Worrying times....
I do not believe Celtic have shown the spirit to win the league.
When was the last match Celtic won?
When was the last match that wasnt a must win?
Last night Celtic were the antithesis of the great Celtic sides.
There was many parts of Celtic under O'Neil that were frustrating, but there was one thing that I really really liked. Once the league was wrapped up, they were awful in league matches. Almost couldnt win. Regardless of the gulf in ability between the teams. It was like the players were such professionals that they couldnt lift themselves for games that meant nothing, but regardless of whether it was St Mirren at Home, or Juventus away, if the points were important, Celtic would turn up and do their best. There was this mixture of professionalism and spirit that was just so Celtic. It suited the players, and it suited the club. This seems to have been lost.
The balance is wrong everywhere on the pitch.
Caldwell and McManus dont work well together. Mo and Scott havent worked well together. Jan and wee Scotty arent working well together.
Artur is our captain. He is more commanding, authoritative, inspirational, and better at communicating than not only McManus but anyone else in our team. His distrubution is better than our centre half, and as of last night we discovered he causes more trouble in the opposition penalty area.
Lee Naylor was the only player I gave pass marks too .
Donati albeit poor of late had a decent game yesterday but if the sitting midifelder picks up the ball and there is no movement (or movement of any real thought or intelligence) then there is not much he can do.
Celtic have good footballers yet do not play good football. Do not possess natural width yet play with wide midfielders. Have a poor defence yet Darren O'Dea struggles to get on the bench. The goals have dried up yet Samaras gets only 20 minutes of a game. Gordon should know better, if he doesnt Celtic may need to move on.
Samaras doesnt link up much with his other striker and Gordon likes the fact that Skippy and Jan work with and off each other. You know what, they do that at times because they wont take the responsibility to do it themselves. Giorgios takes responsibility and is willing to have a go. Stephen McManus takes as little responsibility in a footballing sence than almost all other centre halves you will see. What other team has to have their full backs tucking in at every oppostion attack or cross ball. McManus got caught between two players last night, Caldwell wasnt fully on one. Yet still McManus took the easy way out and stopped to complain for offside.
Why do they insist on going for the same ball all the time?
The answer to this is for two reasons.
1 - They dont trust the other to deal with it. That is the only correct part of their decision making process
2- Their positioning is not great and end up in the wrong areas dealing with the wrong things
Caldwell tries to overcomponsate for this by being casual, McManus tries to overcompsenate by being all encompassing. Neither works.
And if the players put on the pitch cannot deal well enough with scenarios that are not logically defined, as in things they havent explicitly gone over in training, then there has to be a point where they are replaced.
Celtic are a team that admit it or not, Gordon will not like. There is so little off the cuff football played. No invention. They look overcoached, frightened, weak, and at times, very basic.
I think Gordon has assembled a squad that take his coaching and training onboard. However the likes of McManus, Caldwell, Naylor, Naka, Broony, McDonald, Hesselink all seem to have fallen into predescribed decisions and predescribed moves. The players look overcoached - do what we have been told but unable to cope if a situation that is foreign arises .
I hate seeing failings that I have heard flagged up months/years in advance still haunting Celtic.
Its worrying.
In the last 3 Celtic games McManus seems to have picked up a knock and played on. I dont know if its the same problem. Coincidently (or not) these past games have seen McManus be as poor as he has been for a while. Its been said before but he was made captain as there was a shortage of alternatives, the problem is that although he is/can be a decent defender, he is by no means an automatic first pick that a captaincy needs/levitates him to. For his own sake, his forms sake, and the team sake we should take him out for a couple of games altogether. O'Dea is crying out for a run in the team, infact the only hope he hasnt been waiting too long (being on the bench hasnt given him much reserve football over the past 6 months or so). McDonald and Hesselinks have many stregnths both individually and as a partnership, but it and they have not been firing recently. If Samaras' link up makes his partnership potential harder to asses, it doesnt neccessarily follow that he shouldnt break into the team. His form, momentom, and the pressure he causes other teams make him a definite starter at the moment. I reckon naka behind him threading balls through to him to get behind defences would be a good option currently. Naka and Aiden could switch from the flank and the hole so that they were harder to pick up and causing different problems.
Hartley has to start. He is Celtic's only central midfielder who can be relied on for week in week out consistent performances. Robson beside him might be a start to work from....
When was the last match Celtic won?
When was the last match that wasnt a must win?
Last night Celtic were the antithesis of the great Celtic sides.
There was many parts of Celtic under O'Neil that were frustrating, but there was one thing that I really really liked. Once the league was wrapped up, they were awful in league matches. Almost couldnt win. Regardless of the gulf in ability between the teams. It was like the players were such professionals that they couldnt lift themselves for games that meant nothing, but regardless of whether it was St Mirren at Home, or Juventus away, if the points were important, Celtic would turn up and do their best. There was this mixture of professionalism and spirit that was just so Celtic. It suited the players, and it suited the club. This seems to have been lost.
The balance is wrong everywhere on the pitch.
Caldwell and McManus dont work well together. Mo and Scott havent worked well together. Jan and wee Scotty arent working well together.
Artur is our captain. He is more commanding, authoritative, inspirational, and better at communicating than not only McManus but anyone else in our team. His distrubution is better than our centre half, and as of last night we discovered he causes more trouble in the opposition penalty area.
Lee Naylor was the only player I gave pass marks too .
Donati albeit poor of late had a decent game yesterday but if the sitting midifelder picks up the ball and there is no movement (or movement of any real thought or intelligence) then there is not much he can do.
Celtic have good footballers yet do not play good football. Do not possess natural width yet play with wide midfielders. Have a poor defence yet Darren O'Dea struggles to get on the bench. The goals have dried up yet Samaras gets only 20 minutes of a game. Gordon should know better, if he doesnt Celtic may need to move on.
Samaras doesnt link up much with his other striker and Gordon likes the fact that Skippy and Jan work with and off each other. You know what, they do that at times because they wont take the responsibility to do it themselves. Giorgios takes responsibility and is willing to have a go. Stephen McManus takes as little responsibility in a footballing sence than almost all other centre halves you will see. What other team has to have their full backs tucking in at every oppostion attack or cross ball. McManus got caught between two players last night, Caldwell wasnt fully on one. Yet still McManus took the easy way out and stopped to complain for offside.
Why do they insist on going for the same ball all the time?
The answer to this is for two reasons.
1 - They dont trust the other to deal with it. That is the only correct part of their decision making process
2- Their positioning is not great and end up in the wrong areas dealing with the wrong things
Caldwell tries to overcomponsate for this by being casual, McManus tries to overcompsenate by being all encompassing. Neither works.
And if the players put on the pitch cannot deal well enough with scenarios that are not logically defined, as in things they havent explicitly gone over in training, then there has to be a point where they are replaced.
Celtic are a team that admit it or not, Gordon will not like. There is so little off the cuff football played. No invention. They look overcoached, frightened, weak, and at times, very basic.
I think Gordon has assembled a squad that take his coaching and training onboard. However the likes of McManus, Caldwell, Naylor, Naka, Broony, McDonald, Hesselink all seem to have fallen into predescribed decisions and predescribed moves. The players look overcoached - do what we have been told but unable to cope if a situation that is foreign arises .
I hate seeing failings that I have heard flagged up months/years in advance still haunting Celtic.
Its worrying.
In the last 3 Celtic games McManus seems to have picked up a knock and played on. I dont know if its the same problem. Coincidently (or not) these past games have seen McManus be as poor as he has been for a while. Its been said before but he was made captain as there was a shortage of alternatives, the problem is that although he is/can be a decent defender, he is by no means an automatic first pick that a captaincy needs/levitates him to. For his own sake, his forms sake, and the team sake we should take him out for a couple of games altogether. O'Dea is crying out for a run in the team, infact the only hope he hasnt been waiting too long (being on the bench hasnt given him much reserve football over the past 6 months or so). McDonald and Hesselinks have many stregnths both individually and as a partnership, but it and they have not been firing recently. If Samaras' link up makes his partnership potential harder to asses, it doesnt neccessarily follow that he shouldnt break into the team. His form, momentom, and the pressure he causes other teams make him a definite starter at the moment. I reckon naka behind him threading balls through to him to get behind defences would be a good option currently. Naka and Aiden could switch from the flank and the hole so that they were harder to pick up and causing different problems.
Hartley has to start. He is Celtic's only central midfielder who can be relied on for week in week out consistent performances. Robson beside him might be a start to work from....
posted by Michael__67 at 6:52 AM
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