Last night was just what some of the hacks have been waiting for from the moment the boss walked back through the doors of Celtic Park. When he laid out the punishment at the end of the game at the weekend, he must have known that he would eat some serious dirt in the event we had a bad night … he probably didn’t care.
There are people who will expect Rodgers to show some humility. The thing is, most of our hacks are not particularly interested in his tactical thinking or anything else; they’ll be organized as a hunting party and he should respond with that in mind.
Rodgers got it wrong last night. Nothing will convince me otherwise. But the geniuses in the media who will be coming after him as a result of it have already demonstrated their own shocking ignorance about the sport they cover more than a few times. We all know we should get stick for that last night but to read people like English writing absolute bullshit about how Rodgers gets it too easy is nauseating … there is literally no Celtic manager in my living memory who “gets it too easy” from people in his business.
I wrote earlier about Clement and his staggering reversal on Ianis Hagi; how many of the hacks will even bother to comment on that? How many of them will report it for what it is; a complete humiliation? Ibrox bosses are constantly rewriting their personal history and the media doesn’t just let them do it but plays a willing role.
The Ibrox club beat Malmo last week. Malmo. They were knocked out of Europe by a dreadful Kiev side we’d have scored six against; I have no doubt of that at all even accounting for last night. Any attempt to compare and contrast their “achievement” with our defeat should be laughed out of the room.
Rodgers will have to accept a certain amount of criticism for last night. He deserves it. But there will be a personal edge to much of it which he should challenge and hit back against. The sneering has begun already. Goons whose very presence in the press corps is an ongoing outrage are having their wee bit of fun … idiotic if you ask me in light of the much bigger problems which exist at Ibrox, but we expected it anyway.
We can’t ignore their criticism entirely, and nor should we. Last night was dreadful and we can’t just let that pass us by as if it were nothing as that sets us up for our next failure, but we can try to weed out the legitimate critiques from those which simply want to hammer Rodgers for something, anything, and will seize on this as a good excuse to.
I hope his response to that is appropriately furious. He will know the difference and I do not expect that he will go easy on those who attempt to indulge themselves at his expense. This is not the time for playing humble … these people should be slapped back into their box the minute they stick their heads up and I have not the least doubt that Rodgers himself feels exactly the same way.
Scrutiny and criticism we can stand; hypocrites making trouble … that’s something we should never accept, no matter what the circumstances.
I’ve read and heard some really good, bad and indifferent comments, post Borussia humbling/embarrassment last night.
We all know it was very painful viewing, and have previously seen this movie several times!!
I believe the pragmatists amongst us, knew that to even come away with a draw, we would have required every player in our squad ( who were involved in the game,) to perform at the highest possible levels for 90 mins!
We were playing against last season’s beaten CL finalists, on their own patch and who play infinitely superior opposition, ( than the SPL) every week!!!
Watching this game, it was clearly evident from minute one, that we had a gaping hole in front of our back four, every time we lost the ball and they regained it. Even tweaking our team to have one sitting midfielder, even two, would have afforded our back 4, a semblance of protection.
If we are being extremely kind, it would be fair to say that Borussia’s first two goals, involved a fair slice of good fortune and the second penalty, for me, was a pretty shocking award!
However, and as you allude to, in your article, when it appears that you are attempting to play one of Europe’s top club sides, in a similar manner to performing against St Johnstone. Then there is only going to be one outcome, and it’s not going to be favourable or watchable.
Like yourself, I’m a huge fan of BR, and he has a plan A,B & C for domestic games. That is why he has had unbridled success in Scotland over two tenures.
I appreciate he doesn’t need or like to hear anyone else telling him how to approach European games v top tier outfits…but he must now realise that certain coaching methods of playing and ethos, against said top teams, can only be fully utilised, when you have the requisite top talent close to that of the opposition.
Unfortunately, we are presently not anywhere near close enough to that level …( Celtic board, keep taking note !)
“Insanity…doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results !”
Any team can take a real doing at anytime! That’s the beauty of football.
However, we’ve seen too many of these heavy reversals for it to be considered just an off day!
Most of us already have one eye on Atalanta away, looking for some seeds of change and avoiding a spectacle that is watched through the cracks in your fingers!!!!
Good, confident post match comments from AJ ( our future captain!)
I have no doubts whatsoever, that we’ll bounce back this Saturday. HH
Good post Gerry,spot on .
Pure fab post again Gerry… Please keep them coming to The Celtic Blog !
They won’t be getting one crooked cent from me for sure as I desperately and dearly want them out of business and sooner than later out of business at that…
I think most right thinking Celtic fans would agree with me on that ascertation for sure…
However I’m sure you’ll have something to report on their bullshit tomorrow no doubt James…
Scummy’s from The Scummy Scottish Football Media then…
Scummy’s from The Scummy Scottish Football Media now…
Scummy’s from The Scummy Scottish Football Media always… (until they like ‘Rangers’die) !
I really don’t care what is said in the Scottish press and nor do I care much about the goings on at Ibrox. I hold us to a European standard and when we repeatedly show ourselves up as naive on that stage then it hurts and hurts badly. Rodgers record in Europe is awful and for me that is largely down to intransigence and ego – he has the intelligence and man-management skills to do better but for whatever reason he thinks that he can send a team out to go toe to toe against better players without making any adjustments. It’s the equivalent to me of a middleweight fighting a champion heavyweight and bringing the same game plan that allowed him to beat jobbing middleweights – it’s not going to end well.
I am not a fan of our board but I believe our CEO should be having words with Rodgers and making clear that being embarrassed to this extent is not acceptable and with the players at his disposal we should not be getting our arses skelped to this degree.
Rodgers himself must know that being exposed to this degree on the European stage will erode any chance of another “big gig”. Let’s hope lessons are learned and a more pragmatic approach is adopted in Europe.
Absolutely spot on Joe. My feelings entirely. Don’t give a shit about the press.
That was a complete embarrassment. We should be much better. Tactics need to be different.
Good shout Joe,these Euro humiliations are beginning to be highly embarrassing,if Dortmund was a one off ,fair enough but we have received too many tankings in Europe under Brendan, something has to change.
We are laughing the all the way to bank,meanwhile sevco are bringing managers(Neil warnock)up by their sell by date to ibrox as a guest of honour to watch a game,sizing up Kojak’s seat.
Absolutely spot on James.
Aston Villa have just beaten Bayern Munich, who are one of the favorites for the competition , that’s what you can do with the right tactics. Brendan needs to stop being so stubborn and arrogant and understand this. We beat Barcelona when they were a top side with pragmatism, with the right tactics. We had they excellent nights with Martin, playing better sides and winning. If Brendan don’t get smart, then we will take another few hidings .
So class half full…quarter of way through and level on points with Real Madrid, Bayern, Barcelona and PSG and three ahead of Leipzig, AC Milan and Young Boys.
We have a great chance of qualifying – not in top 8 – but we really need to be more realistic against Atalanta, Leipzig and Villa. And I would be very happy with a game plan that had us stealing the points out of Zagreb in a manner which Sevco has almost patented.
Brendan – please, please smell the coffee.
Brendan has broad shoulders, he will accept some of the criticism, but he knows exactly what the Journo’s agendas are. He will therefore treat any malicious comments with disdain and anyone crossing the line will be put firmly in their place. The whole thing will blow over in good time as we assert ourselves again. So his best answer to the critics is for normal service as usual to be maintained and an for an immediate resumption of our victory sequence to continue.
Time to back the team and Brendan as for our ceo having a word with Brendan utter pish look at the bother he-caused the last time as long as we have our foot on the zombies necks that will do for me because we will never play out of Scotland.
Brendan is a highly intelligent man, and he will be completely aware of the numerous disagreeable critics in our fawning media, that do not need an excuse to attack him.
Results like Tuesday’s, are manna from heaven to these roasters! However, I have no doubt his mental recall & little notebook, have all
the history on these particular goons, and he won’t miss them when required!!!
Our approach, performance and result on Tuesday was dreadful…us fans, BR and players all know that! It’s about how we turn it around for the next huge obstacle. Only then will we see, if we’ve learnt anything at all!
Meanwhile let the Sevconites gloat, and that includes those with keyboards.
Class is knowing what to say, when to say it, and when to stop.
As their mouths, and (in)actions, are always at odds with each other!!!
We shall bounce back! HH