I Love You. But Only At Center Back
When was the last time a league cup quarter-final in a more than half empty stadium had such importance? Well, this Tuesday’s game against St. Johnstone is very important to Celtic, as we try to get and back on track after the weekend’s dire performance against Killie.
You could say that it was inevitable that there would be a drop in performance against Killie after the exertions against Barcelona, but I don’t think anyone felt Celtic would perform so badly against a Killie team containing three teenagers.
The most disappointing performer was probably Miku, who came to Celtic with a big reputation but hasn’t really done much in the starts he has had. He doesn’t seem suited to Celtic’s play somehow. It wouldn’t surprise me if he returned to Spain in January.
Efe Ambrose also played poorly in comparison to his heroics against Barca and James Forrest continued his routine of not playing after he doesn’t get a goal. He did put in a good ball that Hooper should have buried though.
Kayal and Ledley were passengers too, although Ledley did miss a sitter in the first half.
However, the main problem that seemed to affect the team yesterday was Neil Lennon’s instance on shoehorning Charlie Mulgrew into the team when it doesn’t suit. He played in centre midfield yesterday and it just didn’t work. He should play in his best position – centre-half – and not at all.
It will be interesting to see if Lennon reverts to his ‘best side’ on Tuesday, for a game which is not quite important to Celtic’s season.
Sadly, I have to go back to the article lordofthewing referenced on this site recently to deal with the acceptance of poor performances. In the past, a home defeat to a team like Killie would lead to fury. Now it’s a shrug of the shoulders, because we’re going to win the league easily, right?
It seems that the fans and players find the run of the mill fixtures hard to motivate themselves for, and a malaise could start to creep in. It’s important that this in nipped in the bud with a good win on Tuesday.
I disagree. This is game is more important to Celtics season than the Barca return game. I agree about Mulgrew, though I reckon he can play wide left in a 442.
My team for tomorrow is (433 formation)
Forster
Lustig
Wilson
Efe
Izzy
Ledley
Wanyama
Brown
Commons
Watt
Hooper
Forrest needs to be used as an impact sub. As really he has been useless as anything but that this season.
Our best performances have come in a 433 hybrid formation. We can’t have round pegs in square holes. We need to be in that semi final draw.
Really want to see Kayal given a run of games. Him and Wanyama in the middle of the park for me when they are fit, but then there is the problem of fitting in Brown and Ledley.
My team for tomorrow would be:
Forster
Lustig
Wilson
Mulgrew (Ambrose needs a game on the bench after his performance on Saturday)
Izzy
Commons
Wanyama
Kayal
Ledley
Watt
Hooper
We will go out tonight and give the saints a humping as we rightly should at home. Putting in a few bad performances every now and again always leads to fury amongst us and also leads to daft comments like the players ain’t trying hard enough, or they don’t care because the league is won. That’s a lot of pish! Any and every player, in any and every team, wants to go out and win any and every game they play, simple!
Keep the faith bhoys and hail hail
Watt needs to start BTW for me, the bhoy is a class act and has one of the best engines I’ve seen in a player for a while.
HH
Miku isn’t such a big problem, he needs to get up to speed with the game thats all, his touch and vision are very good, he did set up a few chances on Saturday which others failed to connect with or score
LOTW, spot on with the team! Good control of the game until very late on when some wanted to down tools. 🙂
for me, it’s the best balance we have available in a formation that purrs. it’s suited us since Lenny started using it in the zooropa last season.