The Offical Glasgow Celtic thread

[charlieTully]

Neil Lennon has done a wonderful job at Celtic, however his unswerving loyalty to players like Samaras and Brown will be his undoing. Samaras last night was lazy leaving Emilio exposed time after time. His lack of vision and head down blind running turned over ball time after time he was very obviously not in the mood. So who does Lennon take off...Stokes the only Celtic player that actually looked like he might create something. Samaras is a gamble each time he is picked, you don't know which one is going to turn up but if he's not in the mood he should be subbed, captain or not. I was mightly impressed wit Van Dijk though and Mulgrew tried his heart out. Lustig is proving an excellent signing as well, unfortunately there aren't enough players of the same quality.

Stokes looked like he might create something, but apart from the odd assist has created very little in Europe this season. he has scored no goals from ten starts in the champions league, qualifiers and group stages, a return of zero goals. From our main striker, a horrendous stat.

Did you ever think it might be the lack of quality around him? Commons looked less than ordinary, Forrest is fast becoming MGeady lite and I've said what I think of Samaras above. Add to this a lack of creativity in midfield. Stokes needs to be getting on the end of things, at the moment the whole weight of creating and finishing seems to rest with him.

Commons poor last night but has scored two in CL this season, Samaras has scored three, Forrest is better than McGeady, he has scored three as well, McGeady was all huff and puff and no end product, Forrest is joint top scorer in CL this season for Celtic. Stokes is ok for the SPL but he is out of his depth here.

[lynchbhoy]

Was very disappointed with the perf last night. Thought lennon got his side wrong and playing two lads who havent kicked a ball in three weeks was a gamble - bad enough chancing one of them, but not both.
The team had to carry them last night. They were no themselves - We all know you need to be match fit to be at your best.
Stokes is a great striker/forward but was too often out of position and then when up front was getting no ball.

VanDjik was immense last night, best he has played for Celtic. Maybe he was motivated as he was back playing in holland at home.
Lustig was just behind VanD - a fantastic perf and he has finally consistently delivered on his rep, last year it looked hit and miss.
Ambrose got better as the game progressed. Outstanding defender with great pace. Like last season though and I have said it on here before (about him and Wanyama) get caught in posession and give the ball away too easy at times. Still a great defender.
Mulgrew and Kayal tried hard, great at defensive work but we were rubbish going forward. Forrest only had a couple of goes.

imo Celtic need a creative midfielder. Why not give aussie international Rogic a go. he will learn more now in th next two CL games than he will in rubbish games away to ross county. He isnt geting much game time.

Last night lennon got it badly wrong. it happens. Celtic can and will improve, but with a bit more from manager in linup and attacking strategy, Celtic would be second in the group.
terrible perf. toothless. Ajax the worst ive ever seen them

had to laugh when I heard the 'Jan Vennegoor of hesslink' and the 'ones called ronald , ones called frank'  songs being sung last night!

[Main Street]

It was a bad night, not the end of the world for Celtic, where banal overused cliches about players are dished out '2 a penny'.
"all huff and puff - no end product"  "head down - blind alley" 
You'd think reaching the last 16 was a compulsory minimum target for this Celtic team, but it was very doable to draw with Ajax last night. This is the first cóck-up by Celtic in a CL game under Lennon and still there's something to play for in the group.
Sometimes you have to show backbone and take the rough with the smooth in the CL. MON mush have had about 10 -15 of these nights and Strachan -  at least one in Copenhagen (Bratislava is wiped out altogether from the memory).

Though I don't think Celtic need to do any of these fancy complicated free kick routines, just whack the ball over the wall towards the goal usually works best. You wouldn't find Nakamura doing something so silly as a free kick routine.

[charlieTully]

It was a bad night, not the end of the world for Celtic, where banal overused cliches about players are dished out '2 a penny'.
"all huff and puff - no end product"  "head down - blind alley" 
You'd think reaching the last 16 was a compulsory minimum target for this Celtic team, but it was very doable to draw with Ajax last night. This is the first cóck-up by Celtic in a CL game under Lennon and still there's something to play for in the group.
Sometimes you have to show backbone and take the rough with the smooth in the CL. MON mush have had about 10 -15 of these nights and Strachan -  at least one in Copenhagen (Bratislava is wiped out altogether from the memory).

Though I don't think Celtic need to do any of these fancy complicated free kick routines, just whack the ball over the wall towards the goal usually works best. You wouldn't find Nakamura doing something so silly as a free kick routine.

how is it the first c**k up in the CL under Lennon? we lost two nil away in kazakhstan ffs, we should have got a draw in Milan but instead of parking the bus in the last 15mins Lennon brings on two forwards, a draw there would have set us up nicely instead we concede two in the last ten mins, then Brown gets  straight red against barca when a draw looked on, would you not consider that a monumental c**k up?, take of the green tinted specs main street, they are not above criticism especially the way some of them preformed last night. "head down, blind alley' may be a banal overused cliché but it sums samaras up perfectly the way he played last night.

[Applesisapples]

It was a bad night, not the end of the world for Celtic, where banal overused cliches about players are dished out '2 a penny'.
"all huff and puff - no end product"  "head down - blind alley" 
You'd think reaching the last 16 was a compulsory minimum target for this Celtic team, but it was very doable to draw with Ajax last night. This is the first cóck-up by Celtic in a CL game under Lennon and still there's something to play for in the group.
Sometimes you have to show backbone and take the rough with the smooth in the CL. MON mush have had about 10 -15 of these nights and Strachan -  at least one in Copenhagen (Bratislava is wiped out altogether from the memory).

Though I don't think Celtic need to do any of these fancy complicated free kick routines, just whack the ball over the wall towards the goal usually works best. You wouldn't find Nakamura doing something so silly as a free kick routine.

how is it the first c**k up in the CL under Lennon? we lost two nil away in kazakhstan ffs, we should have got a draw in Milan but instead of parking the bus in the last 15mins Lennon brings on two forwards, a draw there would have set us up nicely instead we concede two in the last ten mins, then Brown gets  straight red against barca when a draw looked on, would you not consider that a monumental c**k up?, take of the green tinted specs main street, they are not above criticism especially the way some of them preformed last night. "head down, blind alley' may be a banal overused cliché but it sums samaras up perfectly the way he played last night.

+1

[PAULD123]

I see three huge issues that have impacted most significantly on Celtics CL campaign:

1. Brown getting sent off - Totally his own fault, it robbed us of our linchpin against Ajax which could have made all the difference in Amsterdam

2. Conceding a last minute goal to Ajax - That goal now effectively leaves us trailing Ajax even if we end up level on points. They are now ahead on the head-head results. It means we need an absolute minimum of 2 points to overtake them. If we had held the 2-0 victory and lost 1-0 then a single point in our last two games could have seen us at least continue in the Europa cup. Much better to be in Europa than out of Europe altogether.

3. The failure to sign Austin or Finboggason in the summer.

The third point is totally a management issue and Lennon is to blame (unless the board prevented the signing) Celtic took a £2.5m forward and turned him into a £5m forward. They stubbornly set out to do it again and would not pay more than £2.5m. But why not take a £5m forward (Finnbogason) and turn him into a £10m forward?? He has scored 12 goals in 12 games so far this season in Holland. I think when buying a striker the record is everything. Pukki is a skillful player who holds up the ball well and brings teammates into the game. But he's not an out-and-out finisher. We already have Stokes and Samaras who are skillful but not finishers. We needed a finisher and it was a mistake not to pay the money. In the last 3 years Finnbogason scored in 65% of league games, Austin 53%, Pukki 33%.

If Finnbogason had given us just say a couple of vital goals in this campaign then we could be heading towards European football after Christmas and the money would effectively have already been paid back.

[Main Street]

It was a bad night, not the end of the world for Celtic, where banal overused cliches about players are dished out '2 a penny'.
"all huff and puff - no end product"  "head down - blind alley" 
You'd think reaching the last 16 was a compulsory minimum target for this Celtic team, but it was very doable to draw with Ajax last night. This is the first cóck-up by Celtic in a CL game under Lennon and still there's something to play for in the group.
Sometimes you have to show backbone and take the rough with the smooth in the CL. MON mush have had about 10 -15 of these nights and Strachan -  at least one in Copenhagen (Bratislava is wiped out altogether from the memory).

Though I don't think Celtic need to do any of these fancy complicated free kick routines, just whack the ball over the wall towards the goal usually works best. You wouldn't find Nakamura doing something so silly as a free kick routine.

how is it the first c**k up in the CL under Lennon? we lost two nil away in kazakhstan ffs, we should have got a draw in Milan but instead of parking the bus in the last 15mins Lennon brings on two forwards, a draw there would have set us up nicely instead we concede two in the last ten mins, then Brown gets  straight red against barca when a draw looked on, would you not consider that a monumental c**k up?, take of the green tinted specs main street, they are not above criticism especially the way some of them preformed last night. "head down, blind alley' may be a banal overused cliché but it sums samaras up perfectly the way he played last night.

It's a banal overused cliche, even used when Samaras plays alright. Samaras didn't even get into a run against Ajax,
never mind  end up in a blind alley, that's why it's a banal overused cliche.
I don't have green tints where Celtic is concerned, I like them but I don't have such an emotional attachment and I  certainly don't go running to throw out the baby with the ....  -  you know the cliche.

I don't regard winning a CL qual over 2 legs, as a c**k up, I said at the time that Celtic would win the return and the tie. It would have been a cóck-up if the tie wasn't retrieved. The outside chance of a CL last 16 place was lost (in all probability) against Ajax, that was the c**k-up there, it was doable to get into a better position before Milan came to Celtic Park and most every thing about the performance was inept, apart from the back 4.
Writing an ugly epitaph on most of the team and the manager is quite frankly ridiculous.
If you want to get hysterical about not winning in Milan or Brown getting sent off, then that's your prerogative.
That's not a c**k-up performance in my book.
Is your overriding memory of the UEFA final 2003 all about the horrendous mistakes by that goalkeeper, throwing away the game to Porto? Probably not, probably you might  remember the mistakes but put them in context of the performance.  Mistakes happen, more than likely if Lennon did focus on protecting a draw in Milan and Milan still scored, there would be plenty who would criticise him heavily for dropping deep, of negative thinking. Would there be anybody who would say, 'Neil did the right thing, but it didn't work'
Mistakes happen in a game but are put in context of a performance.
There's still a 3rd place up for grabs.

[charlieTully]

maybe its your lack of an emotional attachment that allows you to be so objective, personally I do have an emotional attachment and get fucked off and annoyed when I see a lacklustre performance like the other night. For that I make no apologies.

[illdecide]

Maybe we'll sign messi too...do u know what salary finnbogason was looking? I do and it was more than Celtic's salary cap. I know for a fact that Neil Lennon wanted finnbogason badly but his wages was a big problem.

The fact that we're in the group stages and competing with these teams with the group of players Celtic have at their disposal is a huge credit to Celtic's management team, I know they've made a few errors but who hasn't.

[charlieTully]

Maybe we'll sign messi too...do u know what salary finnbogason was looking? I do and it was more than Celtic's salary cap. I know for a fact that Neil Lennon wanted finnbogason badly but his wages was a big problem.

The fact that we're in the group stages and competing with these teams with the group of players Celtic have at their disposal is a huge credit to Celtic's management team, I know they've made a few errors but who hasn't.

how did you get on in Amsterdam?

[illdecide]

Spent Tuesday night with Neil Lennon and the players in the team hotel and got tickets for the game, Neil introduced the players to me and a friend from Lurgan and we had a few quiet beers and he couldn't have been nicer. Had a good chat about the GAA too.

We assembled on Dam square on Wed but due to the cold and rain we moved away and within 10 mins of moving all that trouble started in the same spot we were standing in, i have to say the police were there from early morning in full riot gear as if they knew something was going to kick off. I know the Celtic fans have an amazing record away with no trouble but they certainly didn't help things with the amounts of alcohol consumed and when attacked by Ajax fans a reaction was always on the cards.

Thursday was quiet enough...had a smoke and a few beers and bed...and no i didn't have the pleasure from some of the local women on offer but i have to say looking into them windows would turn a priest...

Fri- home...and had a good 3 days but would still have preferred Barcelona last year

[lynchbhoy]

Celtic are struggling in the league to score from play (all four goals on Saturday were headers I think).
This has been a problem since before strachan took over.
Nakamura was a good passer but not the out and out orchestrator that Celtic really need imo.

Not since Moravcik has Celtic had one. Formations and great link players have glossed over this.
A playmaker and a Petrov type (some say a lampard/gerrard goal hatched from midfield type) are missing.

Dont know if a team can accomodate both, but Celtic play with loads of defensive minded players in midfield and too few attacher passers.
Why have young Aussie international and known midfield passer Rogic - on the bench weekly. he isnt going to improve there.
at least start him in a few more spl games.

Lennon became more negative as a midfielder as he got older. he seems to carry this view into mgt.
I agree it should be safety frst, but you win feck all if you dont score goals -and the away games v milan and ajax were there for the taking if Celtic had a bit more in midfield to unlock the defenses and pass or even a midfielder arriving up to score (and no brown no longer carries this threat).

imo it needs to be addressed

[Apparently so]

The standard of football is absolutely atrocious and it has been since Lenny's first season in charge where we actually produced the best football I have seen from a Celtic team in a long time. It is becoming reminiscent of Strachans team. We just are not enjoyable to watch at all. It would need to improve before the end of the season or we have to be looking at a change. I don't say that lightly as I absolutely love Lenny but the utter shite that we are producing every week will have to change quickly. We badly need a striker to partner Stokesy and we need another creative midfielder as Commons just doesn't do enough imo

Get that dangly, clumsy, useless bastard Samaras to f**k as well. I have never disliked a Celtic player more in my life. He only stays at the club because he knows he won't get away with it at any other club. He's out of contract at the end of the season so I hope that will be the end of him. Utter embarrassment that he was the captain 

[Captain Obvious]

No punching above their weight from Celtic in Europe this season.

[clarshack]

this result has been coming