Part two of ‘Justshatered’s’ look at the state of play.
Today, he looks at the defence or in our case the lack of a decent one.
Can I just say that I always tend to go to games with a sense of optimism. After all I consider myself fortunate to be a Celtic supporter and let’s face it we have had a fair bit of success compared to most other teams.
But above all I love to watch good, simple football no matter who plays it. Football is after all a simple game. Now the start of the season has not been what we all wished it would have been. As a team, certainly where I sit, we seem to be stumbling from one problem to another mostly of our own making. I thought that I would write about the team, you know, the reason for us parting with our cash, the thing that is almost an after thought of the board.
If I could I would like to break articles up into the defence, midfield and forward areas of the team with possible solutions to solve, what to me, are areas that we need to address. I do not for one minute claim to be a tactical genius but having watched football, good and bad, for forty or so years I think there are certain ways to set a team up.
The current team appears to have no fight and is made up of predominately young players who seem to believe the hype from last year. That is a psychological issue for an other article all together.
If we start at the back the goal keeping situation probably defines the very problems that currently malign our club. I first heard of Fraser Forster when he played with Norwich and I even managed to see some of his outstanding displays in Division one in England. I was telling guys I work with that he would be the keeper I would go for when Boruc left.
I couldn’t believe that we actually got him. That is where the good news ended. I don’t think I have ever seen a keeper so big fail to command his box. He looks completely at sea every time a ball comes into the area. Consider the first goal lost in Madrid; rooted to his line, in fact I think he might have even been behind it! The same with the headed goal we lost at Ibrox. Now although both balls in were alright they were both around about the six yard line. Where was the keeper?
He also seems to be riddled with indecision when a ball is played over the top, starting to come, going back, falling over. Sitting in the third top row of the North Stand I have to rub my eyes in utter disbelief.
Remember this is a keeper that we held off all close season to get! Then last week we play Zaluska, hopefully to put a bit of pressure on Forster, who had been struggling. Zaluska had what I thought quite a reasonable game but does he keep his place as a reward? No he’s dropped. This I think is pretty poor man management. What message does this send to both goal keepers?
If the goal keeping situation has unanswered questions then the centre half area of the team requires a full blown public enquiry. How long does it take, for a club the size of Celtic, to get one decent centre half never mind two?
If that is too hard a question try this one; how many have we bought or tried in the last season and a half? Thompson, Hoiveld, Mastorivic, Loovens, Rogne, O’Dea, Mulgrew, and two Wilsons and I’m sure there is another one or two that I’ve missed. Arguably the best of the bunch has been Mulgrew who arrived as a left back. Hoiveld must be an absolutely terrible player if he is put out on loan and Mastorovic and Loovens are kept.
With the exception of Wilson and Mulgrew how much are Thompson, Hoiveld, Mastorivic, Loovens, Rogne, O’Dea taking in wages each week? I know some are out on loan but they must be removed from the wage bill before we can get in a replacement. When I first saw Mastorovic I thought he had a big physical presence and seemed a calming influence.
Move forward a year and he is slow, indecisive, continually out of position, and particularly in the last few games challenging his own players for high balls more than he is challenging the opposition. I’ve also lost count of the number of free headers that he has missed in the opposition penalty area. His clearing headers also have an uncanny knack of landing in the most dangerous area; generally twenty-five yards out right in the centre of the park.
As for Glen Loovens; where do you stop never mind start; I have never seen a professional footballer who, when under pressure, can only kick a ball with his shin. I have never seen a centre half continually bossed by the opposition and why does he allow a ball, falling sixty feet out of the sky, to bounce. This is akin to pulling the pin from a hand grenade and then starting to juggle the explosive bit that remains.
The left and right back areas of the team have a relatively solid look about them with the lack of height the major problem whether it is Wilson, Mathews, Cha or Izaguire.
The main problem with the left and right back areas is the cavalier approach Celtic as a club play football with both of them sometimes up the park at the same time. This allows an opposition forward the opportunity to peel into one of the channels, dragging a centre half out of position.
This has caused major problems this season already and certainly did last year. What I think we should be doing is ensuring that when one wing back is up the park the other is no more than five yards inside the opposition half. This allows for a quick retrace of steps to cover in the centre picking up the opposition midfield that mostly seems to be out running our retreating players. It also means that there is space for players to rotate to allowing a switch of play.
This is because most opposition come with a single forward who is told to stay on the half way line. If that forward drops deep to cover the left or right back he is immediately five yards further from our goal and any clearance looking for him is more than likely to come straight back at them. The constant moving up and down the field of the left and right backs will cause confusion for the opposition as well as making space for a pass back from midfield and retention of possession as we will have one more player in the midfield area.
The back four must play as a unit. There always seems to be one player three yards behind the rest playing every one on side.
The goal keeper must begin to command his area and let players know when he is coming. He should then take everything out in front of him. If he is not up to this then get Zaluska back in. It is time to start being ruthless.
Finally ditch the zonal marking at corners and set pieces. This is a complete and utter disaster. I do not understand how this tactic is supposed to keep the ball out of the net. For goodness sake everybody get a man, mark up, and stop your man scoring.
It really is that simple. Football is, after all, a simple game but we seem to be over complicating matters to such an extent that it is creating problems for ourselves.
Some good points brought up however I just don’t think Lennon will listen.
The keeper is awful; the defence worse and as for that zonal marking farce don’t get me started.
He has had more than enough time to sort this mess out and what do you know, he has actually made it worse than ever.
That defence will cost us the league and him his job.
Given the option… i think a back 4 of :
mark wilson, ? , mulgrew, and izzy… is the best we can hope for..
mid.field 4 of left to right : commons, ledley, kayal, brown
Up top : hooper + stokes
See lennon, how hard is that… a best 11… whats urs.????
The missing CB is Dan if your playing Chico…..gulp.
I totally agree with your sentiments. Football is a simple game made difficult by all these so called tactical decisions. As you said lets drop this zonal marking crap. It is plainly obvious to see week in week out that it just does not work. Every week after watching the game I am continually wondering what the F@#* do we do at training every week because the same mistakes are apparent every week. This has to be attributed to management/coaching. We are so ponderous in our approach to the oppositions penalty area that its always odds on that the defence will be packed out. Yet all we seem to hear in response is that teams do that to us and hope to catch us on the break, which seems to work (for opposition)as we’re so predictable.If we want to be able to beat teams consistantly week in week out then I think we should take a leaf out of Barcelonas coaching manual. OK I accept that we are not gouing to attract players of that calibre to our club these days but it is their football philosophy that we should be adopting. I don’t think we necessarily have bad players, just the way they are forced into playing. It needs to be short, sharp one/two touch football with movement off the ball for 90 minutes. Yes this means you have to be superbly fit but this is what our players are paid to do for a living. If you asked 95% of Celtic Supporters if they could get the chance to play for Celtic AND get paid for the privelige I’m sure they would bite your hand off!! As said earlier Football is a simple game and when played as Barcelona do is a joy to watch. This is who we should be emmulating and not worrying about the other side of the city which I think we have been doing for too long. Get back to football Celtic. As much as I admire Neil Lennon if he can’t get us playing that style of football then we should be looking around for someone who can. Hail Hail
This is great stuff. Plenty food for thought.
Confidence and experience are everything with a keeper (Joe Hart is a rare example regarding the latter). Forster’s not a long term solution. So I expect we’ll buy him at the end of the season. I think we were completely hoodwinked regarding Majstorovic. Did a competent partner at AEK cover up his deficiencies like, to some extent, Mulgrew does ? M. Wilson’s completely disappeared this season too. Every single Celtic player should be looking to Mulgrew right now. He took absolute pelters coming back, has played in several positions, been dropped when he’s playing well and despite that has been brilliant. Beyond his role at centre half, he simply does what others can’t, consistently. Take a free kick and cross a ball.
I couldn’t agree with you more on zonal marking. It’s a recipe for disaster. I absolutely keich myself everytime we lose a corner or concede a free kick around the box. I’m not one to rag on the management team, but what worries me is why can they not see this ? Why can one of the best centre halves we’ve ever had not see this ? Do they replay the matches and take notes ?
I think a lot of our problems stem from the way that we prefer to play. Put Loovens in our back four, he’s an absolute disaster. If he had signed for Rangers, in my opinion, he’d have been a success because he’d have been well protected in a team of bruisers with limited skill and it would have been drilled into him to lump it up the park anytime the ball came near the box…to one of their big guys up front. Rangers take average players and make them useful.
Interested to see what you have to say about the midfield. Do you think we miss Brown in certain games ? (I do, and have been a huge critic). I still doubt his ability, but not his passion. What’s wrong with Kayal ? He’s been rank this season, yet he’s been captain..and his attitude stinks.
Is Mjalby one of the best centre backs Celtic ever had? Wasn’t he the one who played alongside lowblow Balde, Juice Vulgaaren and the Swiss girl Vega. No bruisers there,eh? Sutton and Hartson up front. Pair of real lightweights. The sub-mariner Petrov and Larceny were the only real players in set piece Celtic at that time, but guess what? Not a hint of criticism and a manager raised to sainthood.
Rangers win 3 in a row with “average” players yet the manager is a myth. How can that be? We keep hearing about Ki and Kayal and Izzy and McCourt and Commons and Hooper and the list of talent seems endless. So how do we explain it?
As long as Celtic players, management and fans dismiss Rangers as average or old or unfit I’ll be happy and so will the Celtic board because they can continue to bring in cut price and loan players to outshine their rivals.
Are you OK ? Do you need a tall, warm glass of milk and a wet one to wipe yourself down before bedtime ? Unfortunately my milk is out of date, but I can go to the cash n’ carry and send you a years supply of moist towelettes if you like ? LOTW can give you my email address and we can go from there. Let me know, I hope you get better soon.
Before you have a hissy fit, you should probably remember that this is an opinion blog about your closest rivals. I don’t understand why you bother to come on here and get so riled up. Maybe we can talk about that when I put your milk order in ? Oh, do you like full fat or semi skimmed ?
To answer your question. Yes, in my opinion, Mjallby is one of the best centre halves Celtic have ever had. It has never been a consistently strong area of the team. You’re clever reworking of past centre halves names was very funny and made me roar with laughter. Could you suggest an alternative for Majstorovic that we could use ? How about Majs-turnip-ovic (Get it ? Swede, right ?). That’s just a suggestion, feel free to play around with it and get back to me.
I just realized that you might be lactose intolerant, regarding milk. Whoops ! Could your psychiatrist recommend an alternative ? Thanks.
I’m fine Wildrover, thanks for your concern though.
Much as this consideration for the welfare of others reflects positively on your christian soul and gets you some slack, I feel I have to point out that you never really addressed the points raised in my blog. Said blog being written in a calm, if not Zen-like state.
Which,going by the tenor of your reply,is something you cannot be accused of.
Tell you what though. Once you’ve been to the cash and carry howsabout I get your address from LOTW, take a turn over to yours, pick up the wipes and help you get all your cuddly toys back in the pram. We can even use the wipes to clean up the stray beans that have dried on your chin and then I’ll have a word with your carer to see that it doesn’t happen again.
🙂
we don´t dismiss as average as you are average. we are just shit…..
Widrover, I’m sorry if my comments offended you and I wont do it again, so come on, dig the key out of the chest pocket of your wee dungarees, unlock the door and step out of the huff cupboard into the cut and thrust world of public debate.
LOTW, a nicer way to have put it would have been “In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king.”
Bobocop,
If you’re truly interested in logical, public debate then I think we would all welcome your opinion.
However, in light of your comments, I think that you are on here to get a rise out of people, and not to initiate informed debate. Unfortunately your last post achieved that, I took the bait and I regret getting pulled into such a puerile pissing contest.
You dilute your arguement by prefacing it with childish name calling. That was the crux of my reply; to satirise what you had said. No, I have not addressed your points. If you could state them clearly, without reverting to the above outlined behaviour that clouds your overall message, then I would be happy to furnish you with the appropriate response.
Your “toys out of the pram” suggestion is interesting, as I think you were poised to find a comment on this blog, which you troll, that would offend you; and you ranted accordingly. I replied (in spirit), as you would have, if the tables had been turned.
I do think it´s too easy to blame zonal marking. I
I watch a lot of football and nearly all use this system. I just reckon it´s because the CB´s we sign come in a box marked ´damaged goods´that it fails to do the job.
You could be right. If I’ve ever seen zonal marking remotely work then it is with good quality players. The problem we’ve got is that we don’t have quality players therefore don’t play it.
Part 3 will be posted when Im back in the country and fighting with shit wifi connections.
This game at Kilmarnock is the opportunity to get back on track. I feel nervous, not always a bad thing.
Come on the Celts!
How do you think that went Ianin440?
A lot of the worst case scenario’s that we’ve all spoke about the defence came true today. it was a truly horrific performance. I think it was luck more good play that we got a point. Alarm bells are now ringing in fact, you know that klaxon that goes off when a ship is about to collide with something far bigger than itself. That’s whats going off now. There is going to be a lot of blame flying about shortly.
How did it go? Well I survived and there is always espresso coffee to look forward to. 🙂
Funny how things can turn. Had Celtic lost 3-0 I think they might well have been looking at a new manager, especially if, as looked likely, Rangers closed out St Mirren. But 7 mins in one game and the last min in the other and it’s no change.
If, as has been suggested elsewhere, Lennon has lost the dressing room then there are truly serious difficulties ahead for him. For a start it is now almost completely his team and coaching staff. Generally when players start to agitate against the manager I reckon they should get the bums rush. As a ‘gers fan I was raging when Ferguson brought about the downfall of Le Guen only to leave himself shortly thereafter. It was a bad business all round
There are rumblings now about Commons and one or two others falling out with and backstabbing some of the coaching staff over non-football matters. If that is the case Lennon should get shot of them
and look for those who are hungry for a game.