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Daniel Hayes: Tony Mowbray should move on, not fans
No case for defence
By Daniel Hayes
Trudging home from Pittodrie after yet another miserable away day as a Celtic fan brought about three separate emotions; disappointment, humiliation but also the realisation of the state Celtic Football Club finds itself in.
As a football supporter nothing can beat watching your team from the stands with family and friends. As a season ticket holder for many years I have had the privilege of watching my team on a regular basis since I was a little boy. This privilege is now becoming more of a chore under the present regime of Mowbray, Venus and Grant. Since the days of Tommy Burns I have never seen a Celtic side which can look exciting at one end and so appalling at the other.
The attacking options at Tony Mowbray’s disposal would be the envy of many managers with exciting talents such as McGeady, Fortune, Kamara and of course Robbie Keane gracing the Hoops. However how many managers would envy the defensive options that Mowbray has at this present time?
Josh Thompson at the tender age of 18 has been given a tough time in his few appearances since been flung into the side. It is clear the young Englishman is not anywhere near the standard required for a Celtic defender. Many argue that he is still very young and it is not right to judge him at his age but how come players such as Dalglish, Nicholas, McStay and even McGeady have been able to step up to the plate at a young age but Thompson can’t?
I have watched football long enough to believe that I know if a player is good enough and I’m afraid young Thomson will not make the grade at Celtic Park, not now and not in the future.
Darren O’Dea has become a bit of a myth amongst the Celtic faithful since his breakthrough in 2006. Throughout the struggles of Caldwell and McManus many argued for the young Irishman to be included because they said he couldn’t be any worse than the two occupying the centre of defence at the time. Having been shipped out on loan to Reading at the start of the season where he managed to play only a handful of games, O’Dea suddenly became a better player in many people’s eyes while at the Madejski Stadium.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder as they say but I’m certainly not fond of O’Dea and especially his lack of presence in the box. Like his defensive partner Thompson, O’Dea has no ability in the air as far as I can see and it makes watching the Hoops defend set-pieces a predictable nightmare.
The Celts defence seem clueless as to how to get rid of any cross coming into the box with the usual result being another cheap goal conceded after yet more comical defending.
Too many times after poor results Tony Mowbray has stated that his side must “Take it on the chin and move on to the next game” well I’m sorry Tony but fans of the Parkhead club are sick of taking it on the chin and moving on, maybe it’s you that should move on.
Results this year have been catastrophic and embarrassing at times under the stewardship of the former West Brom manager. As a former defender himself how difficult can it be for Mowbray to teach his defenders to deal with bread and butter crosses into the box? The same type of goal is being lost week in week out and as a supporter it is getting tiresome watching some of these players who are so far below the standard required of a Celtic player. Throughout the whole season there is only one member of the defensive unit that would get pass marks from me and that is Andreas Hinkel. The German right-back has been very solid for the Hoops and has been badly missed due to injury. When Mowbray arrived in June he promised to field a team of exciting attacking flair, and to be fair to the man he has kept to his word. Some of the forward play on show at times is mouth-watering but the defence regularly lets the rest of the team and the supporters down. With the league gone now the only focus for Mowbray’s men is to lift the Scottish Cup and win as many games as possible in the title run-in, including both Old Firm games. Failure to achieve a victory in any of the remaining Old Firm fixtures and not at least winning the Scottish Cup would heap huge pressure on Mowbray for next season. I firmly believe Mogga will still be at the Parkhead helm come August no matter what the rest of the season may bring but with the majority of the loan stars Keane, Braafheid, Kamara and N’Guemo all set to leave in the summer will Mowbray have enough at his disposal to build a team that will put up a better title fight next season? That remains to be seen.
Comments
you could not be further from the truth,i think this boy will go far,to write him off at such an early stage is beyond a joke
hail hail
He needs to go, defending is actually getting worse, the team is getting worse.
Go now so someone else can prepare to stop Rangers doing 3 in a row.
This is not negativity it is fact. His dire results prove this.
We can't string together 3 victories in a row, Mogga is wank at managing Celtic and needs to move on.
He is well paid to do a job he is not performing in.
We have standards, we are Celtic not some sort of project.
Watching Celtic is "tiresome"? Don't fecking go then.
Or should we maybe show a bit of faith and long-term planning and give the guy time to get his team settled and playing his way and then judge him?
Yes, very negative and flippant to say get rid of a decent and hard working man however......
The results just don't stack up.
The team has been awful all season, from game to game we don't know what to expect. Will it be a brilliant attack minded performance with goals or big defensive blunders and loads of chances squandered.
It's not working, draw a line under it and move on.
You need experience to play the position consistently well. Thompson has shown during his cameo to be a composed defender. One who imposes himself on the opposition. Yes he can look leggy maybe cumbersome at times. But what do you expect from a young raw talent who has only played a handful of professional games.
Again yes we have big problems defensively but to aim your critsism mostly at young defender is pretty disgraceful. With injuries and the clubs failure to bring in one or two experienced CB’s in January. This has culminated in Thompson being asked to contribute to the cause when it’s clear he’s extremely wet behind the ears.
Circumstances have forced his early inclusion in the team, do you not understand that?
The team Tony Mowbray inherited in the summer had been second best for the previous 18 months. Not just last season but from the previous January when Walter Smith arrived at Ipox. It was obvious for the remainder of that season to just how bad we had become. Gripping on to that title by our finger nails only papered over the cracks we were in the decline and we all knew it . The board and the previous Celtic manager were only too happy to sit back and accept what was all too obvious for most of WGS’s tenure, our monumental decline.
It will take more than 2 transfer windows to put right the so many wrongs of the previous 8. Mowbray has brought proper footballers to the club in Kamara, N’Guemo, Ki, Fortune and Keane. These players are night and day in comparison to the dross he’s managed to ship out. Defensively we are a shambles, however circumstances beyond his control have effected this area of the team.
Injuries and the failure to bring in the experienced defenders he had identified is the problem. Yes he has made mistakes but you can only pick the players at your disposal.
Who on here believes Tony Mowbray’s ideal back four would consist of.
Caddis…Thompson ….O’Dea…..Braffheid????
Defensive frailties are costing us no doubt but again circumstances beyond his control in the guise of poor refereeing decisions are as much to blame for the 10 point gap as to any other reason. If even half of those result changing decisions had not been made I bet nobody would be questioning Mowbray’s job security at this time.
I will wait till we see a run of 5 games or so with a less cobbled together defence. Hinkel-Loovens_Hooivel d-Braafheid is what i suspect would be the preferred back four of Mowbray. Hopefully they can do the basics that are needed to defend in the scottish game as they all seem to be comfortable in position and fit in Mowbrays style.
However, WBA had a horrendously inept defence last season in the Prem, so whether that was personnel or organisation i'm not sure. You would think a former centre half who was captain at a young age would have a grasp of the organisation needed at the back, so i remain confident that with a settled first choice back four, we will be a lot more solid than recently and also than under Strachan.
The experience of watching celtic whilst in possession is much more rewarding than since ... well, before O'Neill (it wasn't pretty, generally, in a purist way) so we shall see.
My overall opinion of Mowbrays tenure so far is that he is very indecisive, makes strange substitutions, has been plauged by injuries and has had to deal with some extremely strange refereeing decisions. He needs to have a starting 11 in his mind and play them as often as he can to gain some momentum, because chopping and changing so much with young players like Thomson and with the many new faces in the squad will get us nowhere.
I have tried to keep as much faith as i can about Celtic winning the league, however it is all but lost now. A defeat to Rangers on the 28th would seal it. Lets hope Hooiveld and Hinkle are fit for the trip to Ibrox and try and claw back the deficit. So get a team and stick with it Mowbray.
Anyway. All in all good article Danny.
HAIL HAIL.
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