Efe Ambrose

Why does he run 20 yards forward and then passes the ball back

 

He didn't play in the away game...

 

People like to blame him even when he doesn't play

 

A lot of the time because our movement ahead of him is static as *.

 

This has been the case for a while unfortunately. Possibly my biggest criticism of our team. I hope Pukki can add some movement.

 

It's worse since Hooper has left, who was constantly dragging defenders around. I hope it's just an adjustment period because our team were heavily built around that. I don't want to see a return to thr McGeady days when it was a case of give Aiden the ball and stand about waiting for him to do something.

 

Aye Hooper was the best mover we had. Commons and Sammy, asmuch as I like them, can be static. Although I thought Sammys movement was good Wednesday. He was everywhere.

On Ambrose...I can only hope he keeps it up because he's been one player that I've downright refused to write off. There's something very likable about Efe.

 

I always think Commons movement is brilliant, he is usually one of the only players abailable to take the ball.

 

:smiley-laughing002:. I thought he looked not too bad when warming up to be fair. Harsh to pick up on him for that.

 

Really? I often get frustrated with him when he jogs about the middle and doesn't come short to help Ledley and Brown. I think this is why he wasnt involved so much against Elfsborg...despite scoring first leg.

Karagandy gave him more space though. To their detriment.

 

The problem with the Elfsborg was he was playing upfront, play him in midfield and he's excellent at dropping short for the option to pass

 

Jesus wept!

He was playing against the lowest ranked team in the competition! They were horrifically limited!

They defended for 60 mins, so of of course he looked all poised and athletic when dealing with their odd foray forward!

But let's look at it when it really mattered... when they turned the heat up a little... or just plain thumped the ball into our box. The defence crumbled into a complete and utter omnishambles every * time! I watched every flight of the ball into our area through the cracks in my fingers... our defensive efforts were THAT alarming! And correct me if I'm wrong, but Efe was playing CB... wasn't he? Sorting your defensive lines and clearing stupidly speculative balls is a pretty fundamental requirement for that role... is it not!?

Football fans are incredibly fickle... he gets called out for being * (quite rightly in my opinion), and just because he turned a few attackers with relative ease from an outrageously limited team in open play, he suddenly becomes Paolo Maldini!

Let's reconvene to this thread in a month and see where we are then!

Hopefully he will turn a corner and become the player his athleticism indicates he could be... but for me though the SK game still left more questions than answers!

 

He is being praised for his performance in one of the most important games in recent history for Celtic.

While they may have been one of the lowest ranked teams available, they showed themselves to be no pushovers and set themselves out pretty well considering.

I believe some of our support - much like yourself here - are attempting to downplay our performance and the significance of this win.

 

Tell me how he coped when they fired speculative balls into our box Tony?

 

I think Ambrose had a good game on Wednesday, and deserves praise in my opinion. After all, a lot of our support are quick enough to jump down his throat when he makes a mistake, no matter how big or how small.

But I do agree that any long balls into our box, were not pretty to watch. Very rarely could we cope with it, they were winning first and second balls nearly all the time. I think Forster could have helped out his defence a few times though, there were times when I was desperate for him to come and pluck out the air.

 

I agree with Commons in that the back 4 on Wednesday played very well overall. Certainly a lot better than the equivalent the previous week!

I include Ambrose in my praise for his performance overall.....and as a squad player he has great value for us. I still do not see him as a long-term solution to a CB problem, however.

 

I agree with your second paragraph Murphy.

Efe was not solely culpable for the defensive bomscares. Forster, in particular, was like a rabbit caught in the proverbial headlights. His 'performance' was an embarrasment.

But this thread is about Efe...

 

I've already stated in several threads after the match that I don't think he was up to much in terms of aerial.

His play on the deck was superb (as was his reading of the game) - his runs from defence were integral to us starting moves from the back - a joy to see instead of the usual gumph from Celtic defenders over the years receiving the ball at the back and just humphing it up the park.

 

I just don't understand this as almost every long ball resulted in complete and utter pandemonium. Furthermore, SK contrived to miss one and hit the bar from another, both of which were direct results from two absolute defensive howlers. That cannot mean that the back 4 played well.

 

Bang on!

See Neil's comments regarding negativity :icon_mrgreen: