Roy Aitken and our Defence

Former Celtic captain Roy Aitken believes that poor defending rather than a lack of spirit undermined Neil Lennon's side against Rangers.
The Ibrox side recovered from 2-1 down at half-time to win 4-2 on Sunday.
"I would be very surprised if any team under Neil Lennon lacks any spirit," Aitken told BBC Scotland.
"That was not crying out for me. For me, Celtic could not defend crosses in the game and ultimately they paid the price."
Rangers' win over Celtic stretched the reigning champions' lead over their Old Firm rivals to four points at the top of the Scottish Premier League.
Some have suggested that the home side showed a greater desire to win after the break, but Aitken thinks there has been an over-reaction from Celtic fans.
"I thought the game itself was pretty even," said the former Aberdeen manager who coached at Leeds United, Aston Villa and Birmingham City before becoming David O'Leary's assistant in Dubai with Al-Ahli last summer.
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Loovens hits the post at a very important stage in the game. If that goes in, the whole game turns
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Roy Aitken Former Celtic defender
"It was the defending and balls played in from wide areas that cost them virtually every goal.
"And, unless they improve on that side of it, no matter how much effort they put in, they will still lose goals.
"There has been a lot of chopping and changing in that central defensive position and the goalkeepers the last few seasons, so they haven't had a settled group of players in that area.
"And that is maybe something that Neil and his coaching staff will be looking at to improve on, but they definitely have to have better quality in that central defence."
Aitken said that some Celtic players might have paid in the second half for their involvement in Thursday's 2-0 Europa League Group I defeat away to Atletico Madrid.
"They came off a tough, tough game in midweek as well, so there was an element of tired legs," he said.
"There were two or three incidents in that second half when the game could have swung either way.
"Loovens hits the post at a very important stage in the game. If that goes in, the whole game turns."
Aitken thought Celtic's board and fans should stick with Lennon.
"It is too early in the season to say that the pressure is now going to pile on him," he said.
"I think Neil Lennon is still the right man for the job and will get the best out of those players.
"It is too early to press the panic button as there are plenty of games left."
Despite the result, Aitken was full of praise for the first Old Firm game of the season.
"I thought it was a great game and a great advert for the Scottish football," he added.
"A lot of locals watched it here in Dubai and they were really impressed with the level of football and the excitement

 

If Roy had been playing theres a few in Hoops that would hve been well and truly booted up the * long before the final whistle.

Feed the Bear CSC

 

Spot on. All 4 goals were easily preventable had we been able to defend properly. Hope Lenny learns from this.

 

surely we must have a good cb coming from our youth set up

 

Get big Johan stripped :icon_mrgreen:

Agree with majority of what the big mans saying here but imo we didn't want it enough and he's glossing over that fact by stating that wasn't a problem

 

we've not got great central defenders we all know that but the chopping and changing all the time is killing any hope of a central defensive partnership growing into something good.

at the end of last eyar it was mulgrew and maj and it was ok but the manager started with wilson loovens, a new partnership but loovens got injured and maj was introduced and he as we all know has had a nightmare.

loovens getting fit again and he's back in we should stick with this and let loovens and wilson try and get a partnership going.

i though the whole team were * at the weekend and looked jaded! there was no energy in the midfield, which then led to us getting overrun in teh 2nd half.

in a way i feel sorry for the defence because the whole team has to defend not just your back 4 back 2 and our midfield and front 2 were garbage which meant the traffic was going one way for all the 2nd half

 

I think big Roy is spot on here. I can't count the number of times I was shouting at the screen for the players to close down the wide men and deny the cross. Sammy is particularly bad at this and Broony didn't have the legs to do it in the second half. The first half was better when Mulgrew was out on the left because he played his position better and Broony was able to chase down before he re-injured himself. I think we all know that the right move would've been to bring on Ledley to either fill in at left back or give Mulgrew some support if he was pushed to left back. Here's hoping we learn from our mistakes and get a bit of a break with the Ross County game to rest the players.

 

Good Post

Wylde seemed to be having a field-day and crosses from Papac were the problem for the defence

 

wylde had a field day because brown didnt close him down once.