Tag: Mikey Johnston

Celtic smash seven past saints, the other results plus Cluj Champs League preview.

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Celtic got their title defence off to a flyer with a seven nil massacre of St.Johnstone at Celtic Park yesterday afternoon – Saturday afternoon at the time of publication.

In my last article, I had predicted a romp for Celtic based on the Perth sides woeful League Cup group section campaign throughout July which had seen them lost to newly-promoted Ross County though more pertinently to League One sides Forfar Athletic and Montrose.

Before the game, I listened to their manager Tommy Wright passionately defend his record at the club on BBC Sportsound which is telling as no one had actually called it into question and is more of a reflection of the pressure Wright must himself feel under and his frustrations at the fact they have lost nine first-team squad players over the summer with only a couple coming in and a striker badly needed.

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Joy for Christie and Johnstone but not so much for Tommy.

As much as I expected an inform Celtic, fresh from a 7-0 aggregate dismissal of Nomme Kalju in the Champions League qualifiers,  to put them to the sword I could never have predicted a 7-0 skelping which is the men from Perth’s worst result in 21 years and even eclipses the 6-0 scudding we gave them at McDiarmid Park last term.

Ryan Christie kept up his sparkling recent form with a hattrick. His first a beauty from the edge of the box and his third an even more spectacular finish with the one in the middle being a tad fortunate with Saints keeper Zander Clark not exactly covering himself in glory.

Mikey Johnstone had opened the scoring with a nice finish of his own after only nine mins and Ntcham, Edouard and Griffiths also delivered the goods with each executing fine finishes in the second half.

Hatem Abd Elhamed also made his debut and looked pretty good – let’s be honest if you can’t look good when your team is winning 7-0 then you never will – but sadly limped off in the second half. Let’s hope it isn’t too serious.

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Hatem in action.

A perfect way to start the title defence on a day in which our eighth consecutive title flag was fittingly unveiled by Liz McNeill and Sadie Chalmers, the wives of the legendary Billy McNeill and Stevie Chalmers, two immortal club legends who we lost earlier in the year.

Elsewhere over the weekend Livingston and Motherwell burst my coupon with a meandering 0-0 draw whilst Hibs stuttered before scoring late to beat struggling St.Mirren at Easter Road thanks to a Scott Allen goal. It’s early doors but from what I’ve seen thus far I’m not too impressed with Paul Heckingbottom’s English League One level purchases.  Last seasons Championship winners Ross County re-entered the top flight in style as they easily dismissed perennial relegation candidates Hamilton Accies 3-0 up in Dingwall.

Earlier on today Aberdeen won a rabble-rousing encounter at home to Hearts 3-2 with the Edinburgh side literally grasping defeat from the jaws of victory after throwing away 2-1 lead and seeing young 17-year-old Aaron Hickey sent off before Clévid Dikamona needlessly gave away a penalty which was converted by goal machine Sam Cosgrove before new singing Ryan Hedges blasted home a late winner.

Rangers also continued to provide further evidence that we have little to worry about this term as they struggled to a 2-1 away win at a Kilmarnock team coming off the back of a shambolic Europea League exit. Killie look like a pale imitation of the well-oiled machine Stevie Clarke had moulded them into last season but still dominated large swaths of the game and were unlucky to concede late to a Connor Goldson header.

But now let’s get back to our next European opponents in the 3rd Qualifying round of the Champions League.

They are of course CFR Cluj of Romania who have won back to back national titles and are managed by former Chelsea star Dan Petrescu.

He’s had great success on these shores before both as a player with Chelsea and in a coaching capacity with the now-defunct Unirea Urziceni who he led to a 4-1 Champions league groups stage hammering of Walter Smith’s Rangers back in 2009 at Ibrox.

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Cluj manager Dan Petrescu thinking about Celtic. 

Cluj themselves are currently enjoying the most successful period in their history having been formed way back in 1907 they only won their first top-flight title back in 2008 and very first national cup that same year.

They’ve won four more titles and three more cups since and have established themselves as the second biggest club in the country beyond the famous Steaua Bucharest.

So far this season they’ve won three and drawn one in the league and currently sit top of the division after hammering AFC Chindia Târgoviște 4-1 away yesterday. They’ve scored ten goals conceding only three in the process.

In Europe, the success story has continued as they bounced back from a 1-0 loss in Kazakhstan to Astana to win 3-1 at home to progress 3-2 on aggregate before then eliminating Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel 3-2 on aggregate also after gaining a 2-2 draw away following on from a tight 1-0 home win.

Their squad isn’t full of stars and indeed Petrescu has boasted that both Astana and Tel Aviv had superior budgets so they haven’t achieved what they have by simply splashing the cash.

Experience is heavy in the team.

Attacking winger Ciprian Deac is 33 and has 20 caps for Romania. Defensive midfielder Ovidiu Hoban is 36 and has 30 caps for Romania. Their Portuguese captain Camora has no caps for his country but at 32 has played 240 games for Cluj. Recently signed striker Mario Rondón is 33, has over 100 career goals at eight previous clubs and 13 caps for Venezuela.

Veteran Argentine midfielder Emmanuel Culio is in his second spell at the club, is 36 and has played for 15 clubs in total and has been described by Petrescu as ‘the best player in Cluj’s history.’ Though apparently, he’s struggling to makes Wednesday nights encounter with fitness issues. So that’s good.

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Cluj’s ‘greatest ever player’ in action.

Up front, the ones to watch out for are big striker George Țucudean who was the leading striker in the Romanian top flight last season with 18 goals from 24 games and his strike partner, Frenchman Billel Omrani whose also a six-footer.

They haven’t made any big-name additions this summer but held onto the majority of their squad with no significant departures. It’s certainly an ageing squad but also a successful one and very consistent.

Last season despite their domestic success Malmo eliminated them from the Champions League qualifiers and in a big shock, Luxembourg’s F91 Dudelange put them out of Europe all together at the Europea League play-offs stage 5-2 on aggregate.

Currently, in the UEFA association coefficients, Romania sits at 29, nine places behind Scotland which gives you an idea of the sort of impact or lack of that their clubs have been making in Europe recently.

But their recent form has been good and this will be a definite step-up from what we came up against in the first two qualifying rounds.

They lost only one home game in the league last season but did lose two of their three home European ties and at home in the semi-finals of the national cup to former Celtic European opponents Astra Giurgiu so there is hope for optimism.

I think it’ll be tight but as much as I’d like to go with the ultra optimism of a comfortable win I’m going to go for a score draw at the Dr. Constantin Rădulescu Stadium on Wednesday night with us bringing them back to Celtic Park for a classic European home tie the following Tuesday.

It’s definitely doable and we’ll find out in the morning who we could potentially get in the Play-off round.

It’ll be the winner of Rosenborg vs Maribor, APOEL Nicosia, Young Boys or Slavia Prague.

The only one that makes me wary there is Young Boys. They won the league last season over Basel who’ve already eliminated PSV from the Champions League this season so safe to say that the Swiss champs will be pretty tasty.

Exciting times.

 

 

Celtic 3 – 0 Motherwell: Back to the top we go.

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Celtic cruised to a pretty routine 3-0 win over Motherwell at Celtic Park last night.

The game was all over by halftime with Celtic going for the jugular early and it was great to see young right back Anthony Ralston getting his first start in a very long time. I actually think we haven’t seen him in a Hoops jersey since way back in September 2017 truth be told.

Motherwell held out until almost the half-hour mark when Edouard played through Ralston who put it through the ‘Well keepers legs to score his first ever goal for Celtic. James Forrest was then scythed down only four mins later by a reckless Charles Dunne challenge in the box and Scott Sinclair stepped up to put us 2-0 up from the spot. That’s actually the first pen we’ve scored in four attempts so good to put an end to that unwelcome stat. Unfortunately, French Eddy had to depart the scene with an apparent groin injury but his replacement young Mikey Johnstone came on and rattled one in on the stroke of halftime and that was pretty that.

Olivier Ntcham should have done better with an effort in the second half but by then the visitors were just playing to keep the score down.

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Brendan and the players take the acclaim. 

I was initially really puzzled by Motherwell’s approach to the game. This was our third outing in six days and on the back of two defeats and with several key players missing you would have thought that the Lanarkshire side would have smelt the faintest trace of blood. Instead, though they decided to drop five players from their surprise away victory on Saturday against an in from St Johnstone with star men David Turnbull, Allan Campbell and strikers Curtis Main and Danny Johnson all benched.

It would appear manager Stephen Robinson had written the game off with Saturday’s home tie against lowly St.Mirren prioritised. Fair enough and to be honest with you pretty welcome considering our recent exhausting schedule which clearly showed at Easter Road on Sunday.

What can’t be ignored though is the number of absences we now have. With Leigh Griffiths out for an unspecified period of time and Edouard’s departure early doors last night, we are now literally left with no recognised striker. The big question is how long will the Frenchman be out for?

Kieran Tierney and Tom Rogic were rested last night as they were on Sunday and Ryan Christie, Dedryk Boyata and Mikel Lustig are also being given as much time as is required to make full recoveries. There’s a good chance we’ll see them all back over the coming nine days as we face three league matches.

But news has just come down that the Australian FA has selected Rogic along with three players from Hibs for the Asia Cup next month which means they may not be allowed to be involved in their respective clubs derbies on December 29th. Hopefully, that can be resolved in our favour as I would feel much better about our chances of turning over Rangers once again in their own stadium with Tom with us, as opposed to being without him.

Talking of the men in blue they were held to a 0-0 draw by Hibs at Easter Road last night. Hibs were in our faces all day on Sunday but were rather standoffish last night in a game which generally saw them under siege and on another day Morelos could have scored a hattrick. Alas, a combination of Hibs keeper Adam Bogdan as well as the Colombian’s poor finishing saw the Leith men hold out for a draw and in doing so our victory propelled us back to the top by one point over our city rivals with a game in hand.

So back to the top we go and even with a slightly weakened side you’d think we’ll be too strong at home on Saturday against a struggling Dundee side who were hammered 5-1 at Pittodrie on Tuesday night by Aberdeen leading manager Jim McIntyre to promise a major squad overhaul in January. So it won’t be a very Merry Christmas for some of the Dens Park men this festive period as they look for employment elsewhere it would seem.

Some job Neil McCann did up there.

 

Celtic go down meekly to Hibs. Meanwhile, it’s Valencia in the last 32.

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First things first and that’s Celtic’s performance away at Easter Road yesterday. Truth be told the team looked exhausted –  not surprisingly after being run ragged against Red Bull Salzburg during Thursday night’s emotional rollercoaster – and as a result pretty devoid of ideas.

I wrote a piece over a week ago about how the players looked out on their feet away against Motherwell. We dropped two points that night as we wilted badly in the second half but recovered pretty sensationally to bury surprise table-toppers Kilmarnock 5-1 at Celtic Park a week ago on Saturday.

Thursday night though saw us come up against easily our toughest opposition of the season and for me the best team we’ve seen at Celtic Park since PSG clinically dispatched us 5-0 in the Champions League group stages 15 months ago.

Each one of our three domestic defeats this season have come in the weekend after a midweek European game and all have been away. So the taxing effects of  European football definitely plays a part but our away record, in general, this season has been pretty awful with 15 points dropped from a potential 27 in the league and only two wins from seven away ties in Europe.

Hibs have themselves been struggling of late having gone through a period of no wins in seven league games which saw them lose four times. They arrested that decline with a 1-0 win away at Hamilton Accies last weekend but generally weren’t given much of a hope yesterday. So much so that their prematch decision to reduce the Celtic away capacity so as to allow more Hibs fans tickets looked utterly absurd as half of the stand where our support usually sits was left virtually empty.

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Another great call from Rod Petrie.

Brendan decided to really utilise the squad and even went for three at the back with Ajer brought into partner Simunovic and Benkovic. Kieran Tierney was rested and in came Emilio Izaguirre with Scott Sinclair being asked to cover a right wing-back role in the absence of the injured Lustig and Gamboa.

In midfield, Ryan Christie was missing after being stretchered off with an ankle injury on Thursday night and Tom Rogic was also left at home to recover from his recent exploits. In came Brown and Ntcham to replace them with McGregor, Forrest and Edouard all retaining their places.

The last three, in particular, were noticeably quiet and looked a little jaded.

Apart from the fatigue side of things the likes of Brown and Ntcham never clicked all day and Izaguirre, who had been so impressive when he came in against Kilmarnock, really struggled with Sinclair looking pretty lost in an unfamiliar defensive role.

Hibs hit a lot of cross-field passes and balls in over the top which cost us no end of trouble and we were ultimately undone by two excellent though preventable finishes from Slivka in the very first minute and Kamberi in the second half.

The introductions of Lewis Morgan and Mikey Johnstone brought some urgency and penetration to the play in that second period but ultimately was too little too late. Johnny Hayes also appeared but did nothing of note which is pretty customary of his appearances in the hoops.

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Kamberi finally finds some form. 

The result meant that Rangers returned to the league summit due to a narrow win at home against lowly Hamilton and Kilmarnock also remain above us after a comfortable 3-1 home win against Dundee. We do of course have games in hand and no one’s really worrying especially as we can go top again if we beat Motherwell at home on Wednesday night and Rangers drop points at Easter Road which is as we’ve just discovered no easy place to go and get a result.

The likes of Boyata, Lustig, Rogic, Tierney as well as the inform Christie will also all be back soon – some as early as Wednesday night apparently – but even with that we clearly need reinforcements in January.  Up front plus at right fullback are two key areas we definitely need to address.

Earlier on today there was also the draw for the Last 32 of the Europa League. Being that we would be up against one of fifteen seeds we could only hope for something winnable and I think we got that when Valencia came out of the hat.

On paper, the Spaniards did well in their Champions League campaign to gain 8 points in a group that included one of the tournament favourites in Juventus as well as the once mighty Manchester United. But the truth is they were out by the time of the final group game which they won against a struggling Man U side who had already qualified. Valencia recorded a 2-1 home victory but for anyone who keeps up with English football that’s not that great an achievement these days considering the stumbling form Joe Mourinho’s side have shown this season so far.

In La Liga, they are struggling with only three wins from 16 matches and an incredible ten draws. Two of their defeats have been away from home and they only have two wins from nine home matches with six draws and one loss. They have only 19 points and are in 14th place, four points above the drop zone.  The goals have hardly been flowing either with only 15 so far in this campaign whilst conceding 13. In Europe, they have scored six and conceded six.

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The Mestella is where we are headed. 

All this after blowing over €126 million on players in the summer which included the €40 million capture of 21 -year-old Portuguese winger Gonçalo Guedes from PSG and veteran French striker Kevin Gameiro from Atletico Madrid for a mere €16 million. Belgian international striker Michy Batshuayi is also there on loan for the season from Chelsea and that deadly strike force has delivered a rather pathetic return of six goals in all competitions and their most dangerous marksman currently is, in fact, Spanish striker Santi Mina who has six this season and 35 in 114 appearances for them.

The other big summer singing was French midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia who cost them €25 million from Inter Milan in the summer having previously cost the Italians €40 million from Monaco. He was injured at the weekend though and will be out for between eight to twelve weeks so there’s a good chance we won’t have to worry about him at all.

The star man is, or at least was, striker Rodrigo who’s 19 goals in 44 games last term earned him a place in the Spanish national side for the past summer’s World Cup. However this year he’s hit a measly two in twenty games and is bang out of form.

Backed by billionaire Singapore business magnate owner Peter Lim they could go on a spending spree this January in theory but based on their previous transfer dealings they have actually already spent double what they had spent in total over the two previous seasons combined plus they have only brought three players in, in total, during the past two winter transfer windows, two of which were loan deals.

All in all……….it’s doable.

There is a lot of water to go under the bridge between now and February 14th when they visit Celtic Park in the first leg but as of now, it’s a tie you’d take especially considering some of the Leviathans we could have drawn in the next round.

Let’s just hope that eight and a half weeks from now we’re top of the league, playing well with a stronger squad and that Valencia are pretty much in the same predicament if indeed not worse as they are now.

I guess that’s what I’ll be asking Santa for, for Christmas. Well, that, a pair of Diesel jeans, a significant financial windfall and a win at Ibrox.

 

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.

 

Post-match analysis: Celtic 1 – 0 Rosenborg – The Hoops leave it late.

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Just to begin with the vibe of this post would be very different if Celtic hadn’t pulled this out of the fire via a fantastic Leigh Griffiths headed finish in the dying embers.

This was, to be honest, more of the same from what we’ve seen by and large this season from the Hoops.

Despite having scored 27 goals in an unbeaten 10 game run which featured nine wins Rosenborg did what every team seem to do now when they play Celtic – with the notable exception of the elite – by sitting in and letting us play in front of them.

Brendan Rodgers commented afterwards that the Norwegians surprised Celtic by sitting in and playing a diamond formation which they hadn’t attempted before in any previous games they had studied.

That may be so but Celtic are nothing if not predictable at the moment. As was the case in last Friday’s game against St.Mirren – and just about every other game bar a few this calendar year – we continuously pass back with an instinct to constantly recycle the ball showing little to no width outside of Tierney on the left-hand side and trying to ominously play through a packed middle where both Rogic and McGregor appear to contradict each other with their similar playing styles.

In fairness, Rosenborg gave nothing past the halfway line. They were blatantly here for the point and would have had the team coach parked in front of the goals with all of the players on board if it was allowed.

The last time they came to Parkhead they went a goal up and were the better team for 20 mins before we went through the gears and proceeded to rip them apart for the rest of the game-winning 3-1 when it should have been far more. So you argue they had learned their lesson but still, considering how dynamic they are in their domestic league their total lack of ambition here was pretty disappointing. Thye it almost worked. Almost.

Celtic created chances with Rogic gliding through the middle in the first half and setting up Edouard who fired over the bar and not long after the visitor’s goalkeeper made a wonderful double save from both the Australian and the Frenchman.

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In the second half, Mikey Johnston spurned a great chance as he fired over the bar shortly after coming on a sub. Scott Sinclair, who’d also come on a sub, also went inches wide. But it just didn’t seem to be our night until another sub, Griffiths, popped up in the 88th minute to head the ball intelligently down off the turf and past stranded keeper André Hansen after a diagonal high ball to the edge of the box from Brown had been won superbly by the towering Boyata which placed it into the danger area and Leigh nipped in like only he can.

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LG stoops to conquer.

It had been a frustrating night for the home crowd as an air of expectation – understandable considering we battered Rosenborg here only two short months ago on a balmy summers evening – turned to frustration as much fuelled by the lethargic and monotonous passing game as opposed to the lack of finishing.

Indeed many had departed the scene or were in the process of doing so when Leigh scored leading to streams pouring back into celebrate. You’d think with Celtic’s history of late goals folk would have learned their lesson but alas.

Anyway, it was a vital three points if we are to maintain any serious ambitions to qualify. Especially considering our next two games are away against both of the Red Bull clubs because let’s be honest expectations will be pretty minimal for both of those trips, Salzburg in particular.

Tierney was the star of the show. I used to think the comparisons with Danny McGrain were somewhat unrealistic but he really does look an increasingly impressive talent.

Edouard needs to pull his socks up. The guy cost us over £9 million – confirmed by the new financial results for any of the doubters – and one goal in six and looking generally ineffective just isn’t good enough.

One major plus is new singing Benkovic. He easily looks a far more composed, dominant and complete defender compared to Jack Hendry, Šimunović and young Ajer. Admittedly there wasn’t much coming at him but there were no bomb scare moments.

Anyway, five clean sheets in a row. That’s good. We just need goals and to stop passing the ball to death endlessly as part of a cunning plan to bore our opposition to sleep.