The Big Boss Man was not a happy camper this morning when he spoke to the media about the performance of the team. He wanted more. He expected more. He was angry, proper angry, and said that they didn’t come close to meeting his standards.
I think he’s being a tad harsh on them, but you can understand why.
He’s home and he wanted this team to deliver big time for him.
That’s why if he’s a little rougher on them than he usually is at home that you can understand it.
Ange allowed no excuses for the midfield in particular, although these guys don’t play that often and certainly haven’t played together much. This is why this guy is so great for our club.
There are alibis here if he wants to use them – I had no problem utilising them in the piece earlier – but he refuses to do so. He wants the same standards whether we’re playing a Champions League game or a midseason match of no real consequence.
Of course, as I said, for Ange this has a consequence.
He wanted to show his native land the Celtic team he had built, at their very best. As he says, they came up well short of that.
“It was fair to say that we were nowhere near the level we needed to be,” he said. “It was an entertaining game and there was plenty of goalmouth action for both teams, but we were well off it today. To Sydney’s credit I thought they were the better team in the first half and they deserved to win. We were well off it no matter, whether it’s a player who has or hasn’t been playing. We were nowhere near where we need to be. In football if you are not then you don’t get the outcome you need. We will recover from this and get ready for Sunday.”
As I’ll write about later on, this is why this side are champions and why we will stay champions.
This team is pushing itself whilst other sides in our league are on hiatus.
This team doesn’t take a hiatus.
This manager simply will not permit that.
James there was proof today if you don’t get games against other teams, it will show as seen in some players today , training games don’t bring you up to 100% no blame on them but look at Welsh today through no fault of his own.
It’s understandable why the big man, more than anybody, is disappointed. Think tbh, he wanted tae prove a point in his home country. More importantly tho, is what he’s doin for us here, that’s what really counts. Glad tae have him.
Very disappointed with this; simply highlights that the squad is not as strong or as good as we thought we were. I get that it’s a distance travelled but we were well outplayed in the first half. Some players were simply not at the races and the midfield replacements that I’ve been dying to see get some game time were a real let down. Next game is 3 am I believe, it’s a tough time to get up anyway but to get up and watch that dross is a bigger ask.
Celtic, unfortunately, like sandstone, works better in its own environment. In other words, they are only a decent Scottish team. That, today, was an embarrassment after all the hype.
It showed what Angeball could be like with the Livingston defence.
Why are goalkeepers unbeatable, like Siegrist, when playing against Celtic and become a sieve when playing for them?
We started with a few players a bit off the pace, could have been lack of game time or maybe jet lag. Sydney were up for it and some of them probably hoping to catch Ange’s eye. As far as judging some of our younger players on a game like this, it’s not on. Surely we’ve learned lessons this season regarding over the top criticism of young players, especially with the improvement seen from Taylor and Ralston. Incidentally Siegrist had absolutely no chance with both goals. I think we’ll see the real Celtic against Everton.
Pisspoor defending for their second goal.