This week, I’ve been pretty busy with stuff away from the internet, but no matter where I am I keep a close eye on the goings on and this has been a typically grim seven days or so from the hacks and especially in the run up to Sunday’s game. It’s to be expected.
One of the things I found most amusing were the plethora of Celtic – Sevco IX’s which have found their way into the papers, and all of them wholeheartedly ridiculous. One, the soon to be infamous Barry Ferguson team, was thoroughly wretched and contained an abnormally high number of their players. It was laughable, and it wasn’t the only one.
This is symptomatic of the Sevco fever sweeping through the media and the ranks of their support right now.
But even they have to know that stuff like this is sheer nonsense. Being honest, and I am being honest here regardless of what they think, any such team would need at least nine players from our team in it to be taken remotely seriously.
For openers, if you tried to argue, as Ferguson did, that Foderingham is a better keeper than Gordon when fit, well that’s just ridiculous. Tavernier at right back, you could make a case for when Lustig is in poor form but if the young lion Ralston was fit I would have him there any day instead of the “free kick specialist” who can’t do the basics of defending; that one is a matter of debate. But if Lustig was injury free and concentrating it would be a non-starter anyway.
I saw that Ferguson had Bates in central defence alongside Martin. Even the average Sevco fan knows that is bonkers. For a start, Simunovic would walk into their team as would Boyata, our so called weakest back line. Both are more than good enough to get in their team in front of the Keystone Kops they are currently fielding. Even Ibrox Noise, the world’s most ridiculed website, knows Martin is not shaping up.
And all this is to say nothing for the boy Compper about whom not enough is known, and Kristofer Ajer. To say Bitton would stroll into their dressing room and pick his spot in defence or in midfield is not an exaggeration; he would stand out a mile in their squad.
The central midfield would be totally dominated by Celtic players and I defy anyone to say otherwise with a straight face. Ntcham, Brown, McGregor when Armstrong is not fit, Rogic over anybody in their own ranks and Kouassi just in case no-one was convinced; there is not a player in their own midfield ranks I would take over any one of those guys. Jason Holt? Give me a break; a lower league footballer if ever I’ve seen one. I don’t rate him at all.
Ferguson has Murphy on the wing; based on what? Even a poor season from Sinclair is worth over a dozen goals and a barrowload of assists as we’ve already seen. Murphy is nowhere near his standard overall and not a single Celtic fan would swap the two of them. Murphy is a player Rodgers knew well. He is not a player Rodgers made any effort to sign.
Up front, if we’re dealing only with players who are fit, and if the team formation requires two up front – otherwise it’s Dembele, no contest – some could argue Morelos over Edouard. Some could. I am not one of them though. I believe our loanee from Paris is a a cracking player, with more potential than any player in Scotland with the possible exceptions of Dembele and Tierney. I thought Morelos over-rated even before the Chinese whispers started.
And with Leigh Griffiths fit, it’s a discussion not even worth having. It’s him and Moussa all day, any day, every day.
A team with Morelos and Tavernier in it would be at least something you could debate. Tavernier would get in for two reasons only; the Ralston injury and the poor form of Lustig. Even then I don’t think I’ve seen enough of Gamboa to write him out completely. Morelos would be a triumph of hype and nothing more. A debate about him and Edouard would at least have the Sevco player’s scoring record to fall back on it, even including ten games without a goal at one point.
Sevco shouldn’t feel in any way flattered by getting a possible two out of eleven here; last season, when Celtic players so dominated that the Team of the Year should have been a green and whitewash, the hacks gave the right back slot to Shay Logan and one of the forward positions to Motherwell’s Louis Moult, and that’s what we’re talking about here.
A Celtic – Sevco XI is one of those arbitrary stupid discussions only desperate hacks with sod all else to write about would have. I’m responding only because some of them have been so flat-out ridiculous that it would have been a crime not to.
Anyone being honest would have to give the nod to our superiority in every area of the pitch. Only someone looking through blue tinted glasses could even try to argue otherwise.
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