SPFL Diets v Disarray fc 12 o'clock Sunday..

Aye it’s the fans fault the team are * isn’t it

 

The only conclusion you could ascertain from your post is that the players are shitebags.

 

The thing that annoys me most about today is how predictable it was. When was the last time we went into a domestic game with the fan base almost to a man expecting defeat.

 

Am sorry if that id your takeaway, because nowhere did I say anything even remotely like that.

Where did I say that? If you want to have a discussion about this, please do, but making leaps of logic like that are baseless and don't help in the understanding. Why make valid points, when can resort to sweeping (erronious) generalizations.

I literally said, these events do not happen in isolation or in a vacuum, whether that is the manager likening players to honda civics instead of ferraris (much less being on the recieving end of hairdryer treatment) or fans interupting games, late walk-ins, remaining silent or whatever else, can't help but have an impact on players, who are human, and these sorts of things can potentially have an effect. Not all, but it can with some, especially with younger guys who may not be used to it or potentially be more susceptable to it.

Players do deserve criticism naturally. Whether that is experienced core players like CalMac or Hatate, who have been below par a long while now, or younger guys like Kenny, Murray or Donovan, who are still establishing themselves, let alone being thrown in the deep end, and able to demonstrate flashes that show why, but also have moments where you remember where they are in their development.

Injuries happen, and the depth in certain areas does leave something to be desired, but for all that, players are not immune, even if it is not entirely the players themselves who are to blame.

But for all that, there is not a manager in all of Scotland, outwith of Tynecastle currently or Ipox ever, that would love to work with the resources, including the sort of squad that Celtic have, even if it is not at it's peak right now.

NB - This is probably not the right thread for this debate, as it does not relate solely to today's match, performance or outcome and conclusions drawn, but it had to be said.

 

I mentioned it a few posts back but I think that annoys me more is how average Hearts were.

I expected this to be a tough game as they would be this well drilled side but I actually thought after the initial 10 minutes we were largely in the ascendency and could have cut them open pretty easily if Hatate had his boots on the right feet. Then Nygren missed that sitter.

Second half we lost two * poor goals and the game was done with the squad we have. It is embarrassing that we are down to guys like Kenny, Murray, Donovan and having to play Nygren at right wing as we don’t have one. Hatate is playing on past reputation only as he has been horribly bad this season and then we are down to only actually having Tierney, Scales and McGregor that resemble a footballer with Tournekti chipping in now and again.

Literally one centre back and right back injury and we are down to playing two boys that are well out of their depth against Hearts best players. One striker injured and we are down to Kenny or Yamada as a main striker. No injuries at right wing and we are playing a player out of position there because we never bought one to replace one of our main men from last year.

I think Rodgers should have been doing better and should be looking to adapt his shape but he does have one arm up his back here with the options at our disposal. Balikwisha looks * poor as a winger, Forrest is done and then we have very little to try change a game.

 

Generally agree, but any sane manager would and should have reacted at half time to protect Donovan better by sending in a true winger, a faster player to help control that side - Forrest and Balikwisha are better wingers than Nygren. Hatate out, Nygren into the middle. No guarantees we wouldn't have lost, but Rodgers seemed to only look at the result at half time and think everything was fine.

 

Where we find ourselves is completely down to the board. I am normally one of the most optimistic Celtic fans and can't be doing with the * on here that are so negative that they just make no sense. After the cup final last year it was obvious we needed a massive rebuild. Over the summer I didn't get over concerned as surely the board would address it. During the window again I thought surely they will do something. They didn't and have to be challenged. When they were challenged they treated the reps with contempt. We are where we are and I have seen you a few times criticise the game going match support. There was nothing done today to disrupt the game and yet the result was the same as if there had been. How do you suggest Celtic move forward ?

 

I am trying my best not to be reactionary but today was not good enough again. You could say we were ok in the 1st half but at the minute we look rudderless and leaderless. Midfield isn't right. Defence is a bit of a shambles. Attack is an abomination. Where do we go from here is the big question. I cant see us sacking Rodgers or him walking away. The Board won't budge and think the only issue is they havent explained things better to us as we have the minds of a 5 year old.

So we are stuck. Hoping that Hearts chuck it in the hard winter months which is very possible. But do we have the ability to take advantage? The only option I can see is to hope to stay in touch until January and then spend our way out of trouble. And even then, when we are spending £5 million on Balikwisha after scouting him for a year, I dont even trust us to do that and that's assuming the Board open the checquebook which may be even more unlikely. It's a mess.

 

This is my concern.

Will Hearts chuck this? Almost definitely. But would you back us to take advantage of that? Every chance the huns get a bounce and put Hearts into freefall. I believe they'll spend money over the winter, I don't know that we will.

 

I am not sure 34 year old James Forrest would have protected Donovan better than Nygren.

Balikwisha maybe but he offers nothing going forward. I do think you are right about the manager thinking we were alright at half time as for most of the first half after the initial onslaught we looked the more likely to get a second goal.

Hearts came out and had a go and we lost two terrible goals to a comedy of errors and basically zero actual good play on Hearts part.

I am actually stuck to know what to do or try with the personnel available but I don’t think playing 4-3-3 can continue without an actual right winger. However every formation you consider there’s at least one or two positions where I have no idea who to play.

A 3-4-2-1 would seem logical to try but right wing back is a challenge. You could play Tournekti out left and a more defensive player on the right with then having McGregor and Engels/Bernardo as a double pivot. With 2 of Nygren, McCowan, Hatate or Balikwisha as 10s and Maeda or Iheanacho as the main striker. I actually think against Hearts today that could have worked as they looked short in the middle of the park to stop our midfield first half and that would have gave us another body in there as well as 5 to defend them with the 3 centre backs and two holding midfielders.

Who you play upfront is still a problem.

 

that was a weird game today ,i thought we played well in spells today a lot better than have in recent weeks .the game could have swung in our favour had nygren smashed his chance in instead of trying to * the keeper. i have give rodgers the blame for a lot of the performances this year but i think this one was on the board . i think we approached it in the correct manner but for a horrendous display from murray we could have got something from the game . we have virtually no attacking threat. * hearts titles aint won in october

 

Throwing my two cents in here, in context I didn’t think we were too bad yesterday.

Midfield looked a lot better but Murray sold the jersey 3 times and absolutely killed us stone dead. We don’t have enough to lift us from 1-3 down, we all know that.

I’d persist with Engels and bring McCowan or Bernardo or Balikwisha in for Hatate.

Out wide Tounekti and Nygren are both doing well enough. No way should Balikwisha be out wide in my opinion.

Shin should clearly start at this stage to see if he can get us through.

We’re a riot but we can get through this.