This was mentioned by Bhoylondon67 in the hotbed of intelligent abuse that is the comments and I thought that it was worth a mention before I go and become an example of perfect negativity in the pot of positivity that is Celtic Park these days.
Remember when Strachan said that playing Gary Calderbuer in the middle of the park was because of his physical presence? Well, Neil has found that memo.
He said of the Samaras and Stokes saga:
“The reason Anthony Stokes hasn’t started many Old Firm games is due to the physicality of it. We also need Sammy’s height at set-pieces as well. He helps with that and he’s done so in the past.”
Another nail in the coffin of zonal marking then. Also, I don’t think Joe Ledley is no slouch in the air and surely playing him and moving Chico Mulgrew to leftback instead of El Kaddouri more than compensates for the lack of physicality?
Does this mean today that since Inversenkie have Ross Tokely who is basically a moving tree from the Lord Of The Rings, that we are looking for similar wooden players to match up?
We are in what can be termed as a defensive crisis today. Kelvin Wilson won’t be seen for a number of weeks and Charlie Mulgrew (whom I have developed an unhealthy man crush on, it’s respectful like) is suspended due to not being subbed last week.
Loovens and Dan will surely get the nod today. In the longer term I would hope that Mulgrew and Dan will get the chance to reacquainted the rock like relationship (ok, it’s like one of those eroding cliffs with a beach house precariously balanced on the top) they had from January onwards last season.
Though Inverness are bottom of the league the last time they failed to score was 5 games ago against the team we lost 4 to. Those Celtic to win to nil coupons maybe worthless today.
Hard fought victory is my prediction. What is yours?
urgh after the sion game whenever i hear dans name in the starting eleven my heart sinks. just shows how much we rely on a good transfer window these days, we certainly have not had a good one this season.