Celtic approach today's game with St Johnstone missing key players in all areas of the team besides the goalkeeping position which Forster will be expected to fill. Scott Brown is a doubt having picked up an ankle knock in the Europa League clash with FC Sion. Kelvin Wilson remains sidelined as do Loovens, Kayal and Hooper. Lennon still has plenty of options available to him though with the versatile Mulgrew able to fill in at centre back or left back and young Welsh internationalist Adam Matthews capable of filling either full back roles if required. In midfield, Lennon has plenty to choose from although if he's looking for a bit of dig to compensate for the absence of Brown he could do worse than turn to the young Kenyan Wanyama. Up front poses difficult questions for Lennon. The pairing of Stokes and Samaras proved toothless in the Europa League clash and his options are limited. Rasmussen has not played a competitive game for several months and Daryl Murphy has not featured this season. Maloney is available for selection and his trickery may give him the nod ahead of the Greek internationalist. St Johnstone have had a poor start to their SPL campaign having drawn one, lost two and have failed to find the net in any of their opening matches. On paper, Celtic should win this one comfortably and maintain their 100% successful start to their domestic campaign.
Stereo I'm hoping it'll be Forster Cha, Majstorovic, M. Wilson, Mulgrew Forrest, Ledley, Ki, Commons Maloney, Stokes
Mathews in ahead of Cha, Cha's pish, also Sammy in for Maloney as bad as sammy can be Maloney is a wee dick.
With Scott Brown and Kelvin Wilson out injured this looks fine to me! Would also like to see Victor Wanyama get a run out at some stage - and (dare I say it!).... if things get comfortable, then, Georgios Samaras, to try to restore his confidence.
I thought Cha Du-Ri looked very comfortable mid-week though I know his defending is highly questionable at times. However, I'm not sold on Adam Matthews as yet - his defending can also be very suspect. As for Shaun Maloney, I think he's one of the cleverest players we have but I would like to see Georgios Samaras get a run out at some stage for sure.
You could be right - given the talk during the week about his dissatisfaction with not getting enough games, he may be given an opportunity from the outset to prove himself.
I'm not a fan of Cha. The only thing he's got in his locker is his pace. Poor positional sense and can't cross. He's like a poor man's Didier Agathe.
Venoms team is what I would go for, much rather Forrest got games than McCourt as he is the future of this club & will fall away like so many 'next big things' unless he gets games However I think McCourt will start & I have this horrible feeling Samaras & Maloney will start upfront & Stokes will take the flak for midweek!
Could the reason, why Anthony Stokes was taken off mid-week, be that he stayed out on the wing and should have been coming inside along with or beyond Georgios Samaras....as this was the only way he (Stokes) was ever going to score? Georgios Samaras' flicking the ball on was surely also an invitation for Anthony Stokes to come inside which he didn't do. I know we can speculate all day long but I just can't accept this seemingly constant scapegoating of Georgios Samaras. He must be doing what he has been instructed to do by Neil Lennon etc otherwise they would take him off. Yes, he can be highly frustrating at times and yes, Anthony Stokes has been scoring goals plus has had an excellent start to this season (which hopefully will continue) but he too ran out of ideas on a number of occasions last season as I recall.
Stokes was playing left wing, I presume on the orders of Lennon as Stokes stuck to the touchline most of the game - if he'd had come inside next to Samaras he would have been out of position! I don't accept that Samaras' instructions were to give it to the Sion defenders everytime, duck when a cross comes in& flick the ball on to the Sion keeper when the long ball is played unless Lennnon believes Europa action a distraction and wanted to lose the tie & concentrate on the league. The reason he gets more stick than most is the fact that he doesn't even try. All the times he lost the ball he never once makes a concerted effort to get the ball back.........how many bookings did McGeady get through his determination to get the ball back? I'd be intrested to see how far Samaras runs during a game as he stood still for 15 minutes on Thursday! As I've said I'd prefer Murphy as he is also not the most talented but he makes up for it in effort. Everybody has bad games and the fans appreciate that but if you don't even try then you have no sympathy for them.
I don't accept that Georgios Samaras doesn't try. There are times his head has dropped ...as has happened with others but I've never seen him hide in a game yet. Correct me if I'm wrong but you seem to be willing to accept that Anthony Stokes' instructions were to stay on the wing but not that Georgios Samaras was acting on instructions to get the ball forward for him to run on to? As I said we can speculate all day long but I find it hard to believe that Anthony Stokes was taken off for any other reason than he was not carrying out instructions or either the instructions were (or else he was ) ineffectual on the night. Why do you think Anthony Stokes was taken off before Gerogios Samaras?
That's a question I would like an answer to. We needed a goal. Who's more likely to find it? Stokes or Samaras? I know who my money would be on. Lennon seems to have this idea that when we're up against decent teams who are set up defensively Samaras is the player to unpick the lock. However, the only game in which I remember that working was when we won 2-0 at Ibrox. Maybe Sammy has come in for a bit of unfair treatment after Thursday's game but it's not just because of that match. It's a culmination of frustrating and inconsistent performances that the fans are reacting to.
Every game this season Stokes has played on the wing and "ghosted into centre positions". For reasons we will never know he rarely if ever got himself inside on Thursday night. He often wasn't far from Samaras as the ball came to big Sammy in the air and I for one cannot understand why he didn't make the 15-20 yard run to try to get to the end of the flick. Other members of the team must have thought he would make the run or else they would not play the ball high to Sammy. I honestly cannot understand how Sammy got the grief, he did all he could have been expected to do.
He hasn't really played on the wing until Thursday, he's being playing as a striker but like Thierry Henry, David Villa amongst others he uses the space between fullback & centreback to begin his runs & uses the confusion over who is picking him up to ghost in Usain Bolt wouldn't have got on the end of those flick ons, majority of them went straight to the keeper. What you can't understand is that that is just one point to his performance. He missed 1 great chance by ducking out the way, if I was being unfair I'd say 2 chances a striker in european competition should be scoring from. He doesn't run the channels testing the defences with a slide through pass. He hangs outside the box far too often which is just idiotic when your the lone striker. He can't control a ball. He can't pass. He can't shoot. He doesn't tackle back. That doesn't leave alot that he can do if anthing.
Bhoy from Brum, Maybe we would have been better starting off with neither Stokes or Sammy, just left the two positions vacant. Regarding your statement re him needing to be Usain Bolt to get on the end of the flick ons. Really I think of all the stupid comments we all have made re Thursday night's match that ranks with the most stupid. Time and Time again big Sammy flicked on, surely a player with even the smallest football brain could have anticipated when they saw the defender/midfielder shaping up to hit the high ball towards Sammy. In that case he could have strolled over at his ease and been their as the ball broke. That is what I think the team expected or else they wouldn't as a team be stupid enough to keep hitting high to Sammy.
Celtic team: Forster; Matthews, Majstorovic, Wanyama, Mulgrew; Brown, Ki, Ledley, Commons; Maloney, Stokes Subs: Zaluska, Samaras, Cha, M. Wilson, McCourt, Murphy, Forrest Wanyama starts at the heart of the defence alongside Majstorovic. Maloney and Stokes up front. Brown recovers from his knock.
I would have had Stokes upfront with McCourt just behind leaving Brown right, Ki & Ledley in the middle and Commons left - keeping the majority of players in the same roles as the weekend. Have you ever played football? They packed their midfield everytime we tried to build from the back meaning we were forced to play a few long balls - as I should add nearly every team in the world is forced to do at some point during a game. Generally the midfield is a good 20 yards behind the striker so Samaras flicks it on 10 yards & you expect Stokes to run 30 yards & get the ball before the 4 Sion defenders infront of him & the keeper????? Our tactics weren't to play long ball, it was Sions tactics to stop us playing our natural game that forced us to play that way. Players need to adapt to whats happening, you can't always do what you have been doing in training hence defenders who can't make killer, precise passes hit the ball long. After Samaras has flicked it on 3 times doeshe not realise that Stokes cannot run 30 yards in 2 seconds? He needs to adapt by trying to bring the ball down or fake jumping hoping the defender makes an error and he picks up the loose ball. I refer you to previous posts that this is not just one game we are judging him on, he has been here 5 years & has been the same all the way through his time here.
