Bad performances from good teams do happen in football. Games which you can easily recognise as being one off events! Celtic’s bad performances though, are now more of the norm, rather than being of the one-off variety. St Johnstone, Rangers, Hearts, Kilmarnock were big lights going off in our heads, with Europe getting in the way of the main event, that big prize, the SPLtitle. Win that and we grow from there.
But when a collective squad rotated through some baffling team selections & injuries continue to throw up some very disorganized, disjointed, inept & heartless performances, then it is clear be are going backwards from last season. If we won every single game from now until the end of the season, then our points total would not be far off what we collected last season. That won’t happen of course!
Despite the above point dropping exercises, with renewed fight we lived in hope that somehow we could claw it back and make a fight of it. Unfortunately reality tells you it's not there. Too many disappointments which are now of a recurring theme! If we wish to be entirely realistic, it’s not there even from a standing start. We are now embarrassingly trailing 12 points behind a Rangers outfit held together by next to nothing, then, we have Motherwell who we cannot get beyond going into November!
Collectively, whatever team takes the pitch, the real failing is that when it matters, this squad have neither the character, leadership, or crucially important, a sense of what winning the game for Celtic is all about. Some are very much misfits, some have big attitudes way beyond their capabilities & others don't deserve to be at a Club like Celtic in the first place.
From the major (missing) shareholder - his lack of contact, leadership and interest is appalling. For years now he’s not interested in facing up to the fans at a once-a-year AGM. To a bonus driven Chief Executive, to our management team & to our players, you have let the support down massively. If every one of the above can look themselves in the mirror and think that what they are doing at the Club is taking Celtic in the right direction, then they are simply kidding themselves on.
I have never wanted a manager in my life to succeed at Celtic more than Neil Lennon. His life has been massively disrupted simply because he is the Celtic manager. I have no clue as to who in football would cope or put up with what he has experienced. Celtic though, are our bigger picture here and I don’t know where Neil goes from here with the current Celtic squad!
Then we have Celtic PLC, who seem so obsessed with balance sheets & bonuses, deferred or otherwise. Where is the investment, where is their plan, and when are the people who run this culture, (because that’s what we are) going to do something about matching the unbelievable commitment the support have shown? Well, right now, they are not, and they are failing us! Forget Rangers, the running of our Club & team is in a shambolic state, nobody is buying excuses anymore. As a support, together we are stronger & we deserve better respect. HH
We will not improve until we are rid of Desmond.
ReplyDeleteIt's all very well to blame Directors & Chief Executives for the current malaise,but against Hibs and the lesser teams this year, the blame lies solely at the door of the players and unfortunately the Management, who pick them and the formation they play in.
ReplyDeleteWe have enough good players to beat anyone at present in the SPL,last year was proof enough,but it quite clear that they have gone backwards as individuals and therefore collectively as a team.
Now quite why this has happened is unclear(to me anyway). We have had injuries from the beginning of the season,and it is also very clear that some players are simply not enough for example Forster,Big Dan and quite a few others.
As for Lenny, he is a very young Manager trying to figure it out as he goes along,which is incredibly difficult.
The one saving grace is if the funny mob go into administration and this saves everybody's bacon and in the process buys Lenny another year.....but even I fear this won't be enough!!
Graham Lamont
I've never seen the team as disjointed as they were on Saturday.It just reminds me so much like last season when we had the five home games in a row and stupid formations cost us dearly.
ReplyDeleteFor me it is simple, Celtic have better players than any other team, fact. All you have to do is match the other team's system and we beat them with better players. If they play five in the middle then we play five in the middle. On Saturday trying to counter big guys in the middle with Ki & Kayal was always a no-no. On Saturday our back four defended so deep against one forward it was almost laughable.
For me we should go with three at the back, then have two holding players, three others in front of them and two up front. This way we stop shipping stupid goals build the confidence up and grow from there. If that line up sounds familiar it's because it was Martin O'Neil's way of stopping the rot and moving the team forward with confidence. Maybe we don't have holding players of the ability of Lennon & Lambert and we certainly don't the quality of Sutton, Hartson or Henrik up front but for me it's a step in the right direction. Win the small battles and the big ones will take care of themselves.