Bring on the Gunners. C’mon the Hoops! KEEP THE FAITH!

I decided to try a player rating system this time, let me know if you like this better or if you like my random bullet points I usually go with.

Boruc-8-Didn’t have much to do and one one corner was beat, but Hinkel saved him.
Hinkel-10-Set up both goals and saved a goal. Ran rings around the Dinamo wings and fullbacks. My Man of the Match.
Caldwell-7.5-Not a great game, but solid.
Loovens-7.5 See Heeeid.
Fox-8.5-Still seems nervous and struggled at the beginning, but settled down. Played some good defense, which isn’t his best suit.
McGeady-7-Did some fancy footwork, but his final ball was atrocious.
N’Guemo-9.5-Ruled the midfield. Only thing keeping him from a 10 was the yellow he picked up. I think he thought he was fouled and got frustrated, and took it out with his Rugby tackle. He better get use to not getting calls in the SPL.
Donati-8-Passing still something left to be desired, but I thought one of his better games with us. Seems to realized that he’s a big guy and can win a 50-50 chance and strung a few passes.
Maloney-6.5-Struggled with corners and free kicks and didn’t see much else of him. Should have scored the chance before Sammy did.
Fortune-8-Showed his game, which is holding the ball and creating chances for others. Held the ball well in the box which lead to Skippy’s goal.
McDonald-7-Not much from him besides the goal. Still, he got a goal.

Subs:
Brown-9-Came on like a man possessed and put Dinamo on the back foot. Created some great chances.
Samaras-9-Did a good job controlling in his sub stint and obviously did well in his goal.

ToMo-10-Perfect game. Knew that Dinamo would be bunkered in and came up with a great plan for it. Got the subs exactly right tonight it seems.

Of course, a trip to Moscow is a good excuse to bust this video out.

Perhaps this season’s poor run in the Champions League will get Penny Pincher Desmond Dermot to open his wallet and buy players to help us get over the Last 16 hump (a hump we could not even reach this year). You can talk all you want about getting over said hump, but if you do not make the investments then all it is is just talk.

Secondly, as our blue neighbors across town showed last year, there’s something to this whole fixture congestion thing. Of course you want to be in every competition possibly, but the sound of a treble is a nice one. Celtic have a CIS Cup Semi Final to worry about, a rather successful SPL campaign so far, and the Cup to try and win back. The UEFA Cup and more travels across Europe would be nice, but with the rash of injuries Celtic has faced, one less fixture might be ok.

Finally, I have been critical of Gordon Strachan on here numerous times, but in no way should Strachan be fired for last night’s loss. As mentioned earlier, this squad remained largely unchanged from the previous season, so further advancement could not have been expected. Gordon Strachan has navigated Celtic to 3 titles in a row, eleven wins in a row, and a four point lead in the SPL.

So, as my good buddy Stephen Colbert would say, Scottish Football…YOU’RE ON NOTICE!

Celtic now travel to Denmark on Tuesday to take on Aalborg in the likely decider Champions League match of the campaign. This game will most likely decide who gets the parachute Uefa Cup spot as both teams sit on two points in the standings.

As Celtic travel to Denmark, the injuries woes that plagued Celtic during this unlikely eleven game unbeaten run continue to be resolved. Aiden McGeady has recovered from his calf and knee problems and will be traveling with the club. He will be put through a fitness test Monday night and a determination will be made about his availability for Tuesday’s match. Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, who is recovering from Jan Vennegooring his Hesselink (aka a groin pull) has also been included in the squad for Tuesday. Paul Hartley has also recovered from his injury sustained during his Scottish National Team duty and should be in the squad as well.

Usually, when Celtic is away in the Champions League, Gordon Strachan likes to play a 4-5-1 and counter attack, a strategy that has done bully for us so far. Now that Celtic face a must win situation away from home, one would hope that Strachan opens up play a little. With Celtic becoming healthy, the team has more attacking options to choose from, rather than “DOWN FIELD!” clearances. The team is in good form and NEEDS TO WIN. Let them attack, Ginger man, let them attack!

TAL

So in came Berbatov and Rooney. The Man United assault started almost as soon as the second half whistle blew, with United creating chance after chance after chance, but the Celtic defense would not break. However, it was a Celtic substitution that seemed to change the game. Young Cillian Sheridan had a decent run about in this high profile start for the youngster, but as the second half wore down he was removed for Massimo Donati. While I have been critical of Donati in the past, I don’t think he played poorly. I do think that Celtic went from a team that defended with the odd counter attack to keep Man U on their toes to a all hands on deck, defend and hoof it up field team. The trend continued when Shaun Maloney and Scott McDonald were removed for Ben Hutchinson and Darren O’Dea. 5 Defenders allowed United’s back line to camp out at midfield and just play the long clearances back to the Ronaldo’s and Rooney’s (Ronaldo is a diving cunt, by the way. He’s also lucky that Scott Brown didn’t break his fibula a la Roy Keane style when Ronny took a kick at him. I use to sympathize with Ronny, now he’s on my shit list. Wanker.) It was inevitable at this point that United were going to find a chance and it is a shame that it was seven minutes from full time. If you would have told me that we would have drew 1-1 at the beginning of the game I would have been excited, but the final whistle left a bad taste in my mouth.

Some other talking points:
-Artur Boruc had a decent game, but on every cross played by United he looked uneasy. I don’t want to make my final decision yet but it seems like he bottled Ronaldo’s long range shot to put it right at Giggs feet.
-People clammering for Darren O’Dea and Ben Hutchinson got their wish tonight, but neither were effective and I do not remember 100% but I believe O’Dea was on Giggs or not on for that matter.
-The crowd was great. Not just the same sing songs of “Hail Hail”, “YNWA”, and “Fields of Athenry”, I heard Celtic Symphony, Let the People Sing, and others. On a related note, a big “fuck you” to the Manchester United fans in attendance. The term “You only sing when your winning” seems to fit and congrats on the “FTP and the IRA” chants at the end of the game. You are just huns with Malcolm Glazer indeed.
-Great display from the Green Brigade that ESPN caught. Clever stuff with it being the 5th of November. As soon as I find some pictures, I’ll get them up here!

TAL!

C’MON THE HOOPS!

The second half was another story. Celtic came out of the locker room flat and seemed as if they were already defeated. The kept even less possession than in the first half and seemingly lacked any good scoring opportunities. After a good performance, especially considering the opponent, in the first half by the defense, man marking became lazy and Celtic was lucky that United only scored twice in the half. Overall, it was a disappointing trip down south, but there were a few positives to take from it.

Gary Caldwell continues his renaissance. After spending most of last season as a whipping bhoy, Gary Caldwell’s performances continued to improve. His SPL performances as a member of the backline have been wonderful and when put into the central defensive midfield role against Man U, he was Celtic’s Man of the Match. He can play a good long ball and has the ability to stop counter attacks, a key trait for a central midfielder. It is not as if Celtic are in dire need for more center backs (take Massimo Donati…please!), but if a situation as last night where there are injuries, it is good to know Caldwell can step in and take care of business.

The defense held the current European Champions for 45 minutes. Besides a goal that probably should not have counted, the Celtic defense was able to keep the likes of Ronaldo, Berbatov, and Rooney without any real scoring opportunities. Sure United had the possession for most of the half (mostly because Scott McDonald has seemingly left his first touch in Australia), but the goal was the only real good scoring opportunity and the Celtic defense was able to eventually deal with everything else.

Aiden McGeady continues to make midtable EPL teams drool. Aidendinho was the only offensive threat that Celtic had, but it was almost enough in the first half. Seeing that McDonald, Naka, and co. couldn’t hold water if they were a sponge, Aiden often had to take on the entire Man U defense and did so a couple times effectively. He was also about a centimeter away from putting Celtic up a goal early. But there was plenty of bad for Celtic.

McDonald and Nakamura go missing again. Have you seen Scott McDonald or Shunsuke Nakamura? There families and national teams are worried for their safety. Seriously, how many times did Caldwell play a pretty good long ball to McDonald, only to have Skippy butcher the first touch and give the ball back to United. If Strachan is going to insist on playing a 4-5-1 in away European ties, then we need a striker that can win the ball. I know Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Georgios Samaras were out, but McDonald does not seem like a striker suited for the 4-5-1. Hell give Hutchinson a chance before McDonald in that formation. Nakamura is known for his free kick abilities but did not really have a good chance on net for a free kick, which is not his fault. However, his corner taking was awful. The first corner of the game for Celtic, Naka sends the ball behind the net. BEHIND THE NET! When I saw that, I knew it was going to be a long game

After a good 45 minutes, the defense decides they no longer need to mark these guys. “Ronaldo? Ah, he’s got him. Rooney? Nah, no need to close him down. Berbatov? Why mark HIM in a dead ball situation?” The backline did a complete 180 after a good performance in the first half. United had boat loads of chances mostly to unmarked men, bad giveaways, and general incompetency.

So now we have 1 pt, with Manchester United at home, Vilareal at home, and away to Aalborg. Qualification is looking unlikely, so perhaps focus on a UEFA Cup spot. I think we can beat Vilareal or Man U at home, but it will likely come down to Aalborg away.