[Matchday] Celtic v Bodo/Glimt February 17th BT Sport 2 kick off 8PM

Patently obvious were not top quality.

 

Miles off it and it looked so open from the very start. Would it really have been so bad to give more protection to the defence?

 

Aye 100% although I was cringing at that huddle after conceding but then they scored right away so fair doos

 

So why the furore that we’ve lost?

We’re a work in progress and we’ve lost to a better team. Just deal with it man.

People shouting embarrassment and other bullshit just takes away from the genuine embarrassments we’ve had in Europe and domestically in recent years.

 

The ballance of the midfield was off from the start. We knew they were going to play a high intensity game, it's what they do, and we counter that by... playing O'Riley and Rogic? It didn't make sense and we lost the midfield battle and pretty much everything else that went wrong stemmed from that. Of course it doesn't help when your entire team decides to have an off night all at the same time, but the starting line up was questionable.

 

To put things in context. That side minus 4 of its star players put 5 goals past Roma at home and drew 2-2 in Rome on the return leg. They are a quality side. Unfortunately taylor was pulled out of position for the 1st goal. Lost his man for the second goal and the third was a wild deflection. Thought Forest was a passenger we could not afford to carry on a night like this.

 

18 years now since we won a knockout tie. That’s unacceptable for a team of our stature and budget.

Yet again we’ve been embarrassed by a team with a fraction of our budget. Who haven’t played a game in 3 months. Yet again it’s 3 defensive * ups that caused it.

Thought they were technically very good but they beat our press far too easily. Should sign their LB as he offered more in 90 mins than that useless lump Taylor has in his entire Celtic career.

 

Looking at this. Fixtures we 100% need to take care picking our team next week, weve got a * poor record at Easter Road and going full whack in Europe and getting our arses handed to us over there could flatten the players and could put the blockers on our title.

 

What I took from tonight is that Maeda and giomakis are not the answer and that I also don’t need reminding how desperately we are in need of a quality left back.

 

You could tell they were 2-3 years into that style of play, whereas we looked like a team who were not used to playing together in Europe with that high energy style.

Fair play to them, thought that they were time wasting fannies but they were clinical and executed their game plan to a tee.

 

We’re in desperate need of a ball playing CB by the way. Far too much side to side and playing it safe. I’d rather they played the riskier pass at 3-1 down than continuously kill our momentum

 

aww * i forgot they sold their 4 best players on top of not having played in 2 months

 

Aye, we got off lightly tonight, if they had 5 or 6 corners or other set pieces to cross in against us they would probably have had another goal or two as all their players bar their number 10 looked about 6ft 2. They've definitely built a team like that on purpose, all big athletes as they were all quick and tall.

 

Of course he will downplay it and not give the papers a headline.

 

The number 5 from them had hints of Efe Ambrose about him, he looked to be playing left-back but I think they were playing 3-4-3 when attacking with him as left centre-back and 4-3-3 when defending although cause they scored them were more sitting in a 4-3-3 during the game after that protecting their lead.

He was dribbling out the back for fun and you could see it was a big part of their play, took the pressure out of having to rush passes around when a guy could take on a couple of men and open the game up. Made it stand out a lot that we never had it in our team. McGregor and Juranovic did it a bit for us but because they were already ahead it was harder to get through.

Worst thing about tonight is they looked like they were going to be really open but once they scored they shut up shop and calmed things down, still countered well but never played wide open like we usually do and they did at the start.

 

I will!

 

Brutal when you put it like that. With our resources, we should perform better in Europe than we have tonight or have in years. It's embarassing and it has the potential to affect our confidence domestically. Needs to be resolved.

 

The most frustrating thing about tonight is that deep down none of us really care that much about the Conference League.

I’m not saying it doesn’t matter - Europe is important - but right now it’s all about winning the league and that’s it.

It’s the fear that tonight’s performance could roll over and impact our league form.

 

Yeah I agree reluctantly that the O’Riley/Rogic midfield was the catalyst. Personally I also thought it was a mistake to start those 2 together, I’m not sure that those two have ever started a match together? Probably not the night to do it for the first time.

You are right, everything went their way after ko and for us it went from bad to worse. The deflection while unlucky, we had 3 players running towards the ball and the goal scorer could have slipped one of their players in.

 

They've obviously recruited well. Not sure the drop in standard from the 4 they lost, but can't be much surely. Every one of their players looked the part. Remember we've got a full team learning a new style, albeit they've had 8 months to adapt. This team have been playing the same style, I would guess, for 4 seasons. Even with 4 new players, they're a far more settled side than us still.