The Best Midfield In The League Is Set To Get Stronger
Even with the loss of Bitton and Rogic, we’re a heavyweight power in midfield.
We still have three places and a host of players in competition for them.
McGregor, Hatate, Ideguchi, O’Riley, McCarthy, and Turnbull will all fight for those slots and although we didn’t see much of two of them in the last campaign, expect them to play a more prominent role this time.
Bitton and Rogic had made up their minds to leave.
Which is why we brought in O’Riley and Hatate in the January window, in a sterling example of planning ahead, which is something this team has all too rarely done. We know we need something more though.
Which is why the club has spent the last few months looking at the one area of the pitch where we need something a little different; the defensive midfield role. It’s something this website has been talking about for a long time, and we had hoped that James McCarthy might be the player to fill it. He will play a role next season, but not the one we anticipated.
The club has tried him there. We’ve tried Soro there. We’ve tried Bitton there.
Callum does a sterling job there at the moment, but I’ve long suspected that the manager knows what many of us have been saying a while; he’s wasted in that position when he should be playing further forward and laying on goals and scoring them.
It’s my considered view than in the box-to-box role where Callum excels that he’s one of the best midfield players in Britain, far less Scotland, where he’s already so far ahead of everyone else that it’s almost embarrassing.
The right signing frees him up.
And Ange knows something else; he knows that we lost the midfield battle several times last season because we lacked a player who plays the Scott Brown game; a midfield grafter who joins the battle and doesn’t shirk a tackle, a hard man, a ball winner.
Every midfielder we’ve been linked with so far plays in that position.
Every single one of them.
The media might not have the names right but they’ve been steered towards a certain type and there is not the least doubt that we’re actively looking for that player.
That will make Scotland’s best midfield stronger still … and on top of signing that guy look out for one more wildcard, probably someone with potential … it’s not for nothing that we’re scouting Connor Barron at Aberdeen.
Someone in that mould is a possibility as well.
Don’t rule anything out on that front.
It’s hard to disagree with much of your analysis. Personally speaking I think the January signings were essential. They, poor Ideguchi excepted, slotted in impressively and allowed Ange to rotate the squad while allowing the long term injuries to get themselves fully fit before throwing them back into the fray. Ideguchi will be like a new signing when the season starts.
If we do sign a centre back, I hope he has the ability to break forward with the ball in the way Ayer often did. It will be another key with which to unlock a stubborn defence. Like you I would like to see an enforcer who can shield the defence while allowing Calmac more freedom to get forward.
Roll on the new season!
I wouldn`t get too cocky if I were you. Old Firm FC may be getting on in years but they are only a matter of weeks older than when they last gave Celtic a difficult game. We`ve been hearing for too long now about their imminent demise and they are still hanging in
there. I fear, with Celtic now starting to drag their feet regarding Jota, remember the McGinn saga?, that Postecoglu could suddenly
find himself in the same situation as Rodgers.
And that`s me being positive, by the way.
You’re maybe being overly pessimistic in response to JF’s over optimism. I’m confident out signings will be sorted and OK. But you’re definitely right with regards old firm FC. We continue to write them off at our peril. Whether they are good or bad we must act as if they are a threat and make sure we are as good as we can be. We also need to massively change how we set up against them. Sitting back cost us the Scottish cup semi final and we did it again a few weeks later and didn’t win.
We’re night and day in terms of the chaos of pre season compared to last year, but we have a lot of improvement still to do before we’re where I’d like us to be.
I’m in suspended animation until the season begins.
An Aussie Celtic Down under.
We are retaining the bulk of our squad – and hopefully is signed.
We have the first ‘proper’ pre-season in many years – without pre-qualifying Euro rounds.
Add in a couple of quality additions, and we could/should be set up for a solid start to the season.
An unknown though is how the World Cup break in Nov/December will impact the team’s momentum, and will some players return tired / injured?
Should be an interesting season though: both at home and in Europe.
* Hopefully Jota is signed.
We have lost more than we have gained with Rogic and Bitton now gone and if we loose Jotta we are looking at second spot we have nothing in midfield against rangers of note and that includes McGregor