It’s hard to blame any of the players for tonight’s second leg Europa Conference Play-off defeat against Bodo/Glimt, after all the manager sent out the message he’d already conceded this tie pre-match, with a team selection suitable for a home Scottish Cup-tie against Raith Rovers, rather than one designed to overturn a two-goal deficit in the latter stages of European competition.
As such, expecting the players to perform when the manager had to all intents has chucked the tie is a hard ask.
The pre-match message the manager sent out, that he’d selected a team to win this tie, was disingenuous at best. He said the right things, or at least what is expected, as he did post-match, but in truth the team lines submitted was an early surrendering of European football for another season, as Celtic ultimately exited the third of three European tournaments this season with a 5-1 deficit to the Norwegian champions over the two legs.
It’s just a shame no-one told the hardy bunch of Celtic supporters who travelled out there, spending hard-earned money, that the manager had little intention of travelling to the Arctic Circle with the same level of enthusiasm and ambition as they exhibited, despite the positive noises extolled in the build-up.
Of course, there is a sense of perspective to be taken here. Celtic under Ange Postecoglou are miles ahead where any of us expected to be, and with a three-point lead in the title race a marginal one, with just eleven games to go, Sunday’s lunchtime fixture against Hibs at Easter Road probably takes precedence, and that showed in the team selection.
However, even if the manager wanted to give the players every chance to turn the tie around, the façade of attempting to progress tonight had long faded by the full-time whistle. At that point the manager could have at least admitted his eyes were on another prize, and he felt to play a full team tonight, against a superior opponent, was something the squad depth he had at his disposal couldn’t stretch to at this stage of his rebuild. Say that and then we’d all have understood, to then continue to talk afterwards as everyone had given their all only to fall short was a poor show.
Celtic’s first eleven, and now second string, have both been given the run around by Bodo/Glimt, as has Ange Postecoglou, and if there is one message the manager did get across, by accident or by design, is those players in supporting roles may well cope with coming in as covering options for first team players in domestic cup competitions, but they are nowhere near the standard required for Celtic to compete on a domestic front and in Europe. Was that team selection for those holding the purse string to see? Perhaps it was.
All eyes will now move to Easter Road on Sunday lunchtime, and there can be no excuses as European football has been surrendered in exchange for three points in Edinburgh. With automatic Champions’ League group stage qualification attached to a league title win, then perhaps even a European big picture was at play tonight.
One thing is certain however, I never want to see a Celtic team sent out to chase a two-goal deficit in knockout European football with anything other than the best players we have at our disposal, and if we have to, I expect honesty from the manager rather than blowing smoke up our backsides in the build-up and after the fact.
Niall J
