Brendan Rodgers arrives at Ibrox. theRangers v Celtic,31 August 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
THE NOTAPRODDYGAL – 5/10 – Here we are again. Aberdeen. St.Mirren for a while on Flag Day. Kairat twice. And today so close to being schooled by Martin Russell And His Alternative Vegan Therapy Troupe. Each time regards above, they’ve targeted Calmac, our difference-engine, and smothered him. Nullifying our functionality as a midfield unit and limiting our creative and attacking options. Like today. Even though BR heeded the call to get Engels in there, he wasn’t deployed properly. To counter that stifling tactic Calmac needs someone like Arne in TANDEM with him, with Reo free to play ahead, finding space between the lines as we play around their midfield press with short bursts; a 2-1 triangle if you will.
Brendon Rodgers, Manager of Celtic, reacts during the match between theRangers and Celtic at Ibrox Stadium on August 31, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Then we get CONTROL in the middle and the Green Machine gets to work. But it didn’t happen. Again. And so interweb maniacs like me point it out. Again. And Nygren somehow manages to see out the full game… Again…And the Brendanistas will vilify me. Again. Because he’s an ‘elite’ manager, a tactical mastermind and I’m just…The deranged alter-ego of some frustrated Celtic fan. No tactical genius; That’s right. But still someone with a voice capable of postulating this uncomfortable hypothesis over TWO years into The Brodge’s tenure: An Ange Postecoglou Celtic side would have destroyed that Zombie outfit today. And we’d have loved the way they went
about it.
Aaaand… Duck.
Arne Engels with Don Robertson. theRangers v Celtic,31 August 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
MIBBERY – 7/10 – Very close. But for Soapy Souttar’s beer belly they’d have won that game on the sleekit, ridiculous penalising of non-fouls an inordinate amount of times when Celtic players were simply trying to play the game within the rules. Dirty Don the mason’s sycophant was at his most conniving; outrageous interpretation of innocuous situations to conjour Zombie free-kicks in dangerous delivery areas. Despicable stick.
theRangers v Celtic, 31 August 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)
OVERALL – 5/10 – Well, we didn’t lose…Apologies if these ratings find you later than anticipated but I’m busy with a one-man show at the Citizen’s Theatre. It’s a take on Samuel Beckett’s classic existential play ‘Waiting For Godot’, where I sit numbed and silent on stage, sipping a pint of Guiness for two hours, watching a replay of that dreadful match and musing on the nature of existence before falling into a coma.
Media hacks like Tom English will call it ‘turgid’ no doubt – a popular word for many of them who aren’t very good with words…Turgid means swollen, distended, firm – think of Jamesy on a Prestwick night out – whereas that 90 minutes could best be described as torpid or, preferably, stagnant: our performance invoking images of a long-forgotten pond in an octagenarian’s neglected, overgrown garden – water still, stank and lifeless.
Exactly the way this Celtic side appeared for long stretches of the match. We’ve regressed to a cautious collective of anxious players. Keep-ball is the mantra; possession at all costs. Back, to side, to side, and back. No zip. No defined tempo. No change-up in gears to take advantage when the propitious openings materialise. Three big games, three nil-nils. Barely a shot on target. Fortune favours the brave. Neither this board or manager – or now even the players; so cowed by tactics, they seem – could be considered brave enough at the moment.
Go Away Now
Sandman
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Don’t know how you give anyone other Kasper over 4
Spot on. Feck the haters …
I don’t know how anyone can criticise Brendan the Elite’s tactics. It’s all the boards fault. He needs a more quality profile of player in there. One who can inject some speed and quality. And of course, has the ability to check their run, cut back, pass back to the quality we already have who will pass it across to more quality we already have who will then shift it slowly sideways then advance to the other side for another cut back and repeat.
There may or may not be some satire in the above. But definitely not the part about Brendan the Elite. Let me be the first to applaud our glorious tactician. A lesser man would have left greyskull with a defeat yesterday, but not Brendan the Elite who stifled the slick, well oiled, ball playing machine that Russel Martin has created on their home soil to ensure we left still 6 points ahead.
Calmac a shadow of former seasons.
The miles have caught up with the legs.
Time to rest him or replace him.
Hopefully I’m wrong.
We’ll discover after the break with the 2 games a week.
Hail Hail.
Have to agree with, pretty much, all of that, although the keeper’s distribution had me wailing, screaming and praying, it was dreadful.
Oh and a huge, huge thumbs up to Liam Scales, what a performance…thank goodness 🙏🏻
All problems with Celtic will right themselves when :- Rodgers , Kennedy and their bunch of ” Amateur – hangers-on” tell the players ” Right lads you’re supposed to be shooting into that goal ” and point to the opposing teams goal .
For about the last 12 games , Liam Scales has had the most touches and has been the man of the match . Jock Stein / Neil Mochan & Co . apparently fined Celtic players if they passed the ball back more than twice in Training Sessions . The same old formation again 4-3-3 from Rodgers , no matter who or where we are playing . Opposing teams swamp the mid-field and Celtic do not have the :- Skill , strength , speed or brains to vary their game .
The problems at Celtic will not be solved by signing a few more ” Journey-man” players . The sqad is full of ordinary players who are not what used to be called ,”Celtic class”. I think , Sandman that you are more than generous with your assessments —-Only :- Scales , Carter-Vickers , Ralston & Maeda deserve more than 2/10 . The rest were dreadful and could not even make an impact on the WORST Rangers team I have ever seen in my lifetime and i am approaching 80 years of age . I rest my case .
Love reading your synopsis but your ratings are way too high. We hung on against the most abysmal Hun team since John Grieg days. Zero shots on target first half two second half. An elite manager my arse