This article has been delayed by a few days as I was returning from a trip to Ireland and on the final day was struck down by a dose of the cold courtesy of the Donegal climate.
Anyway, I’m back now and slowly recovering.
Not just from the cold of course but from the somewhat traumatic nature of our Champions League 3rd Qualifying round capitulation against CFR Cluj.
In the past Celtic have been architects of their own downfall on the continent more times than I can remember whether it be from eccentric tactics, bizarre team selections or just banal individual errors. On Tuesday night we got all of the above and then some.
We quite literally grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory on not one but three occasions which is some going even by our long history of pressing the self destruct button.
Lat week in Romania it was quite obvious that Cluj were a robust, direct, well organised and hard-working team but not much else.
We clearly were a better passing team capable of playing at a far higher tempo and with superior individual talent.
From the get-go, Neil Lennon seemed determined to neuter all that though by finding a way to shoehorn Olivier Ntcham into our midfield at the cost of sticking Callum McGregor at left-back. Yep that’s right, on the basis of Ntcham’s impressive display against the minnows of Motherwell during last weekends 5-2 hammering at Fir Park Lenny decided it made perfect sense to keep Ntcham in the side at the expense of not just removing the best midfielder in the country McGregor from his usual centre of the action berth but to add insult to injury place him in a completely alien position.
He had of course been played there once before, back in December at Ibrox against Rangers where he was deployed out of desperation due to an injury to Kieran Tierney and where he proved to be completely ineffective. He was redeployed into his natural position later in the game and nearly rescued us. Neil Lennon appeared to have missed that lesson or had instead just completely ignored it.
That aside we also binned Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo – a clear sign that he isn’t trusted in the big games – and brand new £7 million centre back Christopher Jullien – who was contrary to popular belief apparently not signed for nights just like this – was also benched in another blatant act of no confidence.
On Saturday Celtic and Motherwell played out a rather thrilling 5-2 encounter where Celtic could have conceded more but likewise could also have been into double figures for goals scored. As a spectacle, it was highly entertaining but from a tactical and formation perspective it was really just a case of “we’ll outscore you”.
Such an approach is totally understandable against a completely outgunned mid-table Scottish Premiership side. To deploy it in a Champions League 3rd Qualifying round tie is pretty much beyond incomprehensible.
In the first half, Celtic didn’t know whether to stick or twist. This was a result of having the away goal advantage but playing at home in front of an expectant crowd against a counter-attacking team. It was in that respect almost identical to the performance at home to Maribor back in 2014 under Ronny Deila where we were in the exact same predicament and ultimately succumbed to a late second-half goal on a nervy night that saw us eliminated 2-1 on aggregate at the play-off stage to the Slovenian Champions.
Something similar also occurred two years ago in the Champions League group stages where Celtic needed to avoid a heavy defeat at home to Anderlecht so as finish third and to progress to the last 32 of the Europa League. We got the job done in the end terms of progression but still went down 1-0 on the night in front of an exasperated crowd.
On Tuesday Ciprian Deac took advantage of our hesitancy and headed the visitors into a shock lead just before the half-hour mark. The sight of the diminutive Callum McGregor vainly trying to match him in the air was the fulfilment of that horrible prematch sinking feeling I got when hearing the team selection announced.
In the second half, Celtic came out with some purpose and vigour and scored two quickfire goals but then Scott Brown did the equivalent of pulling a shotgun out of his back pocket and blowing the teams foot off as he inexplicably handled it leading to a penalty they converted. What in the hell was going through his head only he knows.
Immediately Celtic responded through Ryan Christie and with us ahead for the third time in the tie you figured even we couldn’t blow it again but alas that we did as Cluj scored via a long speculative shot from Constantin Paun – who was pretty much given the freedom of Celtic Park to deliver it – which was saved somewhat unconvincingly by Scott Bain before being converted by the penalty scorer Billel Omrani who was standing at the back post in acres of space unmarked. The shape of the team for that goal was shocking. Literally pulled all over the place you’d think we were chasing down a deficit when in fact we were ahead and should have been compact and closing down play.
Cluj scored again in the 97th minute through Tucudean with only poor Callum McGregor at the back trying to defend though by then the game was lost with Celtic putting just about the whole team more or less into the final third in a vain attempt to rescue what had proven to be a complete and utter disaster of a second-half performance from a defensive, formation and game management perspective.
Out of the Champions League once again we have tumbled and into the playoff round of the Europa League, we go to face the pretty decent AIK Stockholm. The truth be told this is our level and on the evidence of our reckless abandon in games so far there are no guarantees that we’ll be in the hat for the group stages draw in a fortnight.
As the dust settled understandably Lennon got criticism flying at him from all angles with the directors retreating the safety of the boardroom.
He refused to accept that his tactical naivety and borderline insane team selection had been the reason for our early Champions League exit. Instead, he mumbled some nonsense about needing more ‘technicians’ in the team which is why Ntcham got a start and McGregor was moved to left-back. Indeed tactics had nothing to do with it. It was all down to poor individual decision making. Who could he be talking about you wondered? Our captain who had handled the ball for no reason to give them an out of the blue penalty perhaps? Well, apparently not as he exonerated Brown completely again mumbling some nonsense about ‘body adjustment’ or something.
Anyway, it’s done now.
And when bad things happen you can be sure the online Celtic Twitterati with all of their secret contacts and inside sources will be quick to give you some background info to what is going down behind the scenes at Celtic Park.
Phil Mac Giolla Bhain claims his pal – an unnamed fan with apparent access to a director at Paradise – text him in the aftermath of the game to claim that Lenny doesn’t rate either Boli or Jullien and that in fact either does the rest of the squad which is why they weren’t picked.
https://philmacgiollabhain.ie/2019/08/14/trouble-in-paradise/
Since then he claims that our exit had emboldened Dave King to reapproach potential investors who had previously rebuffed him. How that works I don’t know. I doubt Phil does either. I also doubt Phil actually knows anyone close to a director at Celtic Park and suspect that if he even did get a text in the aftermath of the game it was from an overeager youth coach, security guard or just your garden variety half-cut, disgruntled fan who likes to think he has his finger on the pulse.
https://www.celticnewsnow.com/news/mr-king-seizes-the-opportunity-provided-to-him-by-celtic/295507/
Another well know dispenser of behind the scenes innuendo, Brendan McCann, claims……well Brendan just states the obvious really and tries to make it look like it’s highly sensitive insider information. Some of his posts have included the mind-boggling revelations that, wait for it………….Boli and Jullien are struggling to settle in, diminutive 18-year-old midfielder Luca Connell is ‘lightweight’, Peter Lawwell and the board never saw our Tuesday night exit coming and most shocking of all…………..our exit will impact on our transfer activity. Yep. Highly sensitive stuff. The club must be raging all that has leaked.
Anyway Celtic are back in action tomorrow evening as we attempt to retain our League Cup when free-scoring Dunfermline Athletic come to town.
They have scored 16 in 16 games so far with three wins and a loss in their League Cup campaign to date and two draws from two games in the league.
I’m thinking that Neil Lennon might decide to put Callum McGregor back into the midfield tomorrow and may actually give big Jullien and Boli starts.
You know now that the big important game is out of the way.
Post-match analysis and a thorough preview of AIK Stockholm to come.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23geSSwt30Y
....Always A Tim! 