That was a dreadful display today. We failed to show up for business until late on, and although we defended well, with several brilliant performances, we’ve lost again to this lot and from a set piece goal.
No blame to anyone at the back; it was the rest who let us down.
David Turnbull needs to toughen up and learn how to play with someone in his face.
Edouard has surely played his last game for the club and I no longer see any merit in keeping his around. When you need a player who will go the extra mile he is not going to do it for you.
I think we’ve passed Peak Edouard even if he were to stay and sign a new deal, which he won’t.
I thought the manager waited too long to make the changes, but the balance of the team looked much better when these two were hooked.
Abada looked like a 19-year-old in his first truly big test; he will improve, but Ryan Christie worked hard without being able to impose himself on the game.
Which brings us to Kyogo, who has superb talent but not on the wing.
The dismay I felt watching that was nothing to do with the result; this season has a long way to go and we’ve got new firepower coming in and there are a fair few bits of business to be done in the market.
We are going to hound this lot every step of the way, and when the chance presents itself we’re going to overtake them, put them in the hole and tramp the dirt down.
No, what dismayed me today was how so many players, when faced with the pressing of the home team, retreated into stupid decisions, negative passes and unforced errors. There was none of the intensity going forward that would have given the home team genuine nightmares. The decision to play Kyogo wide left was dictated by personnel as much as tactics, but it was the wrong one.
He is Scotland’s outstanding forward and there he should play.
That reminded me too much of Lennon style football; that’s why I wasn’t happy.
Abada and Kyogo were played wide instead of hovering on the edge of the box.
That blunted their effectiveness and their attacking strengths.
I wrote last week that Ange’s team plays a system more akin to a 4-3-3 than a 4-2-3-1 … today, unfortunately, and for reasons passing understanding, that’s how we tried to play and every weakness of that creaking system was exposed yet again.
We restricted ourselves to the utterly self-defeating tactic of lugging a ball into a packed penalty area, a tactic tested to destruction time and time again last season.
Whoever Ange listened to on that one should be hoisted out of Parkhead with the rubbish tomorrow; that was as far from his own style of football as it was possible to get.
Ange-Ball didn’t fail today. Ange-Ball wasn’t even tried.
Look at all those backward passes. Look at all those long-range punts in the hope someone would run onto them.
Where was the aggression and the running and the 90 minutes “we don’t stop” football?
We left the manager’s high tempo, aggressive game plan at home.
It’s the reason our shots at goal ratio fell through the floor today.
We barely got one on target against a rookie keeper, and that’s why I am incredibly frustrated at the end of that match.
So what did we learn? Some work on the squad still needs to be done. James Forrest would have been much more direct today than Abada, that’s a failing of experience more than talent. We’re covered on the right.
But Kyogo’s effectiveness is inside the penalty box and I’d like to think that we’re going for a player on the left side of the pitch, whether Christie is leaving or not, because it’s where we really need one at the top end of the pitch.
James McCarthy’s injury has robbed us of an early chance to see how he changes the dynamic of the team; when he and Callum are playing together I’m quite sure we can use Turnbull as a better attacking weapon, but he was too weak to play in a battle like today.
Playing Christie alongside him showed us that we still need a commanding ball winner.
I am disappointed, but not disheartened.
The addition of the Greek striker means that the reliance on a half-hearted Edouard is removed one way or another.
If he stays he’ll find himself riding the bench until he decides to give us more.
We probably need another option wide left whatever happens next.
Fortunately, if Edouard goes the money will be there to do some additional business and looking at the bench today you can see where we need it.
Hugely, hugely frustrating day … but we dust ourselves down and move forward.
Edouard has hopefully played his last game for us.
He’s consistently let us down over the last two seasons-it showed as soon as he went off we started playing better premadonna who thinks we’re beneath him.
Couldn’t agree more Frank.
Ange got his tactics horribly wrong out foxed against a bad lot , we were pish and scared end of story
Turnbull, Christie, Edouard terrible. That mob are stronger, faster more ruthless and we look weak.
I hope ange learned today play his way and not listen to his coaching staff duds they should well gone by now along with Eddie at times today we looked a man short very lazy player but we will get better overall not a bad game $hit result and I hope lessons learned not to repeated and the ceo gets busy before Tuesday.
Mate, I wasn’t going read your article because of the headline, but I thought what pish are they writing now!!!! But actually it was a fair assessment. I’m the same disappointed but not downhearted.
We STILL need a centre half and a left back and a midfield enforcer so we can move McGregor forward. RB looks OK now. I would honestly sell Taylor, Bolongoli, Chrisite, Rogic, Edouard is likely gone anyway. Starfelt is new and frankly Abada was non-existent today. Centre half and left back have been needed over a year now -Shocking. How many more goals are we going to lose form set pieces? And we never score form them. Ange you must see this or it will kill your career here. Centre half, left back midfield enforcer simple.
Edouard will achieve nothing of any note when he leaves Celtic. Sooner, the better for me.
A total Fraud.
Don’t know why you’ve got a picture of Ralston for this story when he wasn’t at fault today jyour just picking a player u dont like guess Ur one of the fans that slated Forrest for years until he got injured and realised how much me missed him last season if u want too slag anyone it should be eduord for that sitter
I thought Juranovi? was our best player, Ralston and Starfelt both had a decent game, midfield was poor
Edouard played like someone trying to avoid injury. Abada was invisible. McGregor and Christie were fine in the first half but poor in the second. Kyogo was good and the defence for the most part was good but we were effectively several players down for the entire game because of Edouard and Abada and a poorly performing Turnbull.
Painful viewing fking lame display…same old sh*te!!
Can’t believe Eddie wasn’t taken off sooner as that game was there for the taking.
Wangers are known as the bottler bankers but unfortunately Celtic bottled it today..!!
Midfield are only any good when they are allowed plenty of time to play and not pressed. Turnbull is too slow in thought and deed. Christie back to running about like a headless chicken. But more importantly it is time to ask where does McGregor go when the going gets tough.
The main problems as numerous posters have mentioned was (a) our midfield was very poor – Christie loses composure too easily and just runs about, Turnbull seems to be afriad of an injury he never gets stuck in (b) Eddie was a shadow, as usual and can go at any price (c) rangers seem to have sussed out how to nullify our wingers (Forrest, Frimpong now Abada and Kyogo) making it impossible to play so-called Ange ball. What to do?
Ange had a poor bench today -when was the last time Rogic performed well in a fast high pressure game against rangers especially and Ajeti still isn’t trusted to accomplish anything – will he ever?
I’m confused about our coaching staff – who does what and how? Stephen Mc Manus, Gavin Strachan and John Kennedy have never played the kind of football Ange wants the team to play, so how can they coach it? Who coaches for defending against set pieces and taking set pieces – we do both poorly?
Still a lot of work to be done but we knew that. There is improvement. As Ange says, after the transfer window closes he’ll know who he’s got and can get down to business. Will he have the coaching and ancillary staff and will he be ruthless? If Edouard not moved on I can imagine him being nowhere near the team except for occasional substitution, preferably late on.