Brendan Fraudgers!

The main problems developing for us as far as I can see is not only the midfield, but it has spread again back to the defence, in other words an escalating problem for the management.During the transfer window we were definitely concerned about the need for a DM and another RB as cover for Lustig, and goalkeeper as cover or to displace Gordon.

The current situation has not resolved these issues to my mind. We failed to get another defensive midfielder, ideally we should have been in the market for 2 DM's IMO, as Brown won't last forever, and he is currently carrying an unenviable workload already in that hard pressed midfield area. Instead of a DM, Brendan waxed lyrical instead for the need of a creative midfielder which bemused many of us on this forum and elsewhere. We already had a good creative midfielder in Scott Allan, yet Brendan allowed him to go to Rotherham, strange one that Allan is not a kid, he is 24, yet we let him go.McGregor is not known for his defensive capabilities, Bitton has been AWOL in action since the tail end of last year, and Henderson dozen't seem to be getting a look in. Rogic plays but constantly needs substituting due to running out of steam in games, strange one that too as he should be up to the mark by now. Armstrong seems to be getting fleeting sub appearances.

De Vries in goal has been a shocking experience and in no way inspires confidence with the loss of 11 goals in four games and all round jitteryness.
Gamboa in his two appearances looks to have no defensive qualities and that is also now adding to our defensive woes. So instead of fixing two positions this last window, it appears that we have compounded the problem and wasted money, and may well have to start the search to fill these two positions again in January, and what about the DM's positions ?

To summarise we have created new problems for ourselves in defence and the midfield looks a minefield issue for us. The problem has escalated and we will have to play with the hand we find ourselves until at least January.
We may have signed two donkeys in De Vries and Gamboa.

 

Where is this idea that there is a problem coming from? We've won 5 and drawn 1 from our first 6 games domestically and qualified for the CL for the first time in 3 years. I'm happy with that.

In the CL we got dismantled by one of the top 2 or 3 teams in the world, hardly that big a shock given how little time Rodgers has had to build his own team. The fact that some might have had unrealistic expectations about how long it would take Rodgers to turn us into a team capable of challenging in the CL group stage really doesn't mean there is a problem.

There is no problem, just a work in progress that so far is going even better and faster than we had any right to expect.

Edited to include Motherwell game.

 

We should be beating teams like bottom of the league ICT. Bigger teams like Aberdeen, Hearts and St Johnstone, arguably Rangers too will present bigger challenges in the league. Our right flank now looks exposed with Gamboa,he got raped by Billie fucken King and had to be hauled off by Brendan, Lustig has been in decline for a while, the goalkeeper position looks weakened, definitely confidence issues there anyway.

Our midfield looks like it only has one man in at times, Scott Brown.
Opposing managers are targeting our central midfield and right flank, notwithstanding the goalkeeping spot. You can't see problems ?

We may get humped out of the Champions League going by last week's showing against Barcelona, with no European football after Christmas.

If you look hard enough you can see the beginning of potential problems before they arrive and head them off. Problems for Brendan now are confidence issues, many of them of his own making, within the squad with his tinkering, and the depleted hand we find ourselves with until at least January.

 

Gamboa was raped by Billy King? Not quite. Probably beat him once.

He got hauled off by Rodgers? Nah. Probably planned from the start that he would get 60 odd minutes and then Jozo would get some time.

 

* happens, Dr V. We are not going to win every game this season. Football would be boring as * if the best team always won. As for them being a poor side, so what? Have we ever had a team that didn't suffer the odd European hangover, especially after away games with all the travelling.

What about after an away game midweek against probably the best team in the world? What about after a week in which we played a derby game, and a European away trip to the * Nou Camp? Is it acceptable then?

What about qualifying for the CL, winning a cup game against SPL opposition very comfortably and dropping just two points from 15 in the league after playing our 3 biggest rivals and those 2 points away from home on a tight pitch against a team that traditionally makes life difficult, in the week after playing a Glasgow derby and an away trip to the * Nou Camp? Is that acceptable?

Why are you (by your own admission) looking for problems?

 

Rangers will present a challenge :smiley-laughing002:

 

Hearts, St Johnstone and Aberdeen are 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the league respectively, so we have played our 3 biggest rivals, exactly as I said. :smiley-laughing002:

 

I think by the time BR starts to make headway with this team it will be 2 seasons in....dont see him being here more than 3 seasons...imo.
if we do the treble and get into the cl again next summer the rumours will start.

 

Sorry mate, you talk more * than I do...Please, thoughts on this?
You say "Yes of course. No Celtic goalkeeper should lose 7 goals and survive" Obviously Forster only lost 6, but going by your thinking, we should have binned Forster after this game here? Just saying...

Barcelona 6-1 Celtic

11 December 2013
​

By Alasdair Lamont​

Senior football reporter, BBC Scotland in Nou Camp, Barcelona​

​

Barcelona handed Celtic the harshest of Champions League lessons by producing a near-perfect display to equal the visitors' heaviest European loss.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/25303700



​

 

Pffft
Don't you hold back now

You are at the wind up here right?

I am going to force my Mini-Hun, Hearts Supporting (But Sevco hating) wife to read this later so I can shout in her face "SEE!! I AM NOT THE BIGGEST CUNTING FOOL ON EARTH" I will let you know how this went..Maybe, I might not survive this, but I am playing this card. Nothing personal, but I can't be the "Biggest * of a man to walk Gods Earth" as I am often told (In Fun really) very often...
As far as I am concerned, I am now the 2nd "Biggest * of a man to walk Gods Earth"

Can you stop looking? Mate I can almost see where you are coming from, really I can. But you are looking for problems that might never happen. I tend to always be optimistic, I even backed Ronny till the bitter end, and got my * handed me for doing so, but I support my team, even at our lowest I remain optimistic, even after Sevco beat us on penalties I made excuses for Ronny. I never beat my team up, never hang players out to dry. I will have a pop at the board, but never the team, no-matter how bad things are.


Forget the past and focus on RIGHT NOW...

We are top of the league with a game in hand.
We are in the Quarters of the League Cup and I do expect us to get to the Semi's.
We are in the Champions League, job was to get there, we did it.




What Rodgers has done to a group of players that were just happy to win games at the end of last season with zero confidence is the work of a miracle worker, a few months ago at the end of last season the players were just praying the season would end, lift the league trophy and pray we got a good manager to improve us, WE DID THIS. We have been improved, but Rome wasn't built in a day. I think most people are asking you why you are so pessimistic when many or most of us can only see optimism and good times ahead.



We all, even Rodgers have said or acknowledged we need to be better in defence. Did you watch what Rodgers said after ICT 2-2, he said "We can't score 5 every week, so when it is a 1 goal lead we need to be better and see the game out. We cleared the 1st header then failed in the 2nd phase defending and they made it 2-2, we need to work on this" He knows what is good, what is bad, he tried to sign a Midfielder but didn't want a panic signing and spend a LOT of money on a maybe, he said "I wanted the right player in there"
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The team we just beat to gain entry in the Champions League just pulled off this result in the Europa League, remember we HORSED them at Celtic Park 5-2, should have been 6-2 near the end, check, Inter Milan 0-2 Hapoel Be'er Sheva. I think it is safe to say Celtic are moving in the right direction but if you listen to every news conference Rodgers speaks in, like I do on Celtic TV, he is saying ALWAYS what we say here. He understands our shortcomings and our strengths. [/FONT]

#Peace

 

This is spot on, mate. Top post.

Far from being a mini-crisis, things realistically couldn't be any better!
Honestly, if you'd offered me this 4 months ago, I'd have laughed in your face and told you to stop dreaming. If we can lose 6-1 in the Nou Camp with Fraser Forster in goals and a team full of CL experience, we can certainly lose 7-0 with Dorus de Vries in goals and a team full of players who were mostly making their CL debuts!

Is it acceptable in the long term? No. But as you so rightly say, Rome wasn't built in a day. What Rodgers has achieved in such a short period of time has totally exceeded my expectations.

So we just got an absolute c*** of a draw, the hardest group we've ever had at a time when we are really just getting back on our feet in European terms? That is totally out of our control, and we'll be a better team next year for the experience. I always thought that next year was a realistic target to make a fist of the CL, although frankly even Lenny's last-16 team would only get 3rd in this ridiculous group.

Facts (sorry to mostly repeat what you said):

1) We have got 4 wins and one draw in our first 5 league games. The only 2 dropped points coming away on a tight pitch, at a place that is traditionally difficult, after an exhausting week that included a Glasgow derby and a trip to the * Nou Camp to chase the shadows of the best players in the world.
2) We are sitting top of the league already with a game in hand.
3) We qualified for the CL group stage for the first time in 3 years, beating a very decent team that just won 2-0 away to Inter in the playoff.
4) In the QF of the League cup.
5) Signing players like Sinclair, Toure and Dembele. Players of a quality that we had got used to accepting was beyond our budget. When was the last time we bought a player of Sinclair's quality?! We've signed them as promising youngsters and developed them (Wanyama, Forster, Virgil), we've made them (Tierney) or loaned them from Man City (Denayer and Roberts), but 4 months ago I could not have imagined us signing quality like that.

All in all it's going to be a great few years to be a Tim. It won't last for ever and if certain people are going to look for problems rather than enjoying it while it lasts, they'll regret it when it's over and they look back.

 

I'm still backing Brendan 110%, it may not sound like that but I am, at no time have I have lost my faith in Brendan like I did with Mowbray and Deila, not yet anyway :smiley-laughing002:, but the same complete moon units on here who criticise and snipe at me are the same moon units who eagerly and foolishy backed Ronny right up to the bitter end , no names no pack drill, even when Rangers beat us last year in the Semi Final, even Big Gaffa, sorry big man I still love you, it is nothing personal .

No one is looking for faults, but we are looking to make sure emerging faults are nipped in the bud before they become terminal, big difference, got that PG ? And a convincing counter argument could and may still be raised to counter the folksy everything is alright in the Celtic family home just now throw away line, be grateful you ungrateful peasants attitude that is casually thrown around by some on this board . They talk about condescending, well theres your condescending attitude right there for you. Be grateful and shut up. We got the same conniving diatribe off them last year on the board, the Ronny Lovers who hate to hear Uncomfortable Truths, you all know who you are.
Grow up and get yourselves a proper life.

And this petty argument they raise about Fraser Forster and his six goal hammering is a blatant act of sophistry, it does not compare favourably with the emotive and symbolic images conjured up in the mind by a 7-0 hammering, a footballing plimsoll line which has been passed by De Vries, and which conjures up disturbing comparable images of the 7-1 defeat by Rangers and Frank Haffey, so please stop with this petty argument of Forster, if Forster had conceded seven goals, I and many others on this board would have called for Forster not to play in goal for Celtic ever again.

 

^^^

 

I understand that you are not looking for faults to annoy, I just don't see the point TBH. For one thing, you'll enjoy the ride a lot less (and so will anyone else you convince to start thinking this way). For another, we are unlikely to spot anything Brendan can't. Finally even in the very unlikely event you see something our extremely experienced and talented manager and his assistants all miss, this is just a message board and it's not likely they will ever see what you write, so you are not really heading off any future issues.

What's the point, mate? The team is a work in progress and, as Brendan and Chris Davies have said on a few occasions, there is still a lot of work to be done. Do you dispute that the turnaround they have achieved in such a short time has exceeded our expectations? Do you think Ronny and the team we had just 4 months ago would have qualified for the CL against a team that has just beaten Inter in the San Siro?

Enjoy it, mate!

I don't think this line about everything being really good at the moment is coming from the board, you only have to look at the facts Gaffa and I outlined above to see there really is cause to feel good. Attendances and ST sales this year tend to bear that out also.

Finally why this arbitrary line between 6 and 7 goals, mate? 6 goals is OK, but this far and no further? :smiley-laughing002:
Come on, Dr V. You know fine well that Forster is a world-class goalkeeper and he had a team in front of him that was far more experienced at CL level than DDV had the other night and yet he lost 6 goals. Christ, imagine making your CL debut (as most of our team, including DDV, did) at the Nou Camp facing Messi, Suárez, Neymar and Iniesta!

No one thinks DDV is in the same class as Boruc or Forster and I, like you, suspect that he isn't good enough for us; but making categorical statements about him being rubbish or past it based on the other night is really unfair, mate.

 

Look at those stats, Dr V. They were accumulated in the CL and the best domestic league in the world (a league so far above ours, any comparison is just plain silly). Isn't that frightening? It doesn't even include Iniesta coming on either.

More than half our team were making their CL debuts, Gamboa was making his actual Celtic debut and Brendan inherited Ronny's team just 4 months ago and we were facing that.

Don't you think a little perspective is in order about the 7 goals?

 

Mini Crisis ?, well who knows it might be a Mini Crisis Brendan is going through depending on the way you look at it, and depending on how Brendan and Chris Davies deal with the fall out of a 7-0 hammering, two dropped points to the bottom of the league team, and the ongoing controversy swirling around De Vries and Gordon, not to mention confidence issues.

 

You just need to look at the team 4 months ago to see how far we've came. This is but the start of something very special at our club