Champions League RB Leipzig v Celtic Wednesday October 5th kick off 5:45 BT Sport 4

This all day

 

He's also the type of * that had, according to Transfermarket...55 goal contributions last season between German domestic games with 7 goals and 2 assists in 6 appearances in the CL last season.

3 of those goals being a hattrick against Man City.

If we had a player of that calibre under Ange and his system...we'd be battering teams... alas to get talent like that is typically out of our reach

 

Exactly how I feel.

 

He's going to Chelsea for a King's ransom. He played * in those fixtures. He's not * though.

 

I'm still very annoyed

 

i think Club Brugge have spent 40 odd million last season and also the season before that

 

Nkuku is a very good player he would walk into our team.

 

You can’t watch Nkunku and not think he’s a player. In fact they had a number of players who were very good at what their jobs were Szoboszlai, Schlager, Kampl and Silva all played the roles they were asked to well.

I can actually see though how teams playing a low block can get a result against Leipzig. They are very gun ho (like us) and a team with pace and good ball carriers that are not afraid to go forward quickly will cause them problems.

They rely on getting in behind and intricate play around the box. If a team is low and set then that space isn’t really there for them to play through or get beyond. They also attack in numbers so often leave few players back and gamble that their attacking play will pay off.

It’s when they lose the ball they may want to counter press as so many say but decent distribution from deep can set a pacy forward line though in 2v1, 3v2 or 4v3 type scenarios our goal being a good example of this win the ball in the middle of the park and accurate forward pass and we had a 2v1 with Kyogo and Jota. They also look susceptible to balls into the box as they don’t clear their lines that well.

When Shakhtar won 4-1 the game played out as above yes there was the GK howler and a deflection but essentially Leipzig gave up 4 or 5 chances and Shakhtar scored 4 goals, Leipzig created several more chances and proceeded to miss them bar 1.

We had 5 or 6 chances (mainly first half) last night and only scored 1 goal, Leipzig had around 7 or 8 and got 3 goals.

In other words the Shakhtar result was a freak but the type of game you need to go for you to get a win against superior opposition in Europe. Just like domestic teams need that sort of game against us to beat us.

However there are things that Shakhtar did against Leipzig to alter their approach to the game than how they would normally play. Where as we refuse to alter anything, which in my opinion doesn’t help us.

 

Just for fun then..how many Irish are going to do 5 years for piling into the English th

It'll take time though

'Other clubs have shown it can take time to adjust to the Champions League over multiple seasons.

Club Bruges, who have won all three of their matches so far, have had some bruising defeats in finishing in the bottom two of their group in the past three seasons.

AC Milan played well in their section last season after a near decade out of the competition, but finished bottom with a young squad. Richer sides than Celtic have taken time to adjust.

In that sense, Postecoglou's main task is to keep Celtic at this level so they have the chance to make those improvements over time.'
https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/63152940

 

Most infuriated I’ve been at a performance in ages tbh.

Experienced players playing like rookies.

 

majority of there players are twice the size of ours

 

Never seen him against Shakhtar but he was singled out and given no room to work with against a packed huns defence but still managed to score a belter. Missed a sitter aswell right enough. We basically gave him freedom of the pitch and players of that calibre will punish you if allowed to operate in that much space.

He looks an excellent player tbh and can see why Chelsea really want him.

 

Sold 80 million in those two seasons


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

never really delighted when any player gets injured - or anyone in their workplace.
i liked jullien - he never really * about the club, just had some terrible luck - when he was on form he was great - the goal against lazio, the cup final goal etc.. bullied about a bit - saying that not worth 7 mill.

i hope he has a healthy long lasting career

 

Neither am i. I meant i am delighted that we got rid of him because he would end up being injured but on our payroll. I liked him alot when he was fit and good for us but i'm afraid that his injury ruined his career. I would have a fit Jullien over Welsh any day of the week.

 

making a player look good could also mean we gave him too much time on the ball.

if ange wants to be a well respected manager in european football i think he needs to bite the bullet away from home and play a more reserved game - play with a tigher compact shape - it was evident from the first half the gaps between mc gregor and hatate / o riley - that is where they hurt us. Ange has his way of playing which is fine but away from home in europe a point can feel like a win. we didnt get too many yellow cards, we didnt get in their face and let them know it was a battle..

imagine brown / mc gregor / bitton / wanyama - a screen of 2 infront of the back 4 with two wingers tracking back. that is prob how the blue side got into the final last year (with loads of luck and fortune) but they did frustrate etc.

hatate / maeda / kyogo all good players but they make a foul and say sorry, nothing wrong with that but they need to learn in 90mins it is a battle and fight, hassle, harry etc we are too nice and often we fail to protect the ball and show good core strength. even o riley looks laboured away from home in europe - rogicesque - too many players never put a shift in to frustrate

I think the stat is something in 34 away games we have kept a clean sheet once against anderlecht? shocking!

yes at home play our free flowing football with the fans behind the team, but away from home ange needs to be more estute, reserved and take a leaf out of o'neills book.

 

the greek sames the same ilk - a sore muscle and he misses a few games - or maybe he needs to start a few games and get some goals in his belly.

we have got too cocky at the start of the season, and now we are stale.

i think the death the other week upset the mojo of the team - we need to shake that st mirren result.

I think a draw at home next week will be a fine result and win at home to shak... the shak game will come back to bite us.
we need real madrid to do favours, and i think rb will beat shak, their previous result was a freak game (massive keeping error) shved scored 2 ffs.

if shak pick up no more points and we beat them we go through on 1 to 1 basis.

 

Just need to move on from this boys. We were beaten away from home by a quality team with a mass of champions league experience. It happens and will happen to us again no doubt.

Our players will be learning the levels required for champions league football and will hopefully stand us in good stead for future campaigns.

 

can we shake the hoodoo?
it seems any team we meet are on the upward curver or players about to go onto bigger things.
mudryk - will get a big move
nkunku - chelsea
ferencvaros - at the time we played had some good players who went onto bigger moves, and now constant in europe
bodo / glint
real betis - nothing for years now a europe dangerous team
cluj - always there abouts biting around europe

 

On reflection of this it really shows how funny a game football can be.

If you take our game on Wednesday and Shakhtars vs them on match day 1. Leipzig won against us 3-1 and lost out to Shakhtar 4-1, yet there were similarities in the games.

The first is Leipzig were the more dominant team in both, they have better players you would expect that.

The second was their keeper made a critical mistake, the difference Shved put his chance away, Hatate didn’t. Granted Shved’s was a bigger chance but one none the less. That led to the first difference Shakhtar got in front.

The second difference Shakhtar then got set in a low to medium block so fast counters weren’t as easily available to Leipzig and there wasn’t as much space.

However Leipzig did score using Sikaman the right back as an overload similar to the third goal against us, only he scored it rather than assisting.

The next one which was similar but with a different outcome. Shakhtar’s Shved had a shot deflect in, Kyogo’s one deflected just wide.

Our goal was a counter attack pouncing on a mistake from them and the Shakhtar third and fourth goals although from deeper came from turnovers.

A big difference was Mudryk right enough he had an involvement in 3 goals where as apart from scoring Jota was quiet.

Likelihood is Leipzig played better in the game against us but there were still a lot of similarities just Shakhtar were more clinical and better organised out of possession than us.