THE MATCHDAY THREAD Discuss ICT & other games in this thread as they happen Celtic -V- Inverness CT PREVIEW 1st Mar 2014 @ 3:00PM Celtic Park, Glasgow Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Facebook Go to the Chatroom Media Coverage AUDIO LIVE COMMENTARY (BBC) [uK/VPN Only] OPEN ALL MICS (BBC) [uK/VPN Only]   TEXT SPFL Official Site ESPN BBC SKY Sporting Life VIDEO SPFL YouTube Channel ICT Official YouTube Channel   TEAM LINEUPS

Probably suffered from the reaction to Aberdeen's victory midweek.  Never mind - win our games in hand and we will still be 3rd.

It's all my fault, the other day I was praising our fantastic defensive record this season as we had achieved 4 consecutive clean sheets.

 

Even after this mauling, in 26 games we have conceded just 26 goals - and the remarkable thing is that half of them came in just 3 games, showing how tight we've been in the other 23 matches!

Put it behind us - not our day. Don't dwell and regroup for Scottish Cup, Hibs and.... What's next again?

Probably best to write this off as one of those days. They are a better and better-resourced side which probably played with a certain amount of wounded pride, and we just didn't get started. Lazy c&p of what I posted over on Pie and Bovril:

 

 It was an absolute stroll for Celtic. It has been a few years since we offered so little threat at Celtic Park - even in the 5-0 game in Brewster's first game back in charge for his second spell, we created several clear chances early on.

 

What struck me was that we seemed to be slower all over the park - going forward, Ross and Vincent were consistently outpaced or outmuscled, and when Celtic were attacking, we didn't seem able to track their movement properly. There was also some uncharacteristically bad defending - Shinnie lost Mulgrew for the second, Raven was shrugged off by Griffiths for the third, and the fourth was a complete howler from Brill, who otherwise had a better game than the scoreline suggests. There were a few nice moves - the one in the first half TheGreenMonster refers to above was lovely, and if Foran had been able to keep his first time shot down then it could have been one of the goals of the season - but really, we didn't present any threat. With their greater quality, and perhaps with a bit of renewed determination after Tuesday night, I expected Celtic to win fairly comfortably, but it was frustrating to see a performance that fell so short of what we're capable of producing.

 

Had Doran been fit, then we might have presented a little more threat; I would like to have seen Watkins on earlier as he is direct and can force defenders onto the back foot; and Ryan Christie showed enough innovation when he came on to suggest that he should probably be given more game time; but overall, it was probably a game we were always going to lose, and if it has a motivating rather than a dispiriting effect on the players, then there's probably no harm done.      

Edited March 1, 201411 yr by alternative maryhill

Bad performance today but always a tricky fixture. not hugely relevant in the scheme of things and more important games coming up. Honestly think we need to rotate things a bit and young Christie is one who I would like to see more of. By all accounts he's got huge potential but needs game time. also like to see more of Watkins and devine.  

Pity we don't have a midweek game to get that out of our system before the quarter final. Dundee United are back in a worryingly rich vein of form.

The next 3 games to shape our season for sure!

The next 3 games to shape our season for sure!

 

Certainly two of them will.

The size of the reverse is a bit of a blow, I wonder if minds were on the next three games, after the way the first half went....if we were to win them all, I guess we wont care...will we?

Agree with all said but...... That was 5 going on a lot more 5 is bad enough but could have should have been a lot more embarrassing

Like this OCG

 

http://caleythistleonline.com/page/index.html/_/reports-2013-14/celtic-v-inverness-ct-report-r1136 

Sums it up perfectly!

I wasn't at the game but from most of the reply s it sounds like we didn't do ourselves any justice today. I think one of those days and we now forget it as we have bigger fish to fry. On match of day you always here when a club lower down the table has to take the points from the teams around them and anything against the better sides is a bonus, well i think this is the case here. 5-0 is disappointing after the other two matches we have played against Celtic this season but they re still the run away leaders can dwarf us in any category and after midweek it was always unlikely that we would get much . Lets forget and move on, huge game up next vs Dundee united in the cup where we could get a place in the semi which would be fantastic. They may have picked up form but they are still very young and not invincible. Hibs i hope will be a formality as they were rank rotten on Friday night and then it is our big day in the sun. It hasnt been a great day and  think 2nd place is going to be very hard to retrieve now but Motherwell only beat Hearts so in fairness was expected to win today but we can still grab 3rd and the European spot instead. Hopefully (even though we wont face the quality of Celtic anywhere else) this will just come as a timely reminder that we still have jobs to do and that yes it is exciting but we must just play every game as it comes. We haven't become a bad team overnight, we just faced a better side with a major point to prove so i am not worried at all. 

Sorry but why are people accepting this result like it doesn't matter. Yes it was at Parkhead against the champions elect but to accept a total grubbing without response is ridiculous. I wasn't at the game but I got a good account from my wife who was there, albeit in her role as a support worker and in the wrong area, and her words couldnt be repeated on here. She says we were totally outplayed and outmuscled. We had no fight just sat back and took it. Regardless whether we were going to get beat or not we should still have been doing a hell of a lot more to at least minimise the deficit. Those goals against could be the difference between europe and no europe. The league is the bread and butter, the cups are bonuses. If this game had been played before we knew our cup fate the thread would be full of anger.

It's all my fault, the other day I was praising our fantastic defensive record this season as we had achieved 4 consecutive clean sheets.

 

Even after this mauling, in 26 games we have conceded just 26 goals - and the remarkable thing is that half of them came in just 3 games, showing how tight we've been in the other 23 matches!

Still on course for our best (top-flight) defensive season ever. 38 against in the 38 games from 2005/06 is our current record with Tokely, Munro, Dods and Golabek the chief defensive custodians. The 5 consecutive clean-sheets after the split that season, certainly helped!

Sorry but why are people accepting this result like it doesn't matter. Yes it was at Parkhead against the champions elect but to accept a total grubbing without response is ridiculous. I wasn't at the game but I got a good account from my wife who was there, albeit in her role as a support worker and in the wrong area, and her words couldnt be repeated on here. She says we were totally outplayed and outmuscled. We had no fight just sat back and took it. Regardless whether we were going to get beat or not we should still have been doing a hell of a lot more to at least minimise the deficit. Those goals against could be the difference between europe and no europe. The league is the bread and butter, the cups are bonuses. If this game had been played before we knew our cup fate the thread would be full of anger.

 

Obviously the cup final has made people far more optimistic about the season as a whole, but I think the way this result is apparently being shrugged off is as much to do with the fact that it has come on the back of two decent league wins. Given that John Hughes has had a patchy start in the league, I think a lot of people were quietly pessimistic about the County game, yet it sounds like the performance and tactics were excellent. Even for a game where getting anything was going to be a long shot, there's no question that yesterday's performance was very poor - from your paraphrase, your wife's analysis was spot on - but, imho, there's not much point in being heavily critical unless this turns out to be the start of a run of poor performances.

We broke the golden rule of going to Parkhead by losing an early goal; the only way to succeed there is to frustrate the team and crowd until at least half-time. As others have said: so long as it has a positive and not demoralising effect..

No point harping on about the defeat, just take it on the chin and move on, no matter what games are coming up.

Was there. We were outclassed.

 

This may though go down as the greatest result of our season. Next Sunday's game is very important. The Cup Final is important. We are virtually certain to be in the Top 6. Only Hibs can catch us and that is very unlikely.

 

We will respond. Celtic are out of both cups and have the League only to concentrate on. They responded like dynamite from their Aberdeen loss. They gambled £1,000 on Van Dijk's appeal. They were up for celebrating Fergus McCann saving them from disaster. We lost Doran who would have given them some extra worries.

 

History. 

We were rubbish and nothing came off for us and for Celtic everything did. We also seem to be back to trying to pass the ball into the net again.

Ryan Christie looked good when he came on though.

Couldn't care less about matches against the Old Firm (what there is left).  And I don't just mean when it's ICT. It's boring.  Just exhibitions.  Will Barcelona beat Blackpool?  Yeah, of course, unless the multi-millionaires can't be bothered. Who will win the SPL this year? Who will win it next? They aren't worth bothering about.

Who was that real old pensioner on at the start?  God, he went on forever!  I don't know what the cap signifies as well, but it wasn't half boring.  Get on with it for good nasake! 

Who was that real old pensioner on at the start?  God, he went on forever!  I don't know what the cap signifies as well, but it wasn't half boring.  Get on with it for good nasake!

Totally agree! Thought it should have been done at half time if at all! Players already warmed up standing getting cold too!

Brian Quinn he helped Fergus macann take over celts hours before they were going to fold. Built the wonderful stadium we were in yesterday. 20 year anniversary of take over. Wasn't a cap bye the way it was a bunnet always worn by Fergus.

As a club we shouldn't have agreed to it and told them to do it at half time.

We are still in a cup final, a quarter final and they aren't.

Like others, I also made a last minute decision to go the game and had to endure sitting amongst the Celtic support (luckily there was nothing to cheer about anyway!) Yogi got it wrong yesterday, the players got it wrong yesterday and we were lucky not to concede more. Just a few observations:

 

The tactics yesterday were wrong. Giving it a "right good go" at Celtic Park is just asking for Celtic to over run us. We started the game playing a straight 4-4-2 as follows:

 

Brill

 

Raven Warren Meekings Shinnie

 

Vincent Draper Tansey Ross

 

McKay Foran

 

Neither Vincent or Ross are natural wingers that will run at the fullback and take them on. This lead to both of them tucking inside on numerous occasions which allowed Shinnie and Raven to press forward into the space. This tactic is all well and good when we can keep the ball and feed it out wide but Draper and Tansey (in particular) were too often caught on the ball or tried the impossible pass through the crowded middle of the park to Foran (more on him later!) and McKay. This left us short at the back and with the pace from Forrest, Stokes and Griffiths, Celtic were often through three on two with little protection for Warren and Meekings.

 

I haven't had the chance to see us under Hughes that often but the thing that really struck me yesterday (and on other occasions) was the difference in style between Butcher and Hughes. Butcher was all about getting the ball forward quickly, getting crosses into the box and seeing that happens. Hughes has certainly got the team passing from the back with the fullbacks pushing onto the halfway line for goal kicks looking to receive the ball. I'm not slating Hughes and I am far from an being against Hughes but I would question the ball retention strategy. I understand the logic of it but for years, we have been a team that have been built upon graft, soaking up pressure and hitting on the counter attack quickly. The way the team set up yesterday was to slow play down which allowed Celtic to get back into shape and gave them the chance to steal back possession quickly. In short, i'm yet to be convinced.

 

I would much preferred to see a formation as follows yesterday:

 

Brill

 

Raven Warren Meekings Shinnie

 

Foran Draper

 

Watkins Vincent/Tansey Ross

 

McKay

 

My last observation (I could make many more but won't!) is centred on Richie Foran. Let me get this in straight away, I am a big Foran fan and I fully agree that we play better when he plays, he has bucket loads of passion for the club and will hopefully become manager at some stage. However, yesterday I was very disappointed in him. Hopefully I am being over critical but I thought his work rate was poor, he was looking to make everything about him and he just didn't look very up for it. I personally prefer him playing the deeper lying midfield role now but yesterday I thought he looked really very poor upfront. He wasn't the only player and it's perhaps harsh to single him out but I think as club captain he needs to take a little bit more responsibility for the teams performance and attitude.

 

I full agree with Yogi when he said the result isn't going to define our season and I think as fans, we need to move on from yesterday now and focus on next weeks cup tie. We've had a fantastic season so far and the players deserve all the praise that they'll get. We really can go far this year so lets get behind the team and cheer them on to a cup double.