Author: wayofthecass

I wax lyrical about all things irrelevant.

Post-match analysis: Red Bull Salzburg 3 – 1 Celtic – The same old story!

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Sometimes it’s great to be proved right.

This isn’t one of those times.

As predicted Celtic were pretty emphatically swept aside by Red Bull Salzburg in the Red Bull Arena last night.

Like most, I had approached the game with little to no belief that we could get something due to a combination of our opponent’s red-hot form and our own indifferent performances thus far this season. That plus the fact our record away in Europe is generally God awful.

So I was pretty shocked when after about 90 seconds Odsonne Edouard got the better of Andre Romalho and then finished expertly after a hopeful ball over the top from McGregor.

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French Eddy wheels away.

Thereafter we actually played the game pretty well with a good defensive shape and looked pretty tasty at times on the break.

We reduced Salzburg to some speculative shots from distance and right before half-time we looked to have increased our lead after another stampeding run at their goal from Edouard ended up with the same player scoring again after Salzburg keeper Alexander Walke saved well from a James Forrest effort but alas French Eddy had strayed offside.

Then came the second half and well…………….as the title alluded to we completely capitulated.

Salzburg went through the gears and we got deeper and deeper with Craig Gordon saving well from Dabbur and you hoped we had weathered the storm but then bang on 55 mins the same man was left standing alone in the box and with Jack Hendry marking thin air five yeards away he received a cutback from Hannes Wolf and swept it home for the equaliser.

From then on out there was only one team in it and wave after wave of attack resulted in a second Salzburg goal as Japanese internationalist Minamino almost waked in with Boyata missing wildly with a sliding challenge and Hendry again taken to the cleaners.

An inevitable third came when Dabbur swept home a penalty after Forrest was adjudged to have taken down Andreas Ulmer with 18 mins to go. It looked harsh, to be honest, but what the hell Forrest was doing in that position in the first place is anyone’s guess and it very much was a winger’s tackle.

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Forrest sees red.

Substitute Junuzovicat smacked one off the post late on and Celtic provided little to nothing going forward in the whole of the second half so it was a relief to hear the final whistle. 

Performance wise Leigh Griffiths was an empty jersey all night, Ntcham was absolutely wretched, Lustig continues to add weight o the belief that he is a spent force and Hendry as previously stated is lost in a Celtic jersey.

We desperately need Benkovic back in defence and sorely missed both Rogic and Brown, the latter especially in the second half as the team looked absolutely rudderless.

Yes, we didn’t expect a win or even a draw and yes Salzburg now remain undefeated at home since November 2016 in all competitions – which included rattling Lazio 4-1 in the quarter-finals of this very competition last season – so on the face of it, there is no disgrace.

But they were nowhere near the level of the Champions League teams we’ve faced in recent years ie: Barca, PSG, Bayern Munich etc yet in the second half we folded against them in almost identical fashion.

Brendan’s record in European football at the club is pretty poor, to say the least.

It currently stands at 14 wins from 36 matches for a 39% win percentage with 14 losses and 8 draws. In those 36 matches we’ve conceded 55 goals and scored 54 but it’s away from home where it really comes eye-watering.

You see on the road that was our 18th away tie under Brendan last night of which we’ve won four with five draws and nine defeats scoring 18 and conceding a pretty remarkable 36 so an average of two a game.

Too often we looked disjointed, confused and hopeless at the back and it’s been going on for three seasons now with no end in sight.

Our next two Europa League games are a doubleheader against RB Leipzig with the first game two weeks next Thursday so three weeks to try and get the likes of Benkovic, Rogic and Brown back and try and find some form as well as an actually feasible gameplan for playing away in Europe.

This really is turning into one long hard season.

Europa League Preview: Red Bull Salzburg vs Celtic – The full lowdown on the original Energy Drink FC!

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So on Thursday night, it’s off to Austria we go.

And what awaits us is not just the best team in the country by some distance but also arguably the form team of all of European football.

Yes, that is how daunting the task that awaits us is.

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Their form so far this season has been incredible having claimed 13 wins from 15 matches with no defeats in all competitions and 42 goals scored in the process so yeah…………..a tough one.

Firstly some history on the club and though they have actually existed since 1933 they were taken over by Austrian soft drinks manufacturer Red Bull as far back as 2005 and subsequently renamed as Red Bull Salzburg.

A name change was no stranger to them as they had been rebranded several times before in their history due to various sponsorship deals with their traditional name being SV Austria Salzburg.

They had also been pretty successful pre-Red Bull having won the league three times in the 90’s when known as Casino Salzburg but things have really taken off since being snapped up by everyone’s second or third favourite energy drink.

Indeed since then, they have captured nine Austrian Bundesliga titles and five Austrian Cups.  The current Austrian league champions they have won the last five championships in a row and look odds-on for a sixth straight title.

Of course, we played them in this very competition only four short years ago and actually did quite well against them nicking a 2-2 draw – anyone remember the sensational Mubarak WakasoSmail Prevljak??? No? – on their patch and then going down 3-1 at home though we were unlucky to not get something that night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_c_0TatCW0

Officially after company restructuring Red Bull are just the sponsor now so that both they and RasenBallsport Leipzig, also owned by Red Bull, could both play in continental competition at the same time – last years Champions League and this seasons Europa – so as to satisfy UEFA’s competition laws but there is no doubt who is still financing them as the chocolate fireguard that is UEFA sits idly by.

To go along with their imperious domestic form in Europe, they have been no slouch either and made last season’s UEFA Europa League semi-final where they lost out 3-2 on aggregate to eventual runners-up Olympic Marseille.  Along the way, they eliminated Real Sociedad, Borussia Dortmund and Lazio.

Their home ground is the imaginatively titled Red Bull Arena in the picturesque setting of Wals-Siezenheim just outside Salzburg. Built in 2003 and renovated two years later by the new owners it holds just under 32,000.

Their manager is the 42-year-old  German Marco Rose who gained the hot seat in the summer of 2017 – the tenth manager since Red Bull took over –  and has suffered only six defeats in 74 competitive games.  His previous experience was mainly with the Salzburg youth teams where he enjoyed incredible success including winning the Europa Youth League title in 2017 after beating Manchester City, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona en route to the final.

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The men to watch out for are numerous but I’ll stick to the strikers for now.

Israeli internationalist Moanes Dabour scored 29 goals in 52 games last season whilst his Japanese internationalist strike partner Takumi Minamino has 46 goals in 145 games in total for them.

Dabour already has 13 goals so far this season so safe to say he’s pretty tasty and Norwegian internationalist striker Fredrik Gulbrandsen popped up with a late winner against Leipzig last time out in the Europa League. There’s also Bosnian internationalist marksman Smail Prevljak who has six goals in nine games this term.

No doubting they have firepower then but the midfield and defence are packed with talent too and that’s even considering they lost two of their best players in the summer, defender Duje Ćaleta-Car to Marseille for €19 million and influential midfielder Valon Berisha for €7.5 million to Lazio.

Other players to be mindful of are Mali internationals Amadou Haidara and Diadie Samassekou as well as Austrian internationalist Xaver Schlager. All are 22 or under, products of the youth academy and play in their pretty relentlessly attacking midfield.

They also added a bit of steel with veteran Austrian midfielder Zlatko Junuzović joining in the summer after he has spent six years with Werder Bremner where he played over 200 games to go with his international 55 caps.

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Dabour aka ‘Goal Machine.’

An exciting and dynamic team they play a preferred 4-4-2 formation with a diamond midfield, a compact defence and a high and organised press leading to comparisons with Jurgen Klopp’s exciting style that has been deployed at both Borussia Dortmund and now Liverpool.

This season they have won nine straight league matches and are seven points clear at the top as well as winning two cup matches.

Their most recent outing saw them pummel Wolfsberger AC 4-1 in front of what looked like a car park at the back of an athletics track. Highlights if you’re interested are at the bottom. And we complain about Hamilton Accies stadium.

They have also gone unbeaten in Europe in five games beating KF Shkëndija, the Champions of Macedonia, 4-1 on aggregate in the Champions League qualifiers before going out on away goals to Red Star Belgrade of Serbia in the play-off round after a 2-2 home draw following on from a 0-0 away result. They actually threw that one away having been 2-0 up after 48 mins only to concede two goals in 60 second midway through the second half.

In their Europa League group opener, they defeated Leipzig 3-2 winning it in the 89th minute having thrown away another two-goal lead in the second half.

So what of our chances?

Realistically slim and none.

We’ve won twice in our last nine away games in Europe suffering five defeats and conceding 20 goals in the process. Though we have scored 12 goals ourselves it’s just that when we do we tend to concede far more goals up at the other end of the pitch.

If you go further back the grimmer it becomes and even domestically this season we are struggling on the road having not won a league game away in three attempts and only won one on the road out of four in the continent as well.

It will be interesting to see a team have a real go at us right enough as this season we have dominated possession whilst up against teams that have by and large played 11 men behind the ball and asked us to break them down. On their home patch, in particular, expect RB Salzburg to come out of the traps fast with a high tempo game. Our passing obsession could in theory totally derail that and frustrate them though it could equally collapse in the face of their likely furious pressing.

I really think it is a game for Rogic to make an impact with his running on the break from midfield and Brown will have to play out of his skin to contain them in the opposite direction. Though in saying that every one of our players will have to play out of their skins going by the form book.

In theory, we should at least be able to compete and lets no pretend that Salzburg are on the level of what we came up against last season in Bayern and in particular PSG but still, history tells you that we shrink more often than not in foreign climbs no matter what the opposition and this particular team are confident, winning and basically are on fire so like I said before it is going to be tough and expectation levels for what is undoubtedly going to be the toughest game of the group will be low but hey at least we are getting the one we dreaded most out of the way first.

Though you never know………but you probably do.

Post-match analysis: Celtic 1 – 0 Aberdeen. Another win and Jim Brogan tribute.

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I didn’t get to see the game.

In fact, I’ve only just seen the highlights.

Aberdeen played well and Gary Mackay-Steven nearly came back to haunt us in the first half with a mazy run where he then typically fluffed his lines when through one on one with the keeper. Good save from Gordon in fairness.

Niall McGinn also had a decent effort from distance whizz just past the post but down at the other end, Edouard was unlucky to see a wonderful effort crack off the post from 25 yards.

He later had to go off after being assaulted on the edge of the box by Scott McKenna though Bobby Madden ludicrously adjusted it to be nothing more than a 50/50 challenge when in reality it was a wild attempt at a WWE style drop-kick from the Aberdeen defender.

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You can clearly see he’s focused purely on the ball.

That aside Celtic were a bit wasteful and Aberdeen remained a threat with Leigh Griffiths having to head one off the line from a corner.

Scott Sinclair came on for French Eddy and conjured up a wonderful goal via a back heeler midway through the second half.

An important three points and it maintains our pretty incredible home record this season of eight wins and one draw from nine matches, with six clean sheets.

It was also vitally important for Scott Sinclair who as we all know has been bang out for form recently which just isn’t acceptable for one of the highest paid players at the club.

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Niall McGinn knows what’s coming.

Before the match, the players dawned black armbands for the second time in the week and observed a minutes applause along with the fans for Jim Brogan.

I was at Jim’s funeral that morning and was disappointed to hear that the club had made no official contact with the family outside of flowers sent to the crematorium where Jim was finally laid to rest after a Requiem Mass at the Cathedral earlier which was attended by many Celtic greats such as Danny McGrain, Davie Hay, John Clark, Dixie Deans and Bobby Lennox to name but a few.

Hopefully, they can resolve that in the coming days and weeks though it’s another example of how disconnected clubs are in the modern day from the people who have played such a pivotal role in their history. Alas……

I was able to stream the game onto my phone and show some of Jim’s family the round of applause just before kick off as well as his picture on the big screens.

Thankfully we got the right result in the end.

It was tough and hard fought but the win was ours. A fitting tribute to Jim.

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Post-match analysis: St.Johnstone 0 – 1 Celtic. Better in the Betfred!

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Not the greatest performance by any means but a win and a deserved one at that.

As predicted the Saints sat in still licking their wounds from a 5-1 pasting at Ibrox on Sunday.

In an action replay of Celtic’s last half dozen or more displays, Celtic lacked tempo and mainly passed the ball aimlessly around at the back for the majority of the first half as the Perth side rarely ventured into our half.

Despite that, both Leigh Griffiths and on the stroke of half-time Callum McGregor passed up stick on chances as Leigh headed straight at the keeper and Callum raced through one on one only to clip it past the far post.

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A whisker away. 

In the second half, Celtic came out like a team clearly given a boot up the backside by Brendan during the half-time team talk and played like a team determined to actually win.

It was all one-way traffic with Zander Clark producing some fine saves in the opposition goal and Leigh Griffiths passing up a few more chances you would usually fancy him to bury.

The men in blue did break away on a few occasions and David Wotherspoon was unlucky to see his curling drive from the edge of the box whistle just past the post but that apart Celtic were dominant.

Just rewards were delivered as Griffiths pounced on a loose ball in the box to bury it and give a deserved lead and eventual winner on 83 minutes. His third goal in as many games and it was good to see him not give up the ghost after a frustrating evening.

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If at first, you don’t succeed……

That was pretty much it bar Boyata getting a senseless straight red card moments later for dissent towards referee Steve Beaton. Replays showed Beaton originally planned to only dish out a yellow but the Belgian internationalist refusal to A) walk over to him when asked and B) keep his mouth shut leading to the claret-coloured one instead.

Scott Bain, in goal for the night with Craig Gordon on the bench, then had a rush of blood in the last few seconds and came for a ball he was miles away from almost resulting in disaster but thankfully it came to nothing.

Aside from that Bain literally had nothing to do all night bar gather up a few speculative crosses and shots from distance.

On the whole, the second half was more like it from Celtic. Showing determination and a real will to win they created chance after chance and it was inevitable one would eventually be taken. It really is amazing what injecting a bit of intensity to the play can do.

Lewis Morgan came on and looked good once again and he is starting to cement a pretty solid case for a starting place.

To the minus points though and the man Morgan came on for, Edouard, again looked ineffective showing very little and there would appear to be slim hope of a partnership with LG up front working as both are way too similar.

Boyata’s straight red rules him out of the semi-final which is cause for concern though it can be appealed. However, I’d hold out little hope of it being successful.

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Boyata walks. No one looks surprised. 

As for the semi-final we got Hearts which is a refreshing change from Rangers who we’ve been drawn against in three out of the last four cup semis.

It brings up the also potentially controversial situation of either ourselves or the side from Govan having to play their semi on the afternoon of Saturday the 27th of October, just 40 hours after a scheduled Thursday night Europa League match.

Rangers are at home in their game against Spartak Moscow whilst we’ll be away to Red Bull Leipzig.

The possible solution is to play both matches on the Sunday with one at Hampden and the other through in Edinburgh at Murrayfield. Outside of that, I don’t really see how it would work. Playing one after the other at Hampden on the Sunday will be kyboshed by the police and having one semi remain on the Saturday will lead to outcry from either half of the Glasgow divide claiming bias.

Watch this space.

Post-match analysis: Kilmarnock 2 – 1 Celtic: Oh dear!

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I held off on reviewing this one in the immediate aftermath mainly because everyone was losing all perspective including myself.

To be honest I wasn’t so much angry as vaguely disappointed as truth be told I wasn’t surprised.

Kilmarnock are an effective team under Steve Clarke who has done an incredible job there – it’s just a shame more of the locals don’t turn out to see it – and via keeping together the squad that worked so tirelessly for him last season he has a bunch of players who you feel would run through walls for him.

Losing the late goal was one of those things. I believe Chris Burke wanted to play it short so as to waste time for a point and with the Celtic defence switched off he was instead encouraged to swing it into the box where ex-Celtic defender Stuart Findlay got his head to it first and sealed the points for the Ayrshire club in dramatic fashion.

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Finlay returns to haunt Celtic. 

What was far more concerning was the preceding 90 mins where once again Celtic looked one-paced and totally devoid of ideas.

As was the case in the last two games – and most others before that come to think – the constant obsession with continuously recycling the ball from side to side in defence whilst the opposition sit in their own half and watch was once again on show.

Simply put our opponents know what we are going to do and are set up to deal with it.

Scott Sinclair got a rare start but is now a shadow of his former self, lacking any self-belief and looking somewhat disinterested.

Jack Hendry was put back into the starting line-up after Benkovic pulled up with an injury in the warm-up and that pretty much sealed an end to Celtic’s run of five previous clean sheets.

Hendry is a Dundee calibre defender running around in a Celtic shirt. It really is that simple. And he seems more aware of it than anyone else.

Ntcham was of course suspended with McGregor, Rogic and Forrest on the bench with Brendan bizarrely opting to revamp the entire midfield featuring Brown alongside Christie and Mulumbu with the aforementioned Sinclair out on the right. It proved completely ineffective.

Mulumbu had a decent enough first half but then got sucked in by ex-teammate Aaron Tshibola’s tough tackling in the second half and lost the plot. Looking like a red card waiting to happen he was hooked on 70 mins for McGregor.

Mikey Johnstone produced more of the same with a lot of effort but little to no end product. He went off on 79 mins for Edouard but French Eddy hardly got a touch of the ball and his baron spell continues.

Celtic somehow took the lead via chaotic defending in the first half as Broadfoot sliced a speculative Tierney cross resulting in Greg Taylor cracking it off his own post and Leigh Griffiths swooped to conquer as he headed Celtic into a 34th-minute lead.

We should have got a penalty as Boyata was wrestled to the floor by Broadfoot also in the first half but Craig Thomson was having none of it.

In the second half, Kilmarnock pressed and rather than taking advantage of the extra space in their half Celtic retreated into their own shell instead. On 64 mins Burke lashed in the equaliser from 25 yards showing the kind of endeavour which is non-existent amongst Celtic’s personnel at the moment.

And then the ending but I’ve already discussed that.

Al in all an awful day with the only bright spark being Lewis Morgan’s substitute appearance for Sinclair on 65 minutes. He looked bright and effective showing the kind of determination and desire that is generally lacking at the moment. Ryan Christie also produced a moment of sublime skill in the second half as he weaved his way into the box and almost curled into the net only to be denied by a superb save from Jamie MacDonald.

Anyway onto Wednesday night we go as we play St.Johnstone at McDiarmid Park in the League Cup quarterfinal. They got taken apart 5-1 by Rangers on Sunday so, in theory, should be there for the taking but then they probably think the same about us.

Brendan has been cuttingly honest in the last few days admitting that Celtic fans “should be worried” which has raised some eyebrows but for me, he’s just being honest.

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He looks concerned. 

It’s our worst start to the league in 20 years since the days of Dr Jo Venglos. Though the real issue is our away form. We’ve played eight home games this season winning seven and drawing one with 16 goals scored to three conceded. Away, however, it is only two wins from eight with three draws and three losses. Nine goals have been scored away and seven conceded. Though six of the goals we have scored came in the two away wins to Alashkert and Partick Thistle.

Rugby Park and Tynecastle will be tough places to go this season but we should still fully expect to win there no matter if it’s on plastic or how long the grass is. But I also fully expect other clubs around us to drop points at those grounds as well.

I’m not panicking just yet. But I’m close.

1998 – 1999: THE HANGOVER AND DR. JO.