Atletico Madrid v Celtic, September 15th

What a tout:icon_mrgreen:

 

This has been an absolute hoot lads, but I'm calling it a day

Night all.

 

ffs, if you call calling me a hun forum banter because I don't agree with you then take a look at yourself.

Wasn't that bothered about meeting you either, just was only way could think of proving to you I am not a hun.

.... but offers still on table, be in the london road tavern prior to game and normally in black bull afterwards if you change your mind

 

did anyone else see an atletico player grog in ki's mouth? afte rhe got brought down for a free kick, duno if it was an accident or not

 

Quick thoughts about the game.

Didn't think Atletico were a great side before the game and still feel that way. The game was played at a pedestrian pace and were there for the taking but sadly we didn't quite have enough to get something.


Quick points about the game.

Hooper isn't effective in the lone role. Decent player but isn't a targetman or have raw pace to stretch the defence.

Samaras is infuriating and inconsistent but he's the only striker we have who can be effective up top when he's in the mood.

I'd suggest we're not quite strong enough to open up in Europe and go 2 up top.
4-4-1-1 or 5 in midfield and try and scrap for points as we're clearly not at the level of years gone by.

Loovens played really well tonight IMO. Wouldn't have known he's been out for the last 5 weeks.

Mark Wilson gets exposed too often and is a weak-link down the right.

Our team are comfortable in possession but in general lack pace and penetration and a cutting edge.

Mulgrew played well tonight but still gets exposed for his lack of pace and lapses in concentration at times so any talk of him being a future captain or our best player should stop talking our their *.

Udinese are a more fluid team than Atletico IMO. We have our work cut out in the next game.

 

What? Which Wilson? Anyone else know anything?

 

Kelvin.

http://celtic-hub.com/2011/09/15/a-humping-kayal-not-a-captain-kelvin-wilson-out-of-rangers-game/

 

Well, you can't exactly be 'happy' - we got beat after all.
But not upset either - we didn't exactly get spanked.
(Upset is what you get being beat by St Johnstone at home - sorry for reminder - not a Spanish Elite team away)

I was p.o.'d at the early goal however - what do we have to do to cut that out?
I really felt sorry for Lenny - he wasn't mad, he looked crushed.

But we picked it up and played very well at times.
Sammy did well and nearly made the goal for us in a quick reply with some real tenacity - Hooper just too late in pulling the trigger on it after a lovely ball in from Kayal. Falcao or Diego score that opportunity. Hooper on another day, might.

I'd have to see it again, but Sammy looked like he was pulled to ground by shoulders in the box.
Second half we played very well. Ki was excellent today, probably the best in the Hoops today.

Overall, I think 2-0 looks worse on paper than the display deserved. We shouldn't be down on anyone tonight (first goal notwithstanding!)

I like to look on the positives - this young team of ours gained some valuable experience that they need to progress in their development. I don't think anyone even expected a draw out of the game beforehand, so nothing to be too despondent about.

 

Robert Grieve in the sun, Pathetico, hes quick enough to bring our away record up if only he done the same with rangers one win in over twenty european games. :bbpd:

 

Loovens played really well tonight and kept a man who cost £35million quid quiet.

K.Wilson is a decent player but Loovens and Mulgrew at CB isn't a problem.

 

We lost 2 sloppy goals tbh , no just sayin it but we really did. If we played like that from the start and no conceded that early goal , who knows really it just seems as if we set ourselfs to defend mode in the first half and it really annoys me when we do that , everytime in europe away near enough. Its about time we went like we did in the second half we looked MUCH better and looked like we could nab a draw!

 

Relived we never got pumped.. Disappointed about two sloppy goals.. Joyed by Ki and Kayal in midfield.. WORRIED that the tempo was to slow and that the 1st 20 minutes in the explosive initial high paced environment of an OF game will cost us!

 

Dissapointed to lose obviously especially the way the first 20 minutes of the second half went. But in the end the difference was in the final third Athletico Madrid just have more quality then we do and although we defended well for most of the game they did break us down a few times and deserved to win the game.
After giving up yet another early goal on the road in Europe I am thinking o boy here we go again another diaster on the road in Europe. But in fairness we picked ourselves up and worked our way back into the game. Ki in particular was a standout. But in the end Athletico just had a bit too much quality for us at both ends of the field. But I do think we can take some positives from the game as we gave a very good team a run for their money on their own patch. So hopefully this performance is something we can learn from and build on. Not good enough on the night but a game we can learn and build from I hope.

 

Will we ever learn how to play European ties away from Celtic Park ? Losing early goals heeps so much pressure on to the team, then we end up chasing for the rest of the match.

It's time to dump this zonal marking system, it simply isn't effective enough, once teams know you use it the load up certain areas of your penalty box and the your own players in these areas are out-numbered. Revert to age old trusted system of matching up your best ariel defenders against their's, it's as simple as that, you then give players accountability for stopping their opponent from scoring.

Defensively we were niave for the second goal, Wilson caught on the wrong side, he makes a rash tackle, Loovens out of position in the middle of the defense and it's 2-0 down and lucky not to concede a third from the same type of move minutes later.

I'm all for giving the players a chance at European football, but they need to sort out these basic errors, and more importantly stop continually repeating them.

 

exactly mate we've gotta get a bit of perspective and look at the positives - and there were quite a few!

 

no disgrace going there and losing only 2-0; and there were promising signs, particularly in the second half; its a shame we lost the second when we did because we were looking like we had settled into a good rhythm

put it this way that was a far better performance than any of the sion games and it has to be remembered their striker costs more than the probably the whole SPL put together

not great to lose but to be beaten by a better side is no disaster

now roll on sunday!

 

Saw the game yesterday in Swiss TV (of course they hoped for Sion to play).

Atletico didn't really impress me. Not much quality and speed in their actions, though they sure have some great players. Not sure if I'm right, but everytime I see teams like Juventus, Atletico, Liverpool and Co. playing UEFA Cup, there's a certain lack of enthusiasm, speed and determinism. I really couldn't understand why Celtic played so ultra-defensive, absolutely no need for that. Especially if you're down 1:0 after 5 Min. Were they just hoping for a lucky punch after a corner? A bit like Greece 2004.

Though Celtic's defeat was clear and expected (Atletico is just another dimension in terms of individual quality), I'd say you've got some chances to take sth away from them at home. I don't think they're the clear favorites in this group. If this was Champions League, I wouldn't say so. Then they would go through with 15-18 points, imo. But in EL your team might have realistic chances to go through group stage. Celtic and Rennes surely are the two teams that are most passionate about playing EL, just like Sion would be.

 

I've said before a lot of positives from last night but the only thing that did kind of bug me was why Lenny didn't make the substitutions earlier. Admittedly I'm crap at tactics but with it being so obvious Hooper can't play the lone striker surely we should have been looking for that change somewhere to try and get the equaliser?

Like I say I'm hopeless at tactics but who would you have brought on / taken off and when?

 

Atlectico looked quite poor and lethargic this may be down to the late start to the Spanish season, I think we played them at a good time for us.

However we were much better in the second half.

Ki and Kayal complement each other perfectly.

The biggest plus for me was the performace of Loovens I thought he had a great game. Solid in the tackle and in the air with a bit of menace about him, exactly what we need in this type of away game.

We really missed Izzy and we had no one who could hold the ball up on the wings to provide much needed width. On the flanks both full backs looked exposed and lack class both defending and attacking will cost us in this competition.

Glad to be teasting ourselves in Europe and if we can win our home games we've got a chance and if we can hang in there until Christmas we'll have Izzy back to provide the class needed at that level.

 

Loovens was right beside the 35million man when he scored in the 3rd minute. A crap player rarely gets better.