CALMAC – 3/10 – I’m loathe to slaughter the skipper. Why? Because I pointed out how Kairat swamped him last week and stifled his influence on the game. And they did it again. With no counter. And, boy, was he shaken; hustled into numerous faults, nearly crowned it with an OG. But… Leadership quality to bury his pen. Yet his isolation and persecution was all down to failed tactical set-up. Which we persevered with for 165 minutes of this tie… I just wish Calmac had said, ‘To hell with it’ and re-shaped the midfield himself. Takes a good mutiny to set things aright…
Benjamin Nygren of Celtic Kairat Almaty v Celtic, UEFA Champions League, Play-Off Round, Second Leg, Football, Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan – 26 Aug 2025Almaty Almaty Central Stadium Kazakhstan. Photo Nikita Bassov/Shutterstock
NEGAN – 3.5/10 – Close, but no cigar. Threatened to exploded into life a couple of times but spent most of his game bouncing around an overcrowded cul-de-sac of a middle, unable to cut loose.
Reo Hatate of Celtic applauds Kairat Almaty v Celtic, UEFA Champions League, Play-Off Round, Second Leg, Football, Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan – 26 Aug 2025Almaty Almaty Central Stadium Kazakhstan Photo Nikita Bassov/Shutterstock
HAKUNA HATATE – 3/10 – As with Negan, they cancelled one another out within these tactics; as evident last week. Thank goodness we were able to address that with sharp coaching and go and smash this mob. Not. Where was Gav and his laptap…
Yang Hyun-Jun of Celtic Kairat Almaty v Celtic, UEFA Champions League, Play-Off Round, Second Leg, Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan – 26 August 2025Almaty Almaty Central Stadium Kazakhstan Photo Nikita Bassov/Shutterstock
YING – 2/10 – Like Saturday, he took a while to burst into life. Then died out like a moth head-butting a halogen.
Daizen Maeda of Celtic reacts to missing an opportunity Kairat Almaty v Celtic, UEFA Champions League, Play-Off Round, Second Leg, Football, Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan – 26 August 2025. Photo Nikita Bassov/Shutterstock
LORD KATSUMOTO – 3/10 – Ah, dear Ghod. With Daizen, he’s always a couple of kicks from being a hero. How my heart sank tonight as he passed up THE chance of the tie, THE moment we’d waited for. Would we have wanted anyone else racing through on the keeper with three minutes left?
…Kyogo, but that’s another sorry tale.
Daizen Maeda of Celtic reacts to missing an opportunity Kairat Almaty v Celtic, UEFA Champions League, Play-Off Round, Second Leg, Football, Almaty Central Stadium, Almaty, Kazakhstan – 26 Aug just 2025Almaty Almaty Central Stadium Kazakhstan Photo Nikita Bassov/Shutterstock
As for the penalty, a sign of Daizen’s dislocation; not the Daizen of last term, or even previous. May not be long for this Celtic wonderland now…That window’s closing and the suits have just lost their seats at the CL banquets. Going to have to raise a kitty for Just Eats Maccie D’s deliveries…
JAMESY – 4/10 – Use the heid, Jamesy! No, not that one… Yer big one…So nearly a startling opener from the Prestwick Pele, probably the worst man to get on the end of a high ball. But he was close, give him that. A strenuous trip, given he picked up another eight wives and five lawsuits over backdated child support from a
Karagandy lawyer who threw them as paper aeroplanes out the bored crowd. But Jamesy tried, though we never used him at all. Because that would have involved kicking the ball forward.
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Pretty much agree with everything, but Scales was easily man of the match for me, by quite some way, and although Anthony never let us down, he never has, he was carrying an injury , and was as sloppy as the rest re passes etc.
Idah i would give a special mention to, held it up well(first who did), and tried to get us into the game.
I really don’t understand this thing about transfers, we know exactly how it works: Rogers says positions needing strengthened, the recruitment team(whoever they are)go out and find suitable candidates, and these are run past Rogers for final choice.
ps the refs were a disgrace both ties, falling for what can only be described as schoolboy antics, and acting like they’d never seen a game of football, they were literally using the oldest tricks in the book. Not only that, like last week he punished Celtic players for Almati indiscretions, in between patting them, shaking their hands and having a laugh with them, but alas he was not to blame for our shambles
The players completely bottled it, both ties, and as you say, against journeymen.
Anyone looking forward to the game on Sunday……anyone???
This was the replay of the Aberdeen cup final where the manager’s tactics were turgid and predictable. Last years signings left on the bench. The board are also culpable but an elite manager. You’re having a laugh.
The ratings and summing up are spot on
Just about spot on as always, and normally such a laugh. Just not on this occasion! I said the exact same thing in a post the other day about the definition of insanity. And yet here we are. What kind of tactic is that? Try the same thing away from home? Utter madness. And utter folly. We’ve rightly pilloried the board for lack of investment, but the Boss needs criticised for lack of invention.
This is a team that mostly also played under Ange. They know how to go on the offensive, at pace. And this is a manager who used to come out the blocks, all guns blazing (Man City 3-3 anybody?) – so it CANNOT be beyond the will of the manager or the players to conjure up a different approach, even for 1 game. All this rigid structure and style is a joke. It’s gotten us nowhere, and it’s completely strangling not just the style of the players, it’s now (clearly) strangling their confidence as well.
Calmac is clearly on the decline – pace and strength are nowhere near good enough for these games and he’s been exposed too often in Europe and in the SPL if pressured. But he could be far better utilised in a “number 8” role head up, going forward, taking chances etc, and getting more rest. The less said about Maeda’s missed chances the better. And 3 of the worst penalties I’ve seen. There are too many players bottling it not just last night but in every game – but I think the system we play is encouraging them to bottle it – so passive, so repetitive, so predictable, so unimaginative. We need a good shake up. It’s not just the Board now, it’s the Boss too, and the players. I hate to say it, but I do not enjoy watching us play right now – that needs to change. BR needs to bring back a bit of swashbuckling and in your face tempo or other teams will simply try and do the same thing that Aberdeen and Almaty have done – and so far we have no answer to that. It’s absolutely clear we have no answer unless BR changes it. Let’s see what happens against Martin Baw this weekend….
Yes tippytappy didn’t work in a lush flat Celtic park how the hell did Rodgers think it would work on a pitch thats was bumpy slippy McGregors pass back says it all what a bounce everytime we missed out a packed midfield that needy to touches to control which you didn’t get we got into good position but we kept trying to pass it in to the goals come on Brendan plan b you have players that cant think for them selves if they do likely dropped psg couldn’t pass on that pitch so why i persisted
Yes tippytappy didn’t work in a lush flat Celtic park how the hell did Rodgers think it would work on a pitch thats was bumpy slippy McGregors pass back says it all what a bounce everytime we missed out a packed midfield that needy two touches to control which you didn’t get we got into good position but we kept trying to pass it in to the goals come on Brendan plan b you have players that cant think for them selves if they do likely dropped psg couldn’t pass on that pitch so why i persisted