Celtic and a tale of 3 Wilsons

Defence is the omnipotent foundation that all attacks should be placed upon for without defence your opponent will strike you down at will!

Our beloved Hooped central ‘brick wall’ is slowly crumbling with the men to shield the last man Forster slowly depleting as the days and games go by.

Daniel Majstorovic struck down in battle, Big Glenda cut down in his prime, Jos Hooiveld fallen at the way side and removed partly from service, Darren O’Dea earning his battle stripes elsewhere, Josh Thompson experience needed therefore sent away.

The defensive back line is now more of a jacobs cheese cracker being held together by a strong flavoured Rogne cheese. Rogne, even though for such a young chap is a splendid find for a centre back, he cannot work the central areas of the defence by himself.

Having such a misshapen defence is not a good thing even though a bonus to come from this equation is the fact we have not leaked mass amounts of goals. Arguably us bhoys fans can be critical that the goals we have let in have been too many and in some cases comical to boot (refereeing, errors etc).

The squad list of available first team players has been released and it shapes up like this (courtesy of those fine folks at BBC sport): –

Celtic (from): Forster, Wilson, Mulgrew, Rogne, Izaguirre, McCourt, Ljungberg, Brown, Kayal, Forrest, Ledley, McGinn, Stokes, Hooper, Murphy, Zaluska, Carey, Towell.

With the exception of Richie Towell, who has moved to Hibs on loan, the squad as a whole  expect will line up in a formation like this: –

—————–Forster——————–

Wilson–Mulgrew–Rogne–Izaguirre

————-Brown–Kayal—————-

Forrest———————–McCourt

————Stokes–Hooper—————

We will definitely see Charlie Mulgrew at centre back tomorrow night against Hearts, he started out as a centre back at his initial youth level but gradually moved out wide.

With our troublesome defence what could Lennon have turned to other than Mulgrew?

From what I can see Mark Wilson could play that position as he has done before, not as  effective in the air as Big Maj or as comfortable as Rogne but he could do a gung ho job.

In my local Celtic pub a few of the wise old Bhoys said ; “Mulgrew will venture too far forward, get oot of position too often and we will be left wide open fer tha opposition tae get in behind us.”

My view is if any body is getting in behind you in any situation your basically screwed.

The pub critique of Mulgrew then went onto his defensive ability and it was confirmed that “Hes great on tha left o’ midfield and over average at left back, but he cannae defend as hes an attack minded player.”

“What about Mark Wilson at centre back instead of him (Mulgrew)”; I said.

I was left in silence for a few seconds and then the response was welcomed with an “Ah hes better defensively than Mulgrew and hes played at centre half as cover so why not?”

My response was simple; “Hes our only SPL proven right back and Lennys current choice until Cha returns.”

That was the end of that conversation.

The Wilson surname is becoming a Celtic catchphrase. The blogosphere, social networks, forums, papers and the likes have followed tooth nail and bled the story dry of Nottingham Forests Kelvin Wilson coming to us earlier than expected.

I have heard fairy tales from Forest fans saying “Hes not that great” and another football fan as a whole saying “He is not good enough for the SPL.” I reckon hes not that bad of a player from what I have seen and he will get better with Maj’s arm around him.

I think Billy Davies, Forest manager has purposely withheld the possible  ‘sudden’ departure of Wilson due to the fact he is aware of Celtic and the problematic defence and the fact he is a raging bluenose and will help Watty fish-face as much as he can to get one over on us.

Now to another Wilson. Ex-Rangers and now Liverpool reserves player Danny Wilson has been “sensationally” linked in a “massive loan swoop” that could “solve Celtic’s defensive issues”.

What a load of crap again another story fabricated by the noses of blue in the press. He may be on the bench at Liverpool but he is happy to be there and according to my loyal LFC friends, he will be given games under King Kenny  in time.

Finally congrats and great regards to Cha and Ki who fought until extra time against the Japanese before sadly exiting the Asian Cup at the semi-final stage.

Now a look forward to the Hearts match.

• How will our back line cope?

• Can Wilson handle on form left sided gyrating gypsy Rudi Skacel?

• Can we put the pressure on the Gers with a good solid win?

• Will Mulgrew cope at centre back?

• Will we miss Maj?

• Are we still a few players short of a comfortable squad depth for Lenny to work with?

Your personal views please….