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Another Team Comes To Celtic Park To Sit Behind The Ball And Gets Nothing.

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I do not feel sorry in the least for managers or players who come to Celtic Park these days, but I do feel sorry for a lot of the fans who travel to our ground. They must know now how it’s going to go, but they come anyway.

There’s a lot to credit in that.

Unfortunately, their players and the manager so often let them down and so it was on Saturday with a team coming to Celtic Park with no intention whatsoever of playing to win the game. Sure they got up the pitch a small handful of times but their game-plan was to sit with people behind the ball and try to play the role of spoilers.

This must be chronic for their fans to watch.

It’s certainly chronic for our fans who have had to see this over and over again. But we have the pleasure of usually running out winners. We get to go home having seen our side win.

Derek McInnes said after the game that this might be the best Celtic side he’s seen. It’s nice to actually get some praise from him, and it feels strange. But he also acknowledged that he needed to come up with a better “answer” to us than they had in this one … which of course I surmise means returning Kyle Lafferty to the proceedings as I said yesterday.

Perhaps if his team had risked something on Saturday they could have got something. They certainly cannot sit back in a cup game and “play for a point”. They cheat their fans in these games, they cannot afford to do it at Hampden.

So they need to come with a better Plan A because although they held out for most of the first half, the minute we opened the scoring they were beat. Because there is no Plan B for these guys.

If Plan A fails all that they are risking is the roof coming in.

I’m not a guy who is ever going to complain about watching his team win, but it does start to feel as if teams aren’t even turning up to try.

I didn’t expect McInnes to have our number – this guy is genuinely hopeless – but it was still awful watching his team huff and puff their way through that game and I cannot imagine how he will approach the cup game.

But I’ll tell you this, if he approaches it like that his fans should be furious.

On Saturday they came to contain us, they got nothing and that was what they deserved.

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  • Tony B says:

    The game here is characterised by cheating and spoiling.

    What is the point of Scottish football any more?

  • Eire goCeltic says:

    Celtic use a fairly compressed attack and high possession strategy to score goals and wear teams out by mental disintegration. This tactic can be vulnerable to a fast transition and diagonal over-the-top kicks to speedy wingers with support up the guts and the other winger moving in towards the goal area. This is how Gio’s team played last season. It was how Real Madrid carved-up Celtic in the second half of the Champs League game. But Real Madrid had plenty more tricks than this. As James said, opponents must score goals to win the Cup. First, they must start with self-belief.
    Celtic earn a lot of corners but rarely convert. In a recent game Celtic got nothing from 13 corners.
    Set piece play was problematic last season as well. Not solved.

  • JimBhoy says:

    Celtic should be battering these teams, the first half was a bore. We need to start as we did the second half.

    Looking forward to seeing the new players.

    Nisbett at hibs would be more than an equal replacement for GG. Far more pace and does good defensive work and a good Jungle Jim. GG is too often on his erchie.

  • Scud Missile says:

    I see the so called journalists at the daily sevco have the semi-finals next week sewn up as wins for ourselves and sevco.
    I can go along with the prediction of ourselves but as for sevco,well if the game is reffed properly without the cheating to help the new klub,then I can see an Aberdeen win.

    • Seppington says:

      “…if the game is reffed properly….”

      Oh Scuddy I thought you of all people would know that’s never going to happen!

      I’ll be pappin a tenner on the inevitable Tavpen…

  • Woodyiom says:

    James – what did you expect McInnes to do? Tell his team to open up and get hammered? The week before they have to play us again in a semi-final? That would have done his players confidence a world of good and they would have as good as already lost the semi – this way they still have a “puncher’s chance”. They lost 5-0 at home on their God awful pitch back in August so he was always going to play it safe at our place and effectively play for a draw.

    EVERY team, club and manager has the right to play the game they want to – its SPORT NOT THE THEATRE. I don’t care how Derek McInnes (or any other manager for that matter) chooses to set up his team against us – its our job to break them down and win. You really need to stop with your apparent “hatred” towards DM just because of his Ibrox background (I mean let’s be honest he was no more than a squad player so hardly worth getting worked up about).

    For me he’s usually very complimentary about us – certainly during Rodgers time and even during NL’s two spells I don’t recall him being nasty or derogatory or insulting towards/about us and since Ange has arrived I’ve never heard him say anything bad about us – he might lament about his team’s defending or feel some goals scored by us were soft but that’s not having a dig at us that’s having a dig at his own team and ALL managers do that. In fact the only insult being thrown around is from you calling him “genuinely hopeless” which is blatantly nonsense. Since he left Aberdeen they have gone backwards rapidly…… As far as I am concerned – DM is like all the rest of the other clubs managers (outwith Rangers) – trying to do his best with the little resources he has and appears to make a decent fist of it.

  • S Thomas says:

    Kilmarnock would have got hammered if they opened up. You do the best you can.. with what you’ve got to work with. As for Aberdeen, I can’t seem them winning that semi final, they are in terrible form, with a manager who is right under pressure. That game against us, when they were at home, was atrocious. It will be a glasgow derby final.

  • Suspiciousmind says:

    I’m with you Woodyiom. A manager trying to do a job and like a lot of other managers could do without the personal abuse.

    • Seppington says:

      Several never seen before names sticking up for serial failure McInnes….nowt strange about that, eh?

      You all can say what you like but as far as I’m concerned telling your team to go out and defend for 90 mins hoping to get anything from a lucky counter-attack is as good as telling them they’re probably not good enough to win. If you think you’ll get beat anyway then why not try and have a go? Okay you could say n this instance a drubbing wouldn’t have been good for morale going into a cup semi but as I say the manager has effectively told his players they’re comparatively shite anyway so confidence is hardly going to be sky-high is it?

  • Voice of Reason says:

    Killie will play fur pens fae Min 1 so the quicker we put the game tae bed the better!! 3-0 by HT then bring on a few fringe players, job dun!!

  • John Copeland says:

    This type of negative ,defensive ,boring style of play visiting teams deploy at Celtic Park isn’t going to stop any time soon ! In fact this is the future tactics of domestic sides with very few exceptions … It’s not just the playing strategies that are turning fans off Scottish football it’s also the boring commentators , the incompetent officialdom , the half empty stadiums ,all of that tied together by perceived corruption from within ,makes for a very shabby overall product .

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