Was the game lost off the field?

I'd take the Maribor defence, Ibrahimi, Tavares, Mendy and one or two others. This whole nonsense about Van Dijk or whoever walking into their team is nonsense. They're a well drilled outfit who frustrated us and did create many chances, I mean we were lucky we weren't going in behind at the break.

The reason we didn't qualify, sorry the reason we were knocked out twice, is because of what we've been left with and the fact we haven't been actively looking to improve our squad. Tbh, the board should have came out and said "listen lads, we scraped through last year, so don't expect us to qualify because we're selling Forster, we're probably not going to spend overly much and we're not really budgeting for CL qualification".

Anyone with half a brain could see Maribor had more quality than we did all round the pitch. There's no way in * this can be laid at the feet of Ronny. He said after we lost to Legia this team wasn't good enough and besides Tonev who's injured, we haven't actually strengthened!

 

This post is absolutely spot on. And i have seen previous posts from you where you have been saying the same things for some time (and getting abuse for it). So no one can say you are one of those who just jumps in after a bad result. I have been saying the same things for the last cuple of years, maybe even longer.
The board of this club for some time now have been doing the minimum they can get away with as regards signing players and even managers. Its no coincidence that when the huns were still around they were prepared to spend more, to be (just) better than them. Now they only have to spend enough to be better than Aberdeen, Dundee utd, etc. They let the club drop its standards drastically in the last 10 years. From a position of strength they should have kicked on from Seville and spent enough money to become a regular CL group stage, last 16, or even better team. FFS the money spent would have been mostly recouped. They knew we needed a striker badly but gambled on sneaking into the group stages first. And they never had the balls to gamble by spending on decent players before the qualifiers. They have gone the cheap route with everything. They appointed Neil Lennon, not because he was the best around, but because it was the cheap option. They got lucky with him having some success and the huns going bust. Now they appoint Deila, not because he was the best around, but because its the cheap option.
I hate to say it but i really hope that new team from Glasgow come up to the spl next season and have millions to spend because it will mean that this board will actually get the * finger out.
So, yes, i think the board are totally to blame for the shambles this football club is in. And the thing i hate most is that the expectations of the fans has dropped so low that we were praying the team would play defensively last week against Maribor.......* Maribor. No disrespect to them but we should be wiping the floor with teams like that. This board are responsible for making our great club a laughing stock on the field in europe.

 

Jock Stein knew his football , the quote I remember him was , the opponents cannot score if they haven't the ball. My problem is that you wouldn't recognise the same attacking players this season from last . RD is definitely doing something different and wrong from Lennon and he needs to change and change quickly . If the striker we were supposed to be signing from Spain watched last night's match is it any wonder he is having second thoughts .