Not wanting to dampen any positivity but its pre season, Celtics first team where hammered the other night in their champions league qualifier yet we're playing the reserves of a Scottish team, which is like playing a local pub team!
It was something like our first team playing their kids. Ridiculously easy win, by any standard. Not an ideal game for the pre-season and I can't see why we chose this tie.
There's no difference in standard between their first and reserves, all s**t. Scottish football is just a stain on the footballing community.
Strange one, especially for Celtic as in a couple of days they play their 2nd leg. Must just be for finance or sponsorship, just hope it doesn't give the players an unrealistic view of how they are progressing under the new management.
Eriksen's goal: [video=dailymotion;x22o2r2]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x22o2r2_eriksen-amazing-free-kick-goal-celtic-vs-tottenham-1-6-friendly-02-08-14_sport[/video]
If you said that in the wrong area of Scotland you would likely get stabbed. But the person who stabbed you, would later be at home saying "to be fair that english w**ker was right"!
Ten minutes after the game ended in a 6-1 hammering, I thought it was safe to go for a Spurs win. Can't be too careful.
Well, I think the Hellsinking who came out may buy a shirt, which should seriously defray the cost to Celtic of failing to progress into the CL. Especially when it will surely be a Spurs shirt. Another possibility is that the Celtic management folk who agreed to this fixture are complete morons. Not ideal for us, no doubt, but a confidence builder may not go amiss with so much new and unsettled at our club.
Lol! Though for anyone who may be thinking "Hmm, doesn't seem as though SOS likes the Scots"... You're quite wrong. I ****ing despise them.
There is always that concern at impressive pre season results, or players performing in pre season but struggling in the premier league. Holtby so far in his career with us has been impressive in the Europa League and pre season, if you take the optimistic view (which I know you do being a Holtby fan) then you could believe that its just a sign he simply needs chance, while the pessimistic will say he is only performing because the quality of opposition isn't great and he gets time he won't get in the premier league. He done OK at Fulham last year but again that could just because he is fired up and new to the club, same when he first arrived and lit up the pitch when we faced Norwich away, he never showed that ability again in the league. Townsend scoring is also a sign that we shouldn't pay much attention to positive pre season results, as if Andros is putting the ball in the back of the net, then you know the opposition must be either still on their holidays or not that interested.....or in today's case, crap! Overall, pre season games are relaxed fun games but would happily get hammered and look a shambles if it mean the players performed come West Ham away.
Preseason means nothing, except maybe when you have a new coach, and good results may encourage the players to buy in. I agree about Townsend. The key factor to me with Holtby is not preseason & Europa vs. PL (not that he had much of a chance to play in the PL), but whether he was given a #10 role (as opposed to a deeper lying position). From what I've seen, he's always been very good in an attacking role. I didn't see him much at Fulham, though what makes him good as a playmaker is that he's good at releasing other players on goal, and if the other players aren't that talented, his impact won't be that great.
Just to show pre -season results are meaningless Aston Villa got beat 4-1 by a team Aberdeen knocked out of Europe . The last time celtic reserves played Spurs we won the Wembley cup . Tony Mowbray was our manager, then it went all wrong .Good luck in finishing above Arsenal this season, that is one team I really dislike.
Absolutely correct not to put too much stall by pre-season games, however they do give an interesting slant in team cohesion - and I thought there were more signs of actually playing to a plan.... As fear as Holtby is concerned, he has looked very impressive in the p-s games, but I wouldn't underestimate his performances last season for Fulham. In a poor side he was outstanding as any Fulham fan will tell you - and by all accounts was a class above in technical ability and sheer effort. I think he will fit the Poch mode very well and establish himself this season.
On the topic of cohesion, I thought it was interesting to see Eirksen talking to Lamela and gesturing for a couple of minutes as the teams came out after half time. It had looked like they'd gotten in each other's way a bit the previous game, with both trying too often to be on the left of the penalty box. This time Lamela stayed more or less down the middle, with the first task of running at the defense, then passing. Getting Lamela and Eirksen working together should be one of the highest priority tasks, and everyone, clearly, is working on it, which is good to see. I liked seeing one wide player start in each half, which is often better than 0 or 2 IMO, and that both Lennon and Townsend were effective getting deep in the box and cutting the ball back. The team has played good football every game but Chicago. So, all these things are probably good signs. I'd be more concerned if we looked like disorganized crap. But the good signs may or may not prove to mean anything. There's every reason to think West Ham will clog it up, as they did at Schalke, and that we probably won't look good. That also won't mean much.
I think that friendly was scheduled many many months ago and by the time Celtic's CL fixtures were scheduled it was too later to change or pull out.
