That was the last thing we needed tonight.
The last thing.
Which is why I explicitly warned earlier today about the dangers, the very real dangers, of playing with a weakened team.
The manager says that Kyogo is not yet fit. His failure to include him on the bench tonight means that he will be asked to explain that over and over and over again.
And we still have a tough trip to Perth coming up.
If Kyogo plays in that the manager has even more questions to answer about tonight.
If Kyogo doesn’t play in that and they put eleven men behind the ball and play for a point, we’re in real trouble because we repeat the same mistakes over and over again on these nights; the football is too damned slow.
So much for “injury ravaged St Mirren.”
I don’t want to hear or read any story about their alleged heroics tonight. They had eight first eleven players on the pitch and made no effort whatsoever to do anything other than put men behind the ball.
It’s another triumph of anti-football at our expense, made worse by the certainty that they will be trounced at Ibrox this weekend. Like I said, I expect no favours, not from anyone.
We were always going to have to fashion our own and we have stumbled badly here.
Still, at least one question is being decisively answered in the long dark course of our injury crisis; Mikey Johnston is nowhere near the standard we require.
He has a reasonably good career awaiting him, at some mid-table team somewhere.
He is not even remotely good enough to be in a Celtic shirt, not now and probably not ever. You can only persevere so long in the hope that some natural spark of talent shines through.
He should be showing us something. He simply isn’t doing it.
There is no way to sugar-coat that tonight; it’s a dire result.
The worst of it that we were the only team in the game, the only team who tried to win the match.
The stats bear out a one sided beating without us landing a killer blow. Blame injuries. Blame fatigue. Blame all the usual things and make all the usual excuses; the history books won’t care.
The league table doesn’t care.
There are people in that side – Johnston foremost amongst them – who wouldn’t be near this squad if it was fitter of better equipped. Whatever the outcome of this campaign – and for the record I still think we’ll win it – the clear-out isn’t finished yet.
I had sincerely hoped that Johnston would show us, on nights like this, what he had to offer.
I actually think he has.
Sorry, son, but you’re not what we’re looking for.
As things stand we’re six points behind.
We have one last game before the curtain falls and I don’t see any way that we go into that shut-down in a better position that we’re in now. This was the one we could not afford to make a mess of, and we have.
Like I said, there’s no point in sugar-coating this and there’s no point in dressing up how grim the league table looks this evening, and will almost certainly look when the last whistle of this part of the campaign blows on 26 December.
That, of course, depends on us being a damned sight better at St Johnstone.
Oh man, frustrating is not the word for this.
You think your teams bad. Should try being an Aberdeen fan!!!
He bought the media crap about Saints playing youths
But more importantly Kennedy and McManus also bought it.
On my way back after possibly one of the worst games I have ever seen Celtic play.
Won’t even bother listing individuals as this was the fault of Ange.
I said at the start of the season if we could 6 points behind at the break I would take that all day. St Johnstone aside it looks like that will be the case. After the old firm game in February if we go into that game still 6 points behind I will be happy. I agree with you on Johnston though. He wants to beat the same defender twice before he passes the ball back while players in the box are trying to get some space thinking he is going to cross.i wish players would start to shoot from outside the box. They do it at free kicks but not when the ball is in play.
There is no old firm.
It died in 2012.
Totally agree with the post bt “Geoff”……..Ange at fault tonight.
It was a game that we had to win so why not play our strongest team, he did not.
I agree James about Mikey he has had too many chances BUT imho i think Abada was just as bad if not worse than Mikey……who was supposed to be on the end of all the high crosses against tall defenders…….anti football it was BUT we were really poor tonight.
I’ve been saying that Johnston is far below what we need. Tonight was woeful, I know we’re short but we should be fielding our strongest teams given the position we’re in
For all that the squad was depleted due to injury, Ange watched Welsh, Bitton and CCV just pass it around between themselves, Scales fell into that trap too, this led to a slow build up getting nowhere other than getting the ball out wide to be crossed in to the very people who could not get near any of over twenty corners kicks put over them. This has been coming for a while as we do not learn from past experiences of similar tactics.
Johnston isn’t good enough. He wasn’t before the injury, isn’t now. The recent Huddle Breakdown discussion on him was interesting. His skill is good but his innate decision making is consistently poor – which is a quality which tends to be set in elite players by about age 12/13. Don’t think he’ll get good enough.
It would be harsh to judge Moffat too harshly, but the full back bullying him tonight is 18 months or so younger than him.
St Mirren’s back three was consistent from their recent games; our front three was makeshift and a bit powder puff. I think Abada is a reasonable makeshift central option so long as there’s relative strength across the rest of the front line. Celtic dominated the whole pitch except the St Mirren box and so our missing players prove more impactful than theirs.
We have a lack of depth. This is not new, or a surprise. But that’s a bad result, and I’m not sure we actually had any margin for error before the match, let alone now.
We have been rotten for weeks and are at least 5 players short of a league winning side. League is over how we could go into this game without kyogo on the bench at least is mismanagement.
Daft comment. You clearly haven’t listened to the manager. He’s injured.
Couldn’t agree more about Johnston jinky he ain’t I’ve said it for a while he is not good enough hh
We have known for weeks we have no striker, got games like this ange had to be bold, try something different, maybe bitton through the middle he might just win a ball in the air in the box,him or another tall player. As for young Johnson has anybody once seen him play where he should? On the right side of the park he has no left foot and easy to read because of it, I would try him there but I do admit he has a lot of work to do. Until we find a big striker who can mix it up then we cannot change any game, like Ross county we either get lucky or drop points.
Agreed on Mikey Johnson – there is just no end product. The real problem though is a lack of creativity. Rogic had an off game and Turnbull was missing, so the only spark we had was Callum. Biton needs to be moved on asap with his sideways and backward passing, ditto Carter Vickers who is nowhere near the standard required and Abada isnt good enough (yet).
Just goes to show the shambles Lennon left and the Summer recruitment was only a six out of ten
I’m sure I stated a couple of weeks ago that Mikey Johnson is nowhere good enough to play for us ,the game I was referring to was the way he couldn’t get past his first man ,lost the ball or he passed it backwards totally stopping our momentum,he is nowhere good enough.as regards st Mirren against Sevco you state that Sevco will annihilate them which is probably true but I’m assuming st Mirren will put ten men behind the ball same as they did with us ,so you are stating that Sevco will easily overcome the packed defence,if they can do it so easily ,which they probably will ,why can’t we overcome teams that do this against us ,is it wrong tactics ,formations or what , remember teams were stifling us long before our injury crisis so what’s going on .
How many times can I watch agenda and Johnstone not able to cross a ball beyond the first man
Hobut there was no one in the box anyway
w many times can I watch agenda and Johnstone not able to cross a ball beyond the first man
My God how can you go from such a high to such a low but that’s why we are celtic HAIL! HAIL! In Ange we trust
The lack of options up front was eventually going to cost us and the match tonight was the one.
Playing Kyogo in the meaningless Betis match led to him not being available for tonight and the ramifications came home against St Mirren.
I have never thought at any stage that we would win the league as the amount of quality we need isn’t there.
Once Ange gets the players required in the next 2 windows then we will see a proper Celtic next season pushing for the league and perhaps being in with a real chance of getting through the champions league qualifiers.
You’ve supported Ange all season despite his league results been worse than Lennies! I’ve been saying all season that he is a huge flop and the League table doesn’t lie ,not do the Champs and Europe Ltd table either Ange has been out of his depth ALL season It’s as if the Celtic board want gers to get next season’s Champs LG millions so they can stay afloat and keep the lucrative rivalry going !
We can’t have powderpuff performances like this one , Abada plays like a wee Schoolboy , Johnson should be moved on , he’s had enough chances .
Midfield was poor , McGregor is a poor Captain , he allowed players to pass the buck with the tippy tappy nonsense , this game called for direct football and hitting the bye line .
Lazy play from the wide men is what causes us problems up front , we are not scoring enough goals in matches and this could cost us the Title .
What’s the SP with McCarthy ?? Warming the bench is a waste of our Dosh …. Ange has to kick a few buts now .
I said from the beginning Ang is not the man for Celtic but because of a Rotten to the core Board we were left with no options too late after the Howe disaster!!!! The type of football we play causes I injuries the manager picks the team how many more check-ups will he make in the future The Mans ot for Turning!!!
We relied on a last kick of the ball winner away to Ross County last week. The signs were all there. However – please remember that this is Ange’s first crack at it. Slippy G was given 3 seasons, won 1 trophy (albeit the big one) and suddenly he’s a top manager. I am not buying that for one second – he will be found out. Ange did not have a proper pre-season. He hasn’t had the chance to build the squad he wants. He needs time and support from the fans which I am sure he will continue to receive.
It was a tough one to take, really tough. But we just need to be patient. In Ange we trust.
Agree about MJ though. He’s the 21st century Owen Archdeacon.