal with that situation as any team who plays us must spot it. There likely should be situations where the CB's are getting pressed where the ball goes back to the goalie and he plays it out over the CBs to those who should have more space, constantly having it played out from the back is going to wear down the 2 young CB's and they will make mistakes, as they did yesterday.

 

Never seen the game as I had something on but I am not even surprised that we conceded 6 as our defence is * poor. I dont find it overly concerning though as I hope that we will have a completely different team within the next few weeks.

 

Result aside I had a cracking day out and loved getting back to a game. Bottle of tonic, sunshine and Celtic - been missing that for too long. Up the good guys.

 

The best teams in the world don't 100% of the time play it out from the back, yeah we should aim to do it but most important is having players that can do it and it being safe to do it. Having the young players penned in at the corner flags trying to play out seems as if their taking the managers instructions too literally.

But I also seen McGregor and Taylor hit high balls out to no one when there was a guy in the middle free for the pass along the deck, it takes a Bit of nerve not to launch balls, especially when it's been ingrained into Scottish footballers since day dot

 

A meaningless friendly, parked between 2 of the most important matches we have at the moment. I don't care about the result, just that the END RESULT is that that particular defence/keeper combo never play again for us. That match taught Ange more about what certain players couldn't do than what they could, and that's valuable info too...