Respect to the Opponent

They did plenty mate. Like ridiculously sliced us open with three 1 touch passes and were raining down from the right (usually) towards the box, that first half they did it about 3 or 4 time's in succession and we were blitzed..

Real good side..

 

they also played with a shape that you hardly ever see, and it gave them numbers all over the park, not many teams play 3 4 3 these days.

 

German ting.

I said before the game that a Bundesliga side should cause more concern than any EPL team.

 

Stindl was superb him and Emenike is the two best away performers I've seen at Celtic Park

 

BMG are playing Bayern Munich at the weekend and we are playing newco. Some difference in quality of opposition there!

 

there was the 4 that were injured.then they rested a few as well.dahoud wasn't even playing.thought we would of drew before the game.but gladbach were superb.

 

Vestergaard is an absolute man mountain. Decent with the ball as well.

 

* Germans. Hard not to admire them when it comes to football.

 

Fantastic people in my experience as well.

 

Well, we were playing stupid in that game(something that happens when you play young guys, like we do) and started giving them counter attacks at their stadium 15 minutes into the game.

For the team thing:
We also value team play a lot given that we don't have the money for top stars(compared to other top teams in Europe) and need to find other ways.
Last season we only had one guy in double figures(Raffael with 13 goals) but still scored 67 goals in the league because we had a dozen players with three or more goals.

We actually played a traditional 4-4-2(something we did for nearly five seasons, before we switched at the start of 2016) and had Strobl + Kramer as "workhorses" in front of that back four.
We also kept Mo Dahoud on the bench, because we wanted to have more grit in midfield, even though he's one of the best midfield talents in Europe and able to make a difference going forward.


Overall I think the result also had a lot to do with the timing of the game.
Schubert had stated that he would change the approach during away games(we've been horrific in 2016), after our latest defeat at Schalke, because we just aren't als lethal and hungry for goals away from home, even though we were better in most games.

Because of that we chose a more defensive minded approach that didn't help Celtic at all, cause you didn't really know what to do with it and also didn't have any space if you were able to win the ball from us.
This was also the reason for all those long balls, cause we forced Kolo Toure into a playmaker role and the only thing he was able to do were long balls, given that no one else was available.
And those had no chance against a guy like Vestergaard, who's a bit over 6'6.

 

Can't argue with that analysis either.

 

Yeah, fair comment that. We could have really used VvD last night. He's a player who is comfortable bringing the ball out from the back and that would have opened up space for others.

 

Makes sense. It's what we must aspire to too, as a team with an even lesser budget. I think we're moving in the right direction though. Missing 1-2 quality players in certain areas (midfield), but have the makings of a decent team if we can keep them together for a couple more years and get them experience at this level.

 

If we're going down that route we really could have used Wanyama as well

 

As much as I love to hate continental teams we play at CP, the team and the fans were excellent. Impressed by their composure in possesion and it seemed as if every man had the option of an easy pass when they had the ball.

 

That eased the pain for me a bit. The fans were quality and i have full respect for them.

 

Joe Ledley and Fraser Forster would have come in handy as well.

 

Still not a patch on Riquelme. Never been more terrified of anybody we've played against than him. He played the game at walking pace and you couldn't get anywhere * near him.