Today we saw the full scale consequences of failure at every level.
Let’s start with the manager.
Today, he’s lost a match against a team with ten men because his tactical system did not adapt to take advantage of that situation.
I’ve been a supporter of Ronny Deila, but it has become increasingly clear over the past few weeks that he simply does not belong at Celtic Park, if we’re to move forward and be the club the supporters want.
There is no prospect of him leaving any time soon though. He has the backing of the other person most to blame for this shambles.
And yes, I mean Lawwell, who has more defenders and fans amongst our support than is rational or logical.
Mark my words, under his “stewardship” we’re going to blow the epochal opportunity we had to dominate this game in Scotland for a generation.
We’re now in serious peril. Those waiting for the signs of life, of an improvement in the team’s performances, or from the manager … how much longer do you want to wait?
I listened to Deila’s comments over the last couple of days, about not losing sleep over our best players being sold. I found them staggering, and appalling, and the kind of thinking that belongs in the Norwegian league. They were not fitting of a manager of Celtic. That he had identified Nadir Ciftci as the number one target in the forwards position over the summer shows exactly how limited his thinking is, and how low we now set the bar.
We are an SPL team now.
Get used to it, because unless things change – radically – at every level of our club that’s not going to get any better.
We had better stop daydreaming about ten in a row.
We’re simply not going to get there, because sooner or later – and probably sooner – someone is going to put together a decent enough team and a good enough run of form to take the league flag away from us.
Some on other forums are already expressing their pleasure at us “having a challenger at last.”
I’ve never heard such defeatist garbage in my life.
For the record, I don’t want a challenger.
I want us to win every game.
By a hatful of goals.
It’s an excuse for an unacceptable display and a shocking defeat, and it’s a dreadful excuse as that.
Now, as a consequence of our constant backward drift a challenge is exactly what we do have … and we have that because we’ve allowed ourselves to be stripped to the bone, shorn of ambition and bereft of quality.
Today I watched as the same mistakes we’ve been making for weeks were repeated over and over and over again.
Our full backs, leaving their natural positions when the opposition has the ball, retreating into the penalty area, leaving the wings exposed and allowing wingers to whip the ball in.
Corner kicks where we mark zonally and leave men to get free headers.
An approach to set pieces in general which shows no signs of improving, because there’s no sign of it changing.
And the formation … one up front in Scotland. Shameful.
Tonight there’s going to be a lot of “oh stop moaning and get behind the team” and nonsense like “one bad result, these things happen …” getting flung about.
Keep those sentiments. I don’t want to hear them.
Anyone who thinks criticism is wrong at a time like this – when the whole club is going backwards – is a mug.
The inflexibility that got us here is now eating away at every single part of the club.
The board is wedded to downsizing.
The manager is wedded to the same, and to a tactical plan which is grossly unsuited to Scotland and is beginning to look cowardly, designed not to lose rather than to press teams and go for the throat.
A lot of our fans are equally stuck in an imagination free zone where they can’t even envisage better and are willing to settle for this dreck.
The infuriating thing is that, as I keep on saying, we do have the basis of a good team here.
But we have a CEO who will sell any player for whom we receive a good offer, a manager who’s happy to go right along with that and a playing system that is becoming a bad joke.
This is a bad spot we’re in here.
This wasn’t just one bad result.
Today, every weakness at Celtic Park, from the boardroom to the boot room, has been exposed in appalling fashion.
One good thing today; Leigh Griffiths. What a tryer.
What a player for the team.
He deserves better than to be stranded in a playing system that puts all this weight on him.
Things are not going to get any better.
Thursday is going to be a hard night, and if I might make a prediction it’s going to be an embarrassing one where every deficiency we just saw is going to be exposed even more horribly against the best team we’ve faced this season.
We are in a bad, bad spot right now.
Be under no illusions about that at all.
only decent player is griffiths the only one willing to do all the running
I to am flabbergasted at our performance lately. Today was a classic example. We are totally inept going forward!!! One up front is just not working!! I feel very sorry for Griffiths, he works untiringly up front with his running but just does not get any support. How many times do we get the ball in the box only for nobody to be on the end of it. We have so much of the possession in games but do absolutely F#*! all with it, Celtic Supporters are no mugs !! We know football when we see it and the tripe that is being paraded at present is crap !! I don’t necessarily think that we have bad players rather the way that they are being coached. I really hoped that Deila was going to work but I’m sorry but after yet another lack lustre display in a league that we are supposed to cakewalk what are we supposed to think !! Our players are being over coached. If a player can’t go on to the pitch and not know exactly what he is supposed to do without being bamboozled with facts and figures before he comes on, God help them !! Deila is a nice guy. I don’t deny that but he has been an experiment done on the cheap hoping that he will be the Messiah that takes us through to the promised land of Champions League football. This is now essentially now his team, no excuses. If players can’t walk in from English Premier League teams and stamp their authority on a supposedly inferior Scottish game then what is the problem ? I think the problem lies at board level. Neil Lennon walked away because he was not going to get any money to strengthen the team to take them further. Deila has been brought in because he is a yes man. He is not the answer. We should be cake walking this League given our resources in terms of our opponents. Given that they are competing effectively against us what does that say about our chances in the Europa League ? Ajax I am sure are quaking in their boots !! A decent coach would be able to see that a zonal marking system was not working and that one up front was not working but Ronnie seems to be immune from that. If we are supposed to be a big fish in a small pond then lets start proving it. Celtic supporters deserve so much better given the money they continually pour into the club with strips , hospitality, etc. The fact that our chairman still receives 1 million salary regardless that we’re not in the ultimate European competition should ring alarm bells !! f you or I performed less than our capability in our own jobs then we would be looked at with great scrutiny. That the fact that our own team is not looked upon so should give us cause for concern. As long as we continue to support our team with lapsedasical results nothing will change.
never seen a goalkeeper who is great at saving shots on goal but dear oh dear terrified at controlling his own 6 yard box has deli told him like the rest forget where the players are just mark a zone
what happened to two up front and cummings controlling the movement of the team this game was made for him sorry Deli and his team are out of their depth
Where do I start! . It would be easier to name who I would keep. Armstrong, Griffiths and Gordon, the rest, an I include the entire management team, should get their jottersI have never seen a more lazy and ineffectual Celtic captain than brown. All that hard man posturing is only masking the fact that the only time he gets stuck in is when he’s looking for a fight. As for the purchase of ciftci don’t get me started. As for Mulgrew and Ambrose . Big jock must be turning in his grave to see what this Norwegian has done to CELTIC FOOTBALL CLUB. Please MR Lawell , sort it out before it’s too late!
it is time to think about desmonds role inthis club who gets his shares when he dies not another keep it in family job we should be unbeatable in scotland at present time but i couldnt bet on next game its ridiculace.
Unlike the OP I have never liked Deila as a manager, from the very start with the miserable pre-season we had. As for Lawell I agree with everything said this man is selling the club down the swannie. I no longer go to Celtic Park the downward spiral has gone on too long and I cannot bear to go support our lads anymore. Judging by the crowds at our beloved Celtic Park, there are many of the same mind. Sorry if I offend but it is the way I feel.
Utter embarassing players and board don’t give a shot its us the fans who suffer is get rid of the lot of them
Pay big money for a centre half and leaves him in the stand watching a horrible performance of defending Boyata seems to get worse every game and Blackett what an excuse for a left back if there was money offered for Efe Amrose why is he still at parkhead .the only player with pass marks the Grif gives his all every game.
James I love being right,but in this instance I hate being right,
You know I’ve been saying since day 1,Ronny Deila was way out of his depth,and now maybe they will believe me.Deila needs to go before we are a real laughing stock in Scotland,and he can take Collins and Lawell with him as Lawell was the guy who sanctioned their arrival.
Also need to get rid of the green brigade,so we can become Glasgow Celtic FC again.
Celtic are so soft right through the middle we don’t press as a team properly can’t tackle don’t start on zonal crap gone are the days of good good centre forward attacking the box commons should start whey game good touch vision can score from any where ?
We’ve been stumbling along for some time now, and the Board’s oblivious to it. Mibbe losing the title might spark our overpaid leaders into a realisation that their methods ain’t working. But it’s like the prima donna right-wing MPs of the Labour Party reacting to Corbyn’s victory … they’re just not listening.
That was a complete shambles were now an average team with a clueless manager two years in a row he cost us champions leauge football and now that excuse for football time to buck your ideas up Ronny or close the door on the way out . Henrik the doors opening