It was clearly an improved second half display, but Celtic were completely outclassed on all fronts. Sunday is now a major worry. St Mirren will be licking their lips. It should be noted that this is not all on Wilfried Nancy, the problems all start in our world class boardroom…
Wilfried Nancy, Head Coach of Celtic, shouts instructions during the UEFA Europa League 2025/26 League Phase MD6 match between Celtic FC and AS Roma at Celtic Park on December 11, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
I couldn’t make the game tonight thankfully, but watching on TV was just as bad, being reduced to watching on the sofa, through my fingers as our lack of quality was badly exposed by a ruthless Roma side.
It wasn’t just the scoreline, but the manner of the display
It wasn’t just the scoreline, but the manner of the display. We looked very much like a side lacking in confidence, and much like Sunday against Hearts we looked like a side devoid of quality and tactical ideas. We were very poor, as our fragilities were brutally highlighted on the big stage.
Kelechi Iheanacho of Celtic scores his team a goal as Mile Svilar of AS Roma fails to make a save, which is disallowed following a VAR review during the UEFA Europa League 2025/26 League Phase MD6 match between Celtic FC and AS Roma at Celtic Park on December 11, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Despite an improved second half display (to be fair we couldn’t get any worse) we got what we deserved and that was nothing. Roma taught us a footballing lesson, and it was basically men against boys as we chased shadows for the majority of the ninety plus minutes on a rain soaked night in the East End of Glasgow.
Nancy has only had two games to sort out a mess
It’s only the second game in charge for Wilfried Nancy, but that doesn’t make him immune from criticism, as yet again he stuck to his preferred 3-4-3, with three left footers in central defence, which is quite baffling truth be told. However it should be said that the problems stem from the boardroom with the world class decision making of Michael Nicholson & Co.
So far Nancy’s system quite frankly seems to spook the players, who yet again looked like a side just pitted together for the first time. Nancy didn’t sign these players, the summer arrivals in particular have been dreadful and no more so than last night.
Callum McGregor of Celtic applauds the fans after the UEFA Europa League 2025/26 League Phase MD6 match between Celtic FC and AS Roma at Celtic Park on December 11, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Time is not a luxury we can afford
I know it’s early days, and the players have to adapt to their new roles, but time is not a luxury we can afford, especially with the Premier Sports Cup final looming on Sunday.
St Mirren will be a totally different proposition from Roma, that goes without saying, but it’s a cup final, they will be well up for it, and will clearly fancy their chances after watching Celtic these past couple of games.
Zeki Celik of AS Roma is challenged by Kieran Tierney of Celtic during the UEFA Europa League 2025/26 League Phase MD6 match between Celtic FC and AS Roma at Celtic Park on December 11, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Sunday is now a cause for concern
Sunday is far from being a foregone conclusion. I would be lying if I said i wasn’t worried, so would you. It’s going to be a very tense afternoon and Wilfried Nancy needs to take stock on what he has seen so far. His changes at the interval helped, that’s a starting point for the manager who really needs to get his first win at Hampden.
Three defeats, including losing a cup final, is asking for pressure on any manager.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
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Iheanacho must start on Sunday.
He plays a 3-4-3. Meaning wing-backs. That position relys on players to help defensively. Yang and Tounekti have never played a defensive role in their life. Thats a problem.
Nancy cannot be absolved of all blame. He came into a strong Celtic side, just finding a winning formula again under Martin O’Neill, and he completely change the style of play and the tactics. Roma’s Evan Ferguson said himself that the Celtic players did not know what they were doing, a summation we all witnessed with our own eyes last night. Yet, what did Nancy say afterwards? He said he was “not concerned” about the result. Seriously? You know, the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. That’s two out of two home losses – two massive games without so much as a single goal reply.
Now I agree that the present Celtic squad is carring a number of lightweights who should never have been signed, but there should be enough there for Nancy to at least challenge opposition teams. He has come in and utterly confused the players. Their confidence will be at an all-time low now. I guarantee he plays the same losing system again on Sunday in the cup final. He is simply not the manager for a club like Celtic – he should never have been hired.
Too many duds at Celtic Park, players, board members but hopefully not the manager
Worst signing the board have made. Ship him back to ‘Soccerland’ in the US and bring in someone who knows Scottish football
A winning side?, in most games under O’Neil we looked just as bad as we had under the previous manager, got our arse handed to us in Europe, and scraped results, did you watch Martins last game in charge?, clueless and classless. Martin managed to instil a bit of confidence in the players ( a thing he’s always been great at), got a bit more luck than Rogers and Nancy, and scraped quite a few results. As for the ‘system’ he introduced, it was clear the players were merely playing to their strengths, they are supposed to be better than the run of the mill Scottish League player, although that was hard to discern at times.
As for Nancy I agree he’s probably not the man to take us forward, but rather someone who was dying to get a foot in European football, and as such would do what he was told, a cheap yes man if you will. However, he was brought in to take the team forward, not play someone else’s woeful tactics, so hardly insanity, but again he might have waited 3 games before starting ‘the revolution’, so I do agree he might have waited. Tbh though that was our clueless board’s decision, not his really, and Martins timing was perfect, getting out of Dodge before the ‘real’ stuff started, against the League leaders, a top side in Roma, and a cup final, all with sub standard players, but hey I’m sure he’d have romped them all with his almost invisible formations and tactics.
You are right!
You “ reap what you sow “!
If the club doesn’t change ,rapidly, we are going to have a few barren years .
If Nancy get’s anything, in transfers ,wrong then he has no chance of sorting this out .
However , for him to tell opponents how we will play and what team we will play is CRAZY !
The words Nancy used is the early pressers were that he would make gradual adjustments and not drastic changes. This doesn’t seem reflected in the 2 games played so far.
Playing 2 attacking wing backs in a European tie is suicidal. We have the players to offer more balanced options. That’s down to the manager.
And asking the team to adjust to this new way of playing so quickly, mid season, this was the risk clearly identified in advance. What was the point of the conversations with Martin O’neill?
I want to give the guy a chance. I know we have a legacy of the Board’s making, but it feels like we’re being experimented with at the completely wrong time. All the momentum we had built up is being knocked away, when a really shrewd manager would recognise the need for patience – and Nancy effectively said on camera that he would be just that.
Massive game Sunday and St Mirren will be right up for it. Let’s hope Wilfried and the boys can step it up.
A manager making footballing decisions has haunted ourselves, for the best part of this calendar year imo?
And worse that so many of our players, seem to be not responding whatsoever, to the instructions of the manager?
Yet that wasn’t the case under MoN and Maloney, even if there was concerning issues still in operation.
The first half last night, was possibly the worst case of trying to put square pegs into round holes, and yet the same starting 11 were able to produce some of the best football, we had seen in our build up play, for many a long month last Sunday?
Last night the complete opposite was on show for ourselves?
Just how many players starting last night, would we say are suitable for a positional sense, within this new set up of our team?
Personally I would say none?
How anyone can go with a back 3, and depending upon Hatate and calmac as defensive cover, sitting in front of them, is beyond me.
With attacking wingers expected to do more defensive duties than attacking one’s?
Course it would help if Maeda and especially nygren and Engels were able to even control the ball in hold up play, instead of constantly losing it, and keeping ourselves on the back foot and unable to get out.
Losing every individual battle was possibly the most embarrassing sight seen from our team in many a long year imo?
Players failing to adapt, and no signs of development on show, is a mixture any manager is going to struggle with in our club?
This hasn’t happened overnight either, as has been the case for years now also.
Thinking the use of the transfer window is nothing more than an excuse, especially with Scottish football becoming less of an attraction, for the quality of player that we are looking to bring into our club.
And it’s hardly made to welcoming by the reaction we are tending to give, to such individuals either imo?
No longer can the final on Sunday, be regarded as a easy victory, and continuing the Scottish football trophy haul.
That would remain as nothing more than papering over the massive cracks within our club imo.
The thought of losing, which can’t be ruled out either, only means things are going to become even more uglier than they already are, within our club?
With next to no preparation available for a final, on the back of such a display last night, especially in that 1st half, hardly makes Sunday an event to be looking forward to imo?
Martin is not a saint, he was a very lucky boy. The team were just as clueless, just playing far inferior opposition, and they mostly still looked dreadful, surely you’re not holding up Martins last game as some kind of masterclass, we were dreadful, and luckily scraped a result!.
Dreading Sunday