Brendan Fraudgers!

If Lennon could have Celtic employ two different styles of football (one for strong opposition in Europe, another for Scotland), surely Brendan could, too?

 

We could very well go on to win the Europa with what we have middle to front but are so fragile at the back and need to toughen up!

 

Agreed. I think sloppy passing and lack of defensive awareness is ruining our game at CL level. Playing our risky passing game pays off domestic when opponents don't have the lungs to press 90 mins straight, but against teams that have players who can press all game we need to be more pragmatic.

 

If we are to develop this football club properly long term, the idea is to play the same game against every opponent. If we continue to play the right way against top class opposition, the players will gain plenty of experience.

Experience like taking the ball in tight areas against world class players, knowing when to press, trying to limit their options on the ball, when to show for your team mate at the right time.

These experiences against world class players will then help them when we come up against teams like Lazio, Beşiktaş, Hoffenheim. Who all have top class players but not in the same class as PSG or Bayern.

If we sat deep last night and against Man City and Barca last season, we would have learned nothing and took a few hammerings anyway, as these teams play against this tactic domestically and world class players find gaps no matter how deep you park the bus.

We would then come up against high class opposition in the Europa League and not have a clue how to approach it. Do we sit in again? Or do we go out and play our normal game?

The reason Brendan Rodgers has been so successful with us is that he implemented a system and a way of playing. He’s not going to sacrifice it against anyone which I personally love, our club will reap the long term benefits of this. If you’ve watched our youth team in the Champions League we try and play the exact same way.

If anything I would have encouraged us to play this way even more last night in what was an absolute dead rubber. Doing what we did last night and losing 7-1 will have far more long term benefits than sittting in, emptying it, and getting * 5-0 anyway.

 

The only experience we get is the one of what happens when you try to play out from the back against insanely expensive strike forces. Some things are just suicidal.

 

Let's not forget that we lost 6 goals to Barcelona under Lenny with a team that included Van dijk. There is always the possibility of results like this happening

 

Fair enough hard to disagree with that i suppose once we scored we should have played to hit them on the break i agree

 

But we dont have Wanyama, Van dijk and Forster anymore though

 

The things is, we have the players to play as a decent counter attacking team. Sinclair & Forrest on the wings and Dembele or Griffiths are both quick enough to get in behind defences.

Basle fared well a few seasons ago with guys like Salah, playing that way. We need to learn how to set up better defensively and we could do the same. Keep adding pace on the wings, up front and in the number 10 position. Add some experience in the centre of defence and we could do much better in games like last night.

 

True- but I think it's also symptomatic that Rodgers' signings don't feature defenders much. It's like he ignores this area of the pitch.

 

Over time i think he will sign the players we need. We can only spend a certain amount each transfer window and given our terrific consistency at the moment it would be a bad move to bring in an influx of players in 1 window.

 

Loved Lenny and liked WGS..

But BR is on a different level from either tbh..

 

He beat Barcelona.

 

we could have real madrids players but if we play them against scottish opposition most of the time their standards will drop as they find it too easy and the dont have to try as hard

when our players step out there in paris, yes they will be nervous and yes some might get a bit of stage fright or struggle under the pressure, i've seen plenty players in my time watching celtic struggle against european teams from brilliant leagues compared to our pishy league

theres a few problems, some of our players are maybe not good enough ? or not used to the playing at the level that is required ? that is to do with fitness and awareness, aswell as talent on the ball and off it!

marking your player and matching the runs and concentration levels at the champions league levels ? you can see their players probing us and moving us about with consummate ease

our players regularly playing at a top level regularly so that the step up to champions league level won't be as massive as it is now ?

if we played say this season in the french league or spanish league or italian league and our players got used to playing at that level and our fitness and game sharpness/awareness rose to the levels required we would instantly be better against barcelona or psg

if we were to play almost any team from the italian, spanish, german, french even english you would see that our players would struggle to play at the pace required for the length of the games concentration is huge at this level, you just cant switch off all these money filled teams are predators waiting and seeking out the weaknesses in our setup

 

Lets get this in reality. Currently Scottish football is at it's weakest in living history. We are MILES ahead of the rest. I would like to think Neil would win the treble now, with what we compete against week in week out. Only Ronny Deila couldn't motivate the current squad to win a treble. Any decent manager should be winning the treble currently with our squad. Remember we're paying Fudgie 2.5 million to achieve this

 

I think it's extremely naive to suggest Rodgers' Celtic only have one way of playing.