Gordon Strachan has admitted that fear of defeat inspired his Champions League heroics as Celtic manager.
During four seasons in charge of Celtic he twice steered the hoops into the last 16 of the competition leaving behind some incredible memories.
Beating Manchester United and AC Milan in successive seasons is quite an achievement with the hoops taking full points from their home matches in successive seasons.
Celtic Park was genuinely a fortress with Strachan harnessing a side where the defence regularly consisted of Paul Telfer, Gary Caldwell, Stephen McManus and Lee Naylor into an unbeatable unit. Having Artur Boruc in goals was a decided advantage.
In recent seasons Brendan Rodgers and Ange Postecoglou have taken a more expansive approach into the Champions League and suffered the consequences.
Rodgers is back at Celtic for another crack at the elite competition with Strachan telling Genting Casino what the ‘new’ boss will be aiming for in Europe:
He will be looking at improving results in the Champions League. Every manager that competes in the Champions League wants to do well.
Ange wasn’t that successful in Europe, but he beat Rangers regularly and won a lot of domestic trophies, which was acceptable to the fans.
There were periods where Ange’s team’s played fantastically well in Europe, they had some great moments against Real Madrid and scored a lot of goals in the group stage.
When the season finished, and there were three trophies in the cabinet, no Celtic fans were thinking about not getting out of the Champions League group stage. I appreciate that if the club wants to be taken really seriously, then success in the Champions League would certainly help with that.
I think success for Celtic is getting out of the group stage of the Champions League, that would be a phenomenal achievement when you consider the standard that they are coming up against.
Brendan will be looking at the last time he managed Celtic in Europe. There were games where Celtic conceded quite a few goals, but that is where Brendan and Ange deserve credit because they always want to play football in their own style.
That is something that I couldn’t have done as a manager. I’d be too worried about getting beat! I think Brendan will have a plan for the league and a plan for Europe.
During his first spell at Celtic Rodgers did well away from home with draws against Manchester City and Borussia Monchengladbach as well as a thrilling 3-0 win away to Anderlecht.
Older and wiser he won’t want to repeat the hammerings from Barcelona and PSG when the group stage action resumes in September.
I. think he meant to say “made a lot of chances” rather than “scored a lot of goals” in the group stage … if we HAD scored at least 10% more goals .. we made over 80 opportunities !! then we probably would have qualified from the group… even with our defensive lapses!!!
A lot is gonna come down to the luck of the rigged draw (I’d rather personally that it was open instead of seeded pots but that’ll never happen) – But the main thing is we are there and in it and we can await the draw with excitement to see what it throws up at us…
Imagine being in the shoes of Sevco with two qualifying rounds coming down the pipe towards them –
And hopefully it’s a fast flowing sewer pipe and a shit*y draw for them in the qualifiers !
It is a good piece by Gordon Strachan. It makes sense. We have to play different and tighten up the defence in Europe.
Strachan was successful there, so he knows what he is talking about!
Make you wonder if Strachan applied, I use the term loosely, for the Managers job this time around?
He surely must have been worth serious consideration if he did!
But then, Lawwell said that Rodgers was the
“Outstanding Candidate”. Which means that Strachan couldn’t have been considered since I think he could probably give Rodgers a run for his money, or better, in the position! His record proves it!
If he was interested, then surely he had to be considered. Unless of course Lawwell is up to his old dictatorial
“I know Better”
antics again!
Surely not?
A part Lawwell’s mission is to keep the Catholic Masons at Celtic Park happy. That is those who would always choose Rodgers over Strachan and are usually privately educated, as a show of Celtic propriety, over the rougher Republican Type, who couldn’t really care who it is who does the job, as long as it’s done as well as it can be!
Hence the rough public school governor-type character of Lawwell. The guy who just gets thing done around the Park, usually on his own terms. He’ll make many mistakes and a lot of enemies.
But with the salary he is on, he doesn’t really care!
Huv ye goat that Mr. Lawwell, eh?