Going to Italy to play Atalanta on Wednesday night with that defence is actually giving me the fear. We need CCV, Celtic’s Big Strong Man…
After the disappointment of throwing away a two goal lead yesterday all thoughts now turn to the small matter of a trip to Bergamo to take on Europa League winners Atalanta in match day three of our champions league campaign.
After the disaster in Dortmund it’s not surprising that we all have the fear at the thought of taking on the Serie A side on their own patch, and yesterdays defensive frailties make it all the more worrying.
Defensively we were all over the place. We looked nervous and unsure of ourselves every time that Aberdeen attacked us, especially through the middle. It doesn’t have to be said that Atalanta are a much better side than the Dons and the prospect of facing them is very daunting to say the least.
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Atalanta are not your stereotypical Italian side. They are a free flowing side and go for the jugular, they are relentless in their attacking prowess and for me are a much better side than Dortmund, and we all know what happened to Celtic in the Westfalenstadion.
Brendan has also stated that he won’t change his philosophy, and that of course is his prerogative, but he has to sort out his defence. If not we could be looking at yet another humiliating result.
We really do need Cameron Carter-Vickers to play in this one then rest up again to continue his recovery. That is possibly why he didn’t feature yesterday after training on Friday.
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Brendan said after the 2-2 draw with Aberdeen that he would find out today whether CCV is going to be in contention for the match at the Gewiss Stadium in beautiful northern Italian city of Bergamo, which is around 36 miles from Milan.
Liam Scales was excellent yesterday and Sandman rightly awarded him his Man of the Match award in his outstanding Definitive Ratings. Scales alongside CCV will give us more hope. Fingers crossed the our Big Strong Man makes it.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
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big problems in midfield,no dig,no presence ergo no protection for defence.we are not compact enough,too expansive and full panic mode when we don’t have the ball.calculators at the ready midweek.
Thought yesterday we saw a fair bit of complacency creep into our game imo?
We got caught out badly mentally, when our mindset seemed more focused upon saving energy for atalanta, than actually seeing out a game in the 2nd half, that to many showed of thinking the match was already won at half time?
Yet the warning signs were on show within the 1st half, where careless passing and a strong counter attacking game was still causing ourselves problems?
As much as I enjoy ourselves being a front foot attacking team, we can still be fairly brutal when forced onto the back foot within games also?
Our squad isn’t set up to play a containing game, and the 2nd half yesterday was the ideal opportunity to see if we even have a containing game, to see out a game already won, within ourselves, and still a strong counter attacking game also?
But we ended up doing nothing, and a big wasted opportunity in more ways than one, goes by ourselves?
The high intensity pressing game that has been so successful earlier within the season, doesn’t look like being an option for ourselves over this period of matches, especially without much, if any of a rotation policy within our squad either?
Starting to look like our team is going to remain as a one trick pony, so could well be a bumpy ride in store for ourselves, especially against the better teams that we are going to face imo?