Malmo vs Ra Sellick

[ian1964 10,411]

 

 

[Scott7 5,156]

I see Artur Boruc has lost a little weight.

[ian1964 10,411]

[Steve1872 4]

Paddy Power ‏@paddypower 2h2 hours ago Celtic were 'scared & frightened' in their Champions League exit to Malmo, said boss Ronny Deila. And 'shite' Ronny. Don't forget 'shite'.

[ian1964 10,411]

With any Celtic defeat comes the urgent quest for culpability. In the specific context of the latest one, triggering a painful exit from the Champions League at the play-off stage, the club and its supporters must accept some of it.

 

Ronny Deila was heralded as a Nordic footballing messiah long before producing anything to back up such sentiment. It is often thus, amid the charge to laud supposed football revolutionaries. Celtic recently released a book in commemoration of their manager’s apparently eye-catching first season in charge. Those in the stands have vociferously bought into tales of Deila’s alleged raising of bars and changing of attitudes. What has he actually done? Precious little.

 

Celtic’s Ronny Deila admits team looked ‘scared’ in Malmo defeat

 

How the truth came crashing home on a wounding Tuesday evening in Sweden. Those who have long suspected Deila is a backup coach – as was the initial Celtic plan for him – in managerial clothing only had their sentiments endorsed. Yet again the Deila fanfare – and make no mistake, there is plenty of that – was exposed as ludicrous. Dermot Desmond, the club’s largest individual shareholder who presumably was making a rare match appearance in anticipation of an altogether different movie, could barely conceal his disgust.

 

The blunt reality is this; Celtic were consigned to the Europa League by a Malmo team that included Kari Arnason, last season of Rotherham United, at centre-half. Deila may object to the notion that domestic dominance is taken for granted but he should be long used to that. It is in Europe that he will be appropriately judged, owing to the lack of credible opposition over the course of a Scottish season. That isn’t Deila’s fault but he should not be so blind as to not recognise it.

 

On Saturday, if Celtic defeat St Johnstone, it would be customary for their manager to head towards supporters and produce celebratory “Ronny Roar” antics in contrived delight. Whether he does or not will be fascinating.

 

Celtic headed to Malmo needing only a draw to progress to their Holy Grail, while 12 months ago, when a goalless stalemate would have been enough for Deila’s side, Maribor departed Glasgow with qualification secured. Legia Warsaw had earlier embarrassed Deila’s men, only themselves to be left red-faced by an administrative blunder. Celtic later limped their way through the Europa League, with a stirring home showing against Internazionale the marquee, but ultimately irrelevant, moment.

 

In August 2015 – the juncture at which he had asked to be judged – Deila was presented with a scenario his predecessors would have marched all the way to Nyon for. See off Starjan, Qarabag and Malmo for the Champions League proper was the mission. The Norwegian manager failed while offering not so much as a whimper when the pressure told in Malmo. Celtic were abject in every area of their play.

 

If Deila and his superiors are seeking consolation, they can perhaps find it in the fact Celtic were not as shambolic against Swedish opposition as was the case in successive defeats by Legia. But it ends there; Deila’s constant claims of progress, which he repeated on Tuesday, aren’t backed up by evidence.

 

A coach who preached about fitness standards and issued dietary edicts to an immediate, curious degree is presiding over a team with a worrying lack of sharpness and a tendency to concede late goals. Watching Celtic, even in Scotland’s top flight, leaves the continual impression of a team lacking a vital, exciting ingredient.

 

Deila cannot bemoan poor preparation. Unlike recent years, Celtic didn’t traipse around the globe on corporate pre-season missions. They remained in Scotland, with signings made in good time for European qualifying ties. Celtic’s board were true to their word in retaining Virgil van Dijk – who has been keen to move to pastures new for some time and is now likely to do so – to assist Deila’s Champions League bid.

 

Straightforward aspects of this manager’s approach fail to convince. The fielding of Charlie Mulgrew at left-back in the second leg against Malmo was a blunder; the 29-year-old should never have been trusted there in a high-profile environment and he was duly exposed. Nor did Deila change his team’s shape or style when things were so obviously slipping away from Celtic.

 

Deila’s pin-up boy, the Norwegian midfielder Stefan Johansen, only served to prove over 180 minutes against Malmo that he must be one of the most overrated players to feature on the Scottish scene. Johansen lacks discipline, both in a positional sense and in behaviour; the latter was evident during his role in Malmo’s late, crucial, second first-leg goal.

 

Celtic’s scouts were credited by some with being the key influence in regards to a batch of left-field arrivals under Deila’s predecessor, Neil Lennon, who were both effective in Glasgow and sold for premium sums. Curiously, those scouts haven’t unearthed anything approaching the same level of talent since.

 

Celtic crash out to Malmo and miss out on Champions League again

 

Deila’s core buying market has been Dundee United. His primary attacking purchase from abroad, Stefan Scepovic, has proved a flop. Lennon, it seems safe to infer, was vastly superior to Deila in identifying talent.

 

Deila has routinely given the impression of fielding and retaining Kris Commons, earlier a standout player and particularly in Scotland, under duress. Yet it was to Commons Deila turned at half-time on Tuesday. He did likewise against Maribor and Qarabag, with a corner kick from the Englishman in the latter tie enough to swing the contest in Celtic’s favour. Commons has done nothing to merit such treatment.

 

Perhaps Celtic labour under the heavy burden of expectation. Huge crowds and a rich history, after all, will never be the inevitable backdrop to Champions League participation, let alone success. In many ways, it seems reasonable to regard the Europa League as Celtic’s natural habitat.

 

Yet there will be frustration at the on-field shortcomings at a club that have had the platform to establish themselves as stand-alone and prominent in a wider sphere as a consequence of Rangers’ demise. When Celtic defeated Barcelona on a wonderful November evening in 2012, it seemed the only matter up for debate was how rapidly the accelerator would be pressed in Glasgow’s east end. Instead, it has been a case of reverse.

 

For all Deila may be the recipient of sympathy amid the inevitable flak that will now flow his way, the fact he is in position at all rather endorses that change of direction. The wise among Celtic’s own followers have slowly realised as much.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/aug/26/celtic-champions-league-exit-ronny-deila

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

My head says this is crap for Scottish football, my heart says GIRFUY!!

 

On a more serious note: perhaps BH can enlighten me, would it not be better for us to end up playing several poor teams (because of the poor Co-efficient) and beating most of them, rather than playing fewer games? In other words, would it not be better for our Co-efficient to win 1st, 2nd, 3rd qualifying round matches, rather than losing 1 play-off game?

No...? The poorer our coefficient, the more difficult it gets, the more challenging teams we face, and the far more unlikely it is for us to ever reach the group stage.

Edited August 26, 2015 by Ser Barristan Selmy

[Ser Barristan Selmy 222]

You are making good points, BH, but I don't think it makes much difference what they do. They have been very poor ambassadors for Scotland.

No matter when we get ourselves re-introduced to Europe we are going to have to start from the bottom and work our own co-efficient higher.

We have experience of doing the hard work on our own, despite Japanese tours.

Can you name me a country in Europe that has only one successful team in Europe?

Edited August 26, 2015 by Ser Barristan Selmy

[craig 5,195]

Can you name me a country in Europe that has only one successful team in Europe?

 

Sweden

[calscot 0]

The way things stand, the poorer our coefficient just means more chances at banana skins of teams at, or below, the level we need to beat to qualify - and having to play to win very early in the pre-season...

 

IF we win the top league we go through the champions route and looking at this year, the last 10 teams were:

 

FK Astana

APOEL Nicosia

Skënderbeu Korçë

Dinamo Zagreb

Celtic

Malmö

FC Basel

Maccabi

BATE Borisov

Partizan Belgrade

 

These are the level of the best teams we will have to face in up to three qualifiers. Yes we will be facing the highest coefficient teams each time, but that does not necessarily mean they are the best - with ourselves hopefully as an example.

 

The way I see it, the seeding is not accurate enough to make too much odds and ultimately we have to be able to beat any of those sides and perhaps three of them. Looking at that, it seems doable, and is a level I think we should and are aiming for.

 

At the end of next season we will have no team points and just the country points which in the current standings would put us as 327th.

 

Two things to remember about Celtic going out - as BH says, they may actually gain more points in the EL than the CL, and remember we only get 5% of the Celtic points = 20% / 4 teams. So if they miraculously do massively well, get to the final and gain say about 20 more points, that would put us up one point to about 286th...

 

So their coefficient points are really not much to worry about. Send them all the ill will you like.

Edited August 26, 2015 by calscot

[calscot 0]

PS You can check my facts at Bert Kassies excellent site: http://kassiesa.home.xs4all.nl/bert/uefa/data/method4/trank2016.html