[Official TC Thread] Celtic v Anderlecht: Tues 05/12/17, 19:45. Bt Sport ESPN

Hard to believe it's the same player Packy, he was brilliant last year , strong, skilful fast, great passer, great back tracking and scored 17 goals
As you correctly point out its not like he isn't capable of it, the only thing reminiscent from this season and last season is," his hair is still fine ".

 

We desperately need better technical players if we want to compete at this level and by this level I mean the likes of Anderlecht, not PSG, Bayern etc.

One thing that is clear as day in these games between us and the opposition is the first touch. So many top players use their first touch to set themselves for a pass or next move. We're usually too busy taking the first touch while trying to stop running and within seconds we're either backed into a corner or playing frantic passes back the way.

 

Legend mate. He's just sat down and put it on his big screen. Says the picture is incredible.

Poor *.

 

We were * tonight but in no way scraped through..

We were never ever in danger of being beat by 3 tonight..

We deserve to be where we are for our away performance in Brussels..

 

No problem mate.

 

I'd love him to hit the form he did last season but after all the * about with the contract last season and the fact he only signed a 2 year extension. Something isn't right with his form, he's clearly an intelligent guy so I doubt it is as simple as his head being turned.

 

its mentality not tactics the players never performed 1st half the way rodgers had sent them out to perform

players not upping their level when playing against a higher level of team and players which is massively better standard in europe and thats not including the super wealthy teams

maybe armstrong and sinclair want to play elsewhere possibly had their heads turned or can take the critisism from say big sutty or others or maybe our league and european struggles not satisfying enough for them

i'd like to see some aggression and fight from mcgreggor think he hides at times and all in all when you have 3-4 players not giving their absolute best especially in champions league games it really shows and leaves the team and other players trying to pick up the pieces and their game then suffers, i think thats what happened to boyata tierney brown simunovic lustig and forrest

when other players dont put in the spade work or otherwise aint performing then it hurts the team and when 3 or 4 players at the same time aint performing then the games a bogey

 

Even worse, I went to 5 of the 6 games... the 5 we got beat

 

I guess it had to get better 2nd half, agree with BR, Tom and Oli looked far better. I thought CM got a tad better too with these two coming on, however as said he goes missing and seems to be a bit weak at times, whilst Armstrong seems to have pace and running power but at the moment looks a far off player.

Wee CM was slipped in and he looked like he was running in treacle and the defender easily caught him, looked so slow.

Wee KT was up and down the wing, but for me he was criminal tonight in all aspects (outwith endeavour), he made Izzy's crossing looks like Beckham tonight, was woeful, best play was the slip in to Dembele who slipped on his *, and defensively, might not be his choice, but the space he gives the wide player is a joke, Lustig was slightly better in that aspect but also a bit central, but they just pinged balls out diagonally all night and they got away with it, especially on KT's wing. His poor clearance led to the goal too which was disappointing.

For me currently our centre of midfield has to be Broony, Ntcham and Rogic. Armstrong has to get the finger out, but feel he's probably behind CM at this moment too.

 

True mate, champions league games especially If one player no competing bad enough but 3 or 4 your f//ked, Anderlecht players aw looked comfortable on the ball but they had no physicality about them and their final ball in front of goal was lacking, they aren't a good European team and we should not be losing to them at home, Awrite saying we are through which is good but to a man leaving Celtic park tonight aw the fans looked well * of off, apart from the clowns no one expected anything against PSG or Bayern but tonight there was a great buzz outside and inside stadium at start everyone expecting at least a 2-0, 3-0 type performance, fair play to the GB and most of the fans who never stopped singing but for the last 20 minutes everyone just looked deflated.

 

Agree with what you said.

First half Sinclair, Armstrong and McGregor done heehaw, could have took either or all 3 off. Ntcham made a big impact and Rogic done ok, McGregor got more involved with us seeing more of the ball.

We were dire in the first half, couldnt put 3 passes together and they were camped in our half. We actually started the 2nd half well and were the better team then they scored, the next 15 minutes were mixed then it seemed from the 75th minute onwards we cut our losses and parked the bus and just seen the game out and werent interested in attacking. The final straw was when we passed the ball from a corner on about 85 minutes and tried to hold possession rather than swing it in and go for an equaliser, * were going mental.

 

Had both teams to score, only team to beat me as yet, fkn even done Swansea U23 v Charlton, lol.

 

At least it can only get better bud, a wee Europa league trip away might bring some joy

 

Probably not, last three Europa away games I went to were Ajax, Dinamo Zagreb and Inter, a draw and 2 losses

 

Yeah mate that has to be main midfield on present form, if it's an away tie trying to hold onto something then it's kouassi for rogic

 

Fs mate, good on you ,are you Paul the Tim? a was in Dortmund for 1-1 , Austria for 2-2 and 2-1 in nou 2012, as far as Celtic n away games in Europe, my record s no bad

 

I've been to 15 I think from looking at them. My record is * 12 losses and 3 draws

 

The GB not for the first time were the best thing about the night, even in the last 20 minutes when everyone seemed deflated and many were streaming away that lot in the corner were still going at it 100% and were an absolute credit, the truth is the performance the team put in was not fitting of that type of backing.

The atmosphere in general (bar the GB section) I thought quickly died off as it was looking obvious the performance we hoped for was not transpiring, it took until the second half to get near full swing again when to be fair the team did improve and the tempo was far better.

It's been a weird Group, in the sense we are in the Europa League in February it's clearly a success but the truth is 4 of the games we have been woeful and at times an embarassment, we've qualified due to one decent performance in Brussels, you could argue that we put in 3 decent performances last year in a group that I believe was probably harder to get the 3rd place as the 3rd pot team Moenchengladbach were a tougher team to beat over 2 games than Anderlecht, the other 2 Barcelona and City are on a similar level to Bayern and PSG and it was to our credit we were unbeaten by City.

We clearly need better players at this level and Brendan knows it but a few 10 million pound players won't turn us into someone who can turn over these top seeded teams, that I'm fully aware of but surely they can make a better fist of things than this team has, particularly defensively where new blood is needed as a matter of urgency with regards to Europe.

There's a lot of games before the Europa League and much could change in that time, hopefully in the form of the likes of Armstrong and Sinclair, my feeling is in 2 legged games our defence is even more of a worry due to the away goal rule, some excellent teams await, Athletico Madrid, CSKA, Arsenal, Leipzig for starters, there will be plenty of teams in there better than Anderlecht so I'm taking nothing for granted and don't count on any long runs but what I do know is by the time that game comes round I will be feeling more optimistic than myself and 60k others felt in the last 20 minutes of watching that rubbish tonight

 

Couldn't agree more mate

 

That was the game plan though, especially in the 2nd half we compressed the middle forcing them out wide where we would press onto them trying to force the hard ball then win it back. If KT stayed out wide then there be a huge gap down the channel.
Can't blame him first half cause Armstrong and Sinclair never helped him at all, Ntcham was sprinting out to the right winger each time when he came on doing a great job. Then we had more bodies on the right handside with Lustig, CMG and Forrest since they were overloading that side trying to isolate Lustig.

For the goal there were several mistakes, we dropped to deep and players out of position not to mention some bad luck/