Resolute Killie teach Celtic a lesson
Celtic stumble yet again
Well, the two Jimmies have made their name in Kilmarnock, you can guarantee that. Even if they only hang around until the end of season, the Killie fans will remember the night they beat Celtic and Robbie Keane. The only thing that mattered was that Kilmarnock wanted it more.
Celtic may have spent a lot of money on players and have a wage bill that engulfs that of the Ayrshire club but a lack of cohesion, tactics and effort can mean more than talent and money in the bank.
Celtic started strongly and for the first 15 minutes, the new Celtic forward line appeared capable of dancing around the Kilmarnock defence at will, with Keane, Fortune and Kamara looking bright early on. However, much like the Hibs game last Wednesday, Celtic’s opponents quickly found the Bhoys weakness and swamped their midfield.
Tony Mowbray has his footballing principles but leaving two midfielders to be outnumbered in the middle of the park is killing Celtic. Killie had a few shots from distance in the first half but Celtic were the team working the goalkeeper with Cammy Bell once again performing strongly against the hoops.
In the second half, Kilmarnock showed Celtic just how it was done with the home side calmly passing their way through the Celtic backline before Chris Maguire found plenty of time to fire beyond Boruc. Some of the space was caused by an injury picked up by Jos Hooiveld, who picked up this injury trying to solve the problems that arose from yet another terrible Aiden McGeady pass.
Celtic were badly let down by some of their old guard with McGeady, Loovens, Naylor and Boruc performing way below an acceptable standard. Boruc didn’t help his cause in the second half by returning abuse to Celtic fans in the Moffat stand, who had just about enough of his terrible kicking and positioning.
Yet again, Kevin Kyle had the measure of the Celtic backline and the player managed to interrupt and niggle Celtic every time but it worked.
As the game wore on, Celtic continued to muddle and stumble throughout the game and at the full-time whistle, you got the impression that many Celtic fans couldn’t be bothered in booing their team, preferring just to head off and reflect on yet another bad night at the office.
Having a vision is one thing for Tony Mowbray but continually relying on wide players is allowing opposition teams an easy opportunity to outmuscle Celtic in the middle.
Is it all over for Celtic?
So Celtic didn’t win 99-0 with Keane single handedly scoring all goals whilst smoking 100 Benson & Hedges? some of the hysteria surrounding this signing has been incredible and not just from Celtic fans, those in blue as well. Sadly it’s probably a reflection of how far Scottish football has slid down the pole that we see circa 5000 fans herald the signing of the new ‘Messiah’ on a 6 month loan deal? Honestly a good player, but a player than can’t dislodge Crouch, Defoe, Pavluchenko etc and also he had been punted around the Premiership with no takers. It does refect badly on the state of our game. A league that could once boast Laudrup, Gascoigne, Larsson, Viduka, De-Boers etc etc
Fair play to Celtic though in making the signing that so many fans have craved, but did they really need another striker? If you were to believe some press reports, Real Mallorca defender, Ivan Ramis, was set to join until the Keane roadshow came along, his wage demands proving too much alongside the £2M package to bring Keane in. Seriously, I think the money would’ve been spent wiser on securing the defender as there is enough strikers there to get the job done in the SPL.
As for the game itself, only seen the BBC highlights and it appears to be a case of De Ja Vu for Celtic under Mowbray. In what looks like a 4-2-4 he leaves his midfield and defence badly exposed and Boruc is fast becoming a liability for Celtic. Question is will Mowbray, a staunch believer in his way of playing football, sacrifice his system to suit a tough SPL and stiffen his midfield?
I stated in another thread, that Celtic lack real leadership, in fact any kind of leadership. Summed up last night with Loovens as Captain and then Brown jostling with him for the armband when he came on, perhaps if they focused on the job in hand as opposed to the token piece of fabric on the arm, either could have grabbed players by the scruff of the neck and demanded more from them. Mowbray appears to be a broken man, perhaps making a team up from Mr Lawells signings?
PS – Whats been going on with the site, not been able to access it for a few days?
Hi Quagmire,
server problems have been really affecting us.
We grew too popular (!!) for our original server – we were allegedly using up around 50% of their CPU something or other so we’ve had to look for a replacement.
Its been patchy since then as well….we’ve been consistently up since around 5pm on Tuesday night…..so fingers crossed we’re back in business but taking nothing for granted yet.
Ramis – some reports said the agent scuppered the deal by demanding a further payment for him and the player.
Keane – mass excitement, a lot borne out of frustration and desperation. There is no doubt Keane is an excellent player but whether he is the player Celtic need (on the park) is a different matter.
Celtic need a penalty box poacher, they play far too much in areas that dont matter.
When you hear Peter Lawell say the club have been in contact with Keane over a number of windows, its clearly a PLC driven transfer…although Im sure Tony Mowbray has greatfully accepted the player.
Celtic arent a great distance away from being a good team again but the spine of the team looks very fragile. As soon as Killie realised that Celtic could be over-run in midfield (about 20 mins in), Celtic never got any momentum at all.
i was woke up last night [tuesday] with loud thudding noises i got up to check what it was. but it was just celtic fans coming back down to earth with a bump .
forgot to say because keane is here till the end of the season did he go back to spurs after last nights game