'Celtic need to stop kidding themselves' - Champions League failure has familiar feel
- Published
Celtic's defensive shortcomings were exposed again in the defeat by Ferencvaros
Last August, Celtic exited Champions League qualifying after conceding four goals at home to Cluj, a header from close range, a ludicrously conceded penalty, a goalkeeping mistake and a final strike that couldn't be classified as one blunder or another, just a range of calamities that put the tin hat on a lousy evening.
Later in the season they departed the Europa League after a 3-1 defeat by Copenhagen in Glasgow, the goals coming this time via a terrible error from a centre-half, a wasteful loss of possession in a bad area and then a third when a striker strolled through powder-puff defending before dynamiting Celtic's chances of going further in the competition.
Then, as now, Neil Lennon spoke of his players having "only themselves to blame". Then, as now, the Celtic manager bemoaned individual errors, lack of concentration at the back and lack of ruthlessness in front of goal.
In documenting the club's failings on Wednesday we may as well have been listening to his interviews from the Cluj and Copenhagen matches. The scorelines were different, but the summary was exactly the same.
No wonder Lennon is pursuing Brighton's Shane Duffy. The Irishman is not a ball-playing centre-half, he's not a physical specimen. What he's useful at is using his size to physically intimidate attackers. He's got intensity and a desire to defend, qualities that were once again lacking at the critical moments on Wednesday. Hatem Elhamed, Kristoffer Ajer and Christopher Jullien came up short. All three could do with a dose of reality.
Elhamed's defending for Ferencvaros' winning goal was the problem in microcosm - lack of awareness of danger, poor decision-making, absence of attrition when attrition was called for. Credit to Tokmac Nguen for a terrific finish from an acute angle, but he should never have been afforded the opportunity.
Elhamed had one opportunity to clear when the ball was hoofed downfield to begin with, then another after he allowed it to run across him and into Nguen's path. He fluffed it both times.
Goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas might have dug him out of a hole with a save but he wasn't good enough either.
At the back, Celtic are too nice. At their best, Jullien and Ajer have a bit of grace. What they're missing is a bit of grunt.
When you're desperately trying to give your supporters some European glamour to look forward to when they return to Celtic Park and when you're also in need of replenishing your cash reserves with Champions League loot after the pounding the finances have taken through shutdown then cheap goals and an early departure from the main event is a sickener, this season of all seasons.
It seemed like an age before the Celtic directors left their seats and departed the arena. In a moment that spoke of pure angst, Peter Lawwell, the chief executive, buried his head in his hands in the manner of a man who couldn't stand the sight of a potential £30m windfall disappearing in front of his eyes.
He wouldn't have budgeted for that Champions League money, but he'd have fantasised about it all the same.
To lose to a quality side would have been one thing, but to see the dream perish against a side that Celtic really should be beating was quite another. In terms of European reputation and fiscal recovery, this was a horrible blow to the club.
In the minutes after the game Lennon took responsibility for the loss. He was also asked what message he had for his players. "Get your mentality right," he said, before adding that if any of his team don't want to be at the club any more then they should leave. Asked again if he thought any of them were in that category he said some of them were.
He didn't name names, of course. It could have been just a meaningless line uttered in frustration and anger, but if he actually meant it, then that's a damning indictment of one or more characters in his dressing room.
He'll be asked about that comment when he next appears in front of the cameras. His answer will be interesting - as will his team selection for Motherwell on Sunday.
Tokmac Nguen slides in the winning goal from a tight angle at Celtic Park
Lennon, himself, will have cause for reflection. He got it in the neck when he played Callum McGregor at left-back in the Cluj debacle, a piece of tactical over-thinking that contributed to the failure. He'll get it in the neck again now for playing without a recognised striker against a well-drilled, mentally strong and clinical Ferencvaros team.
Injury robbed him of Odsonne Edouard, but he had two other options - the £4.5m Albian Ajeti or the £3.5m Patryk Klimala. He went with neither of them from the start and instead played Ryan Christie as a makeshift centre-forward. Christie was busy, and scored the equaliser, but he's not a striker.
Time and again Celtic lacked a central presence in the box. On a number of occasions crosses flashed across the penalty area and into the kind of terrain that predators adore. Only Celtic didn't have a predator. There was nobody there to take advantage.
Lennon said Ajeti didn't start because he lacked sharpness. That's understandable given that he's just in the door after spending much of last season kicking his heels at West Ham. Lennon said that Klimala also lacked match fitness. That's a lot less understandable given that he's had a pre-season, won praise for his performances in friendlies in July, then scored against Hamilton on the opening day of the league campaign.
Ajeti appeared as a second-half substitute, but Klimala stayed on the bench. In the closing seconds, with Celtic in full-on crisis mode in pursuit of a goal, Jullien was pushed forward as an auxiliary centre-forward. Since his arrival in January, Klimala has played just eight games and his minutes on the field have been in single figures in four of them. He's a curious case right now.
So Ferencvaros join Cluj and AEK Athens as the teams that have knocked Celtic out of Champions League qualification over the past three seasons. These are not stellar clubs, not outfits with bigger budgets than Celtic. The opposite in fact.
Occasionally, when the stars are aligned, Celtic can find excellence and beat a monied club like Lazio, but it happens rarely enough these days.
Lennon said that Celtic are a better team than Ferencvaros. That may, or may not, be true, but you can't keep saying it in defeat. Celtic had claim on being a better side than Cluj as well. Brendan Rodgers said that they were better than AEK. It gets a bit ridiculous after a while. Celtic need to stop kidding themselves that they're better than sides that have just beaten them.
What normally happens here is that the support will vent a little, they'll give Lennon a blast, some players will be written off and Lawwell will be ordered to deliver more signings on pain of protest.
After that, domestic dominance normally kicks in and European failure is swept away on a tidal wave of noise about 10 in a row. They wrap themselves in the comfort blanket of parochialism - and it's quite a protection. Trophy after trophy, feelgood moment after feelgood moment.
Celtic remain footballing kings of Scotland, but for a club that wants to be acknowledged as a player outside the borders of its own country they suffered more reputational damage on Wednesday night. The glory of Lazio away already seems like a long time ago.