Does anybody else think we should go out next week with an attacking team much like this Motherwell match and play to our strengths? Far too often in games now managers are too worried about how the opposition is going to play and sets out their team. Why dont we let them worry about us for a change. Jack charlton had this attitude when managing Ireland, "give it a lash" and Martin o Neill the same. Of course this would mean no Samaras up front on his own. Thoughts???
The team that played today is the team we play nearly every game, 3 from Brown, Kayal, Ki & Ledley & a more natural wide player such as Commons or Forrest along with a front 2 of Hooper & Stokes. What Forrest gave us today was pace, only he & Bangura look like they have any decent speed from an attacking point of view & pace gives us more variation. I agree on the main point of playing our strongest 11 and playing in a system we are used to playing rather than changing to a 5 man midfield & 1 upfront against Rangers. The only slight change I would look at is Mulgrew in the centre. Rangers done a job on him last year by playing the long ball on his side & he got a mauling. In saying that Jelavic might not be playing & I can't think who I would like to replace him with!! Always pissed me off when McGeady would get dropped for Jarosik or last year with Samaras on instead of Stokes
I cannot remember Mulgrew getting a mauling, but I can remember any time that we have loosen our grip at midfield against Rangers we suffered. I also remember Martin O'Neil always had a very strong midfield of at least 5 players against them. Your story about Jack Charlton is really a myth, as he talked about giving it a lash but his lash was from a very defensive position and consisted in hammering the ball down the wings and very often the lone striker chasing it and hoping one or two of the very many mid field players would get up the field to support. I don't think many would want Celtic to go down the very basic anti-football route that Jack went.
So s,hoops, I take it you are in favour of the 4,5,1, with Samaras upfront? nothing wrong with that if you are, its just im not taken with it. Jack Charlton did play to Irelands strengths, those strengths were long balls and attacking midfielders, he put out his limited team to have a go and look how well he did with his team, I didnt say Celtic should play the long ball, if you read my post i said we should have a similar approach to todays game, which you could hardly call anti-football.
I think we definitely need Stokes and Hooper up front to start. The recent goalless 'blip' at home shows how much we missed having two decent strikers on the pitch. Midfield and attack are quite obviously our strong points and defense is our weakest, to try and play a defensive game would not be playing to the strengths of the team. If Maribor's attack can put two past them at Ibrox then surely we need to try and test them, I'm not sure they can rely on the stability they had last season with aging Weir and no Bougherra.
bonamargy I don't want to argue with you, but you won't find to many true ROI supporters backing big Jack's basic football. I have never said to play Samaras up front and with 5 midfield players. I suppose you are one of the ones who help Sammy by roaring abuse at him. That certainly helped big Danny booed and abused the last 20 minutes at home to St Johnstone. Lasted 45 secs in his next game against Sion and looked frightened and nervous against St Mirren. The abuse from the supporters helped Danny and Celtic. However, O'Neil always had a strong midfield and I would go with Brown Kayal Ki and Ledley with Brown and Ledley able to help fullbacks and also leave room for them (fb's) to go forward. Most important thing we can do is give them all the support we can.
S,hoops. No i am not "one of the ones" who roar abuse at any Celtic player, I support every player with a Celtic shirt on, thats why i said "nothing wrong with that if you are" ie in favour of 5 midfielders and 1 upfront, which will prob be samaras if we play that. Where did i put anything in my posts that gave you that impression? You seem to have run off track all by yourself, talking about abusing players. Also i am a Ireland supporter and i can tell you that while the football, played when Charlton was manager, may not have been for the purists, we certainly enjoyed the ride.
We need to start with 5 in the middle but hooper up front and Commons behind him we can go 2 up later in the game id need be. They will be even more physical than usual against us and we'll need to match up in the middle.
Any of you lot see the game/highlights of the game? I'm stuck down in Norwich, was offshore for the weekend. So didn't get to see any of it. How did Bangura & El Kaddouri do?
Please do. I'm incredibly bored here at a Premier Inn in Norwich. Probably the only place since I worked in Africa that has made me miss Aberdeen. It rained last night I'm sure I could hear the locals outside wetting their gills please log in to view this image
creature from the black lagoon......when I was back in glasgow last month I saw a few creatures from the blue lagoon ,getting their chips after the pub. anyway , since I know so much about football I dont even need to see a game to give an in depth expert opinion El Kaddouri - 4 daily record stars Bangura - 3 daily record stars possibly not strictly accurate .
El Kaddouri was impressive - started the game by concentrating on holding his position, I thought and got beyond their midfielders only in the second half - looks good on the ball. Bangura - it was a bit hard to tell. He's clearly fast and he played in a supporting player so he isn't as selfish as, say, an Henri Camara - on one occasion, his first touch looked poor but OK rest of the time. I reckon with some time to bed in, he could be just what we need. My man of the match (stadium announcer gave it to Forrest) would've been Adam Matthews - he was up and down the flank very impressively and I think he's getting better every time I see him.
Kaddouri did well. Got forward and put in a few decent crosses. Bangura looks a handful but he made a few incorrect decisions but I think he was trying too hard as it was his first game. Hard to read too much into the scoreline or performance as Motherwell were **** awful.
