Neil Lennon is sick of Celtic’s penalty problems.
For five years the lack of a reliable penalty taker has dogged the club with only Scott Brown showing some consistency from the penalty spot.
In 2008 Barry Robson saw a penalty saved against Alborg in the Champions League with Aiden McGeady, Scott McDonald, Georgios Samaras, Anthony Stokes and Gary Hooper all proving less than reliable from 12 yards out.
Kris Commons did score a priceless penalty against Spartak Moscow in the Champions League but Charlie Mulgrew’s failure yesterday was the third miss out of five from the penalty spot this season.
“I am sick of us missing penalties,” Lennon stated. “I am sick of it, for some reason Charlie decided to side-foot it when I wanted him to put his laces through it.
“Charlie Mulgrew is the best dead-ball player I’ve seen for a long, long time, certainly in Scotland, and he is one of the best in Britain.
“I was amazed he side-footed it, I thought he would have whipped it or put a bit of power in it.
“Again, we seem to change our mentality when it comes to penalties. I don’t know how many we have missed in my time as manager.
“I am not pointing the finger at Charlie because there was still a long way to go in the game.
“That was a game-changer, but our reaction was poor from the second and third goals onwards. We seemed to lose our discipline a little bit and it is not like us.”
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I’d be questioning the need for Mulgrew to take the kick. We had highly paid strikers or indeed Brown who has been as good as anyone else so why change ?
Zaluska has never looked confident in ANY appearance, sold some cheap goals and is well short of the quality needed as back-up. I don’t think Fasan will meet the requirements either, but I’d certainly have given him the opportunity while Forster is injured.
Defensively we were a shambles from kick-off, totally outnumbered in midfield…while playing BOTH Samaras & Lassad means we have 2 very low scoring strikers doing little off the ball putting more work on the others. Stokes has shown he can easily outscore both together yet was allowed to sit & watch for the majority of the game.
Once again we have lost the game in the dressing room from tactics to attitude it was poor and a missed penalty merely papers over the problems.
I agree with Williebhoy. It was a horrible game to watch- one of those slow-motion car crashes. No-one came out of it well.
But sometimes young players, and managers, get complacent, and they need a hard kick up the backside. Let’s hope yesterday was it.
All in all, we should take it on the chin, congratulate St Mirren- and get things sorted.
Sammy has been outstanding in Europe and has the skill and experience to change games. He was cowardly yesterday when we needed his talents. Always in a position to do least harm and unprepared to take a shot and he can shoot!
I accept I’m singling out one player in a team of duds yesterday, but Sammy has the ability.
‘Captain’ Brown and Neil Lennon must also take a significant share of responsibility in an all round pathetic performance.
What happened yesterday? St Mirren turned up with a “belief” they could get something from the game. Celtic turned up with an “expectation” . When St Mirren refused to play ball, we fell apart! That’s what happened.
i think if we sell hooper & victor then we are in all sorts of trouble;;;i think we need a couple of creative players in the middle and up front we just some to run out of ideas in some games.
Wanyama played like a man who knows he won’t be there for the final… or next week for that matter!! Zaluska is not a goalkeeper that can be relied upon and Kelvin Wilson has again shown that he cannot play in defence at Hampden, which is a bit inconvenient when he’s a defender.
St Mirren got what they deserved, as did Celtic.
iwatch the “team” during warm up every week they play at p/head. when it comes to “shooting” practice thay are all pure mince .