24 Oct 2014 07:26:04
Was the performance against Astra showing signs that the Deila masterplan is coming together?

What masterplan - serious question? and do not give me drivel straight from the football managers guide for beginners!

We are accepting absolute torturous performances in the hope it will all improve and i'm willing to give Ronny time but I will not lie, its only because we can afford to. Rangers, Hibs and Hearts are gone, through their own fault and are a shadow of the teams they used to be (walking dead jokes aside).

I asked yesterday, what is it you think Ronny's trying to do and where do you think it will lead Celtic with the current set of players?

Going by the majority of our performances this season, when we meet a team with a decent centre forward - Celtc are onto a hiding that no papering over the cracks will cover. When was the last time we played a decent team and won convincingly or are we going to keep kidding on Dundee Utd are decent - what was their result in Europe last night?

Last season I was slated for applauding Iniesta off the park and just accepting being in the Champions League - well what is this, scrapping a win v Astra (a team most have never heard of)?

1.) 24 Oct 2014
Was no where near as comfortable as I predicted. First twenty minutes were decent without creating a clear chance. The rest of the fist half was poor. Pinging it to their corners, them sussing us out and us playing it all the way back to defence which at times looked like a real scare the pressure they put us under. Set pieces (and we had a few) were poor most of the game too. We lacked somebody in that pocket between defence and midfield as Johansen was sitting deep in the first half. They looked much better at passing the ball over small distances than us.

Game of two halves, second half - much better. More urgency and better passing movement. Could have got a couple more than we did but so could they to be fair. Why we didn't play like that from the off? Who knows. Great result in the end. Hopefully we'll take confidence from that second half and when we go to their place, take he game to them a bit more too.

We dreadfully still miss a natural anchor of a midfielder (mulgrew had a poor game) and experience CB. January please PL.

2.) 24 Oct 2014
24 Oct 2014 09:23:42
@mrs E , I thought it showed when the players do what Rd asks them to do his plan works. The first half was poor although Astra sat in and made it very difficult. Our tempo wasn't high enough and most of what they created was down to poor mistakes by us, Virgil and mulgrew particularly. Second half tempo was much higher and we could have been a couple ahead by the time we scored. Think scepovic did ok and his goal will do him the world of good. Great to see crosses going in with someone there to attack them. He should have scored 2 and could have had a hatrick and on another day he will, but he was in there on the end of things which has been sadly lacking lately. It was certainly a struggle but when we upped the pace we were decent to watch and able to hurt them. 3points playing not particularly well is a good sign for me. A good side would have taken goals off us though.

3.) 24 Oct 2014
24 Oct 2014 09:41:29
Mrs E the fans are beginning to see for themselves that Delia has much work to do and are not being fooled by his after match press comments of "we were unlucky" or "we made 20 chances"
As I keep saying there is zero passion in most of our play and no pace, far too many unforced sloppy passes, surely Delia should be working on the training ground to eradicate all these mistakes.
But to try and be more positive I thought once again Gordon was fantastic, Lustig's crossing deserved better and Stokes, Scepovic or Johansen getting on the end of one of them. Izzy woked hard all night, Scepovic? I will give him praise because he kept at it all night, despite missing at least 2 golden chances, but he got his reward with his goal, let's hope he will kick on now.

4.) 24 Oct 2014
24 Oct 2014 12:55:19
There are things that Ronnie could do better however the problem is there for all to see, especially when we play European teams. We can't pass the football. If you can't pass you can't retain the ball and then you can't build momentum to go forward. We couldn't pass it last season either. In Europe under Neil Lennon we relied on Sammy carrying the ball out of our half or the pace of Forrest giving us some relief, but the ball just kept on coming back to us because we can't retain it. We can't retain it because we can't pass to each other. We know we need to change how we play or we will never move on. God love Ronnie he is still sticking with his system when lesser men would have gone back to our old style. My worry is that with the players he has and the financial constraints I can't see how he can change it. For the last few seasons we have known that if we just man up 11 v 11 that over the season as we have better individuals and a bigger squad we will come out on top. The opposite in Europe but we accepted that. Now we are trying to change which we need to do but until these players can play passes and accept a ball from 5 yards at pace Ronnie has got a battle on his hands. Don't have an answer but I believe that the problem is there for all to see. Ronnie is getting it for trying to make us better. These players need to be able to pass and retain the ball.