What have we learned from this year in Europe?

Players have gained invaluable experience for next year.

 

Said the same last season.

 

We are so far behind other teams

 

We have quite a few new players.

 

We are about 3 players away from being a CL team.

 

Probably not mate but I do have a feeling we'll spend something or get a decent loanee in January. The board will know fans are disgruntled with our European showing.

 

A loan could be a good solution Deebo, just to get us in there. I normally don't like them because they are hard to replace but CL qualification is top priority.

Prof., how much do you think quality we need will cost? I reckon £5m per player we need.

Can't see the board releasing £5m nevermind £15m.

Is it correct Ronny said they have their eye on two players for January?

 

I'd agree about Griffiths' all round game, but he's proven capable of getting goals against decent sides. Gordon has always had a blunder in him, even in his Hearts days. It's annoying, but I'm not sure we can get much better to replace him.

Perhaps I should've said he cab 'still' do it at this level, but I think this has been his most productive year in Europe.

A horrible feeling, that. The big European clubs used to hate coming to Parkhead. Passionate crowd and a tough, well-organised team.

Hopefully the manager gained more than the players.

Absolutely.

 

The system we played didn't work well enough in defending our goal you don't have to be a great team but if you have a system that works it helps.

 

Exactly, look no further than Molde for the prime example. Smart, well-organised and hard-working. Throw in a bit of pace in forward areas and you have a well-oiled counter-attacking unit.

 

I think Ronny is making progress there. When we sit deeper and man mark at set peices we get better results.

Gordon needs to command his box a bit better too. He was doing that well against Fener too.

I agree Keiran, I think we'd do better to be more counter attacking in Europe and the Cup games.

 

We need more leaders. Reading through this thread Molde have been mentioned a couple of times and tbh we should be looking at how they handled theirselves this campaign. They dont have many great players but they were very organised and gave 100% for the jersey. That 40 year old guy fought like a * warrior both legs against us, someone like him wouldn't go a miss

 

Because of the lack of money and selling the best players we are longer a force in Europe. Many on here, save a few jokers, (they know who they are), are facing up to the reality of the situation in Scotland.
Everyone knows that Sky and BT are giving BILLIONS to the EPL and peanuts to Scotland.
Hence Scotland have just 1 club (Celtic) who is in the main stage of Europe, whilst the EPL have many teams and then after the group stage Scotland has NOT ONE CLUB, whereas the EPL have 6 teams, 3 in the main and 3 in the Europa.
Before 1or 2 say i am pro EPL. I am NOT. I wish it was different. It is not a level playing field. The current Celtic squad, through no fault of the BOD/Management is made up of ORDINARY players who are doing their best, in most cases. Any good ones get sold off. Commons at 32 is probably the best and he has only been a Championship player. It is a sad reflection of the current state of Scottish football and sadly i don't see a way out, which is unfortunate.
Personally i wish to see Celtic down South, yes i know , the old debate and i know ttake Celtic away from Scotland and what then happens to Scottish football. Many on here don't want it, but i think it may come in time. As for the interim, Celtic may have to face that whilst we are are top dogs in Scotland, in Europe, we must face the prospect that we are making up the numbers.

 

I think we have some good players in the squad. We could, with a few quality experienced additions, have a pretty capable side.

We really need to be more flexible tactically though, we're ridiculously rigid. It doesn't really matter if it's 4-3-3, 4-4-2, or 4-5-1, we need the ability to adapt tactically which we don't have, and much of this is down to deilas stubbornness.

We need a defensive mid. If that means sacrificing Johansen for a holding midfielder then so be it, but we absolutely need one. The defensive frailties are more down to the system than having poor player imo, based on last seasons defensive pairing still looking pretty awful in Europe.

 

Yeh, kris Commons who has played in multiple international fixtures, the Europa league, and the champions league has only ever been a championship player

 

I think the point about 'leaders' is correct. Looking through our squad, the experienced heads are Gordon, Lustig, Mulgrew, Brown and Commons. Only one has played at an International tournament, and none of them have any real experience of the latter stages of European competition.

 

King of Kings, i think you know that i was meaning that Commons, a very good player and possibly has been been our best player, was never good enough to play in the top English league, pleas correct me if i have got it wrong...lol

 

I'm not sure I'd agree that he was never good enough. The guy has always had the talent, but his lack of pace and general physique will have put off a lot of English clubs who were more concerned about buying more exotic imports from elsewhere.