You have to love the cynics and critics, don’t you? Ours are out in force in some quarters today, and as I wrote earlier, it seems that our blistering football has stripped some people of their sanity. That is emphasised by the latest theory to pop up.
We haven’t played “anybody” yet. So they say.
If, like me, you’re wondering why we appear to have 15 points in the league having “played nobody” I assure you that you are not alone.
The thought had crossed my mind too.
One look at the table should be enough to convince our harshest critic that we’ve started this season like an express train, with more commanding performances than last year (the one where we won a domestic double, since that needs pointing out to them) and will take some beating.
But they think “tough” away trips to Livingston, Aberdeen, Hearts and Hibs will be our undoing. Not to mention trips to “Fortress Ibrox” where Ange has already taken this team and … errr … won.
As I said earlier, this team is on the brink of a full 38 games (the length of a season) unbeaten. All these grounds where they think we’ll struggle are places we’ve been to, and won, already under the manager and with this squad.
So although this season has just started, it’s just not clear where they are getting this idea that those games (which we won as a matter of routine last season) are going to present some significant challenge to us in this one.
Look, I don’t think we’re going to have an unbeaten league campaign this season, although I would not be surprised if we did. You only need one off-day and that’s the record busted. Which is why our Invincible season was an achievement which will never be beaten.
But this team is capable of it, for sure, and we will win vastly more games than we drop points in, and this weekend we have the chance to open up a five-point gap. If we do that, and you throw in the goal difference, we’re in very good shape.
But of course we’ll get no credit. We’ll get no respect. This is just a way for some people to say that we’re just waiting to get found out … they’ve been waiting a long time, these people, eah? They’ve been saying this since we started winning away last season.
We have started like an express train.. and we have batted teams to the side. But I’m fairness, we havnt really come up against anybody yet, I would say are decent, Dundee utd, were hopeless. I think we would have no problem if we did come up against a side who are half decent though, as we have the squad capable now of that. Next Saturday at Ibrox, and at home against Los Blancos will see were we are at. But I wouldn’t have any concerns whatsoever , I’m actually quietly confident. It looking like it’s going to be a great season ahead.
Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. Aberdeen are probably the best team we’ve played this season, and they’re not exactly Scottish Galacticos. But we can only beat the teams we’re scheduled to play, and a perfect 5-0-0 record with a 21-1 goal differential is exactly what one would expect if it were Man City, PSG, Bayern Munich, or Real Madrid playing that schedule.
Like you said, we’ll find out a lot about how good this team is over the next 10 days. We’ll also find out a lot about the dreamers and hype machine across town in the coming weeks as they have a spell of 4 matches over a 2 week span consisting of:
@ Celtic
@ Ajax
@ Aberdeen
(H) Napoli.
Game is at Parkhead Saturday and your right we will have a better idea of where we are after the next 10 days I have no doubts that Ange’ teams upward trajectory will continue apace!
These peepul wouldn’t give us credit even if we were to gub Real 5-0. Not that we need credited by pathetic blinkered fool bigots, there’ll be plenty of actual non-partisan reasonable folk without badly-scraped hands that’ll be falling over themselves to lavish praise on Ange’s team over the rest of the season.
Should these high scoring matches continue especially against sevco they will be shouting the opposition on in our champions league games to give us a good skelping since no club in Scotland is capable of doing it.
The sevcvnts are shitting themselves that their spawny team are about to be found out big time.
Apart from next weekend, I wouldn’t be surprised if they get NUL POINTS in their C.L. group, and I cannot wait until Liverpool give them a serious rogering home and away, with the strains of YNWA in the background.
On another matter where is the jailbait manager from Livingston MARTINJAIL he is usually out there talking crap with his false teeth ready to fall out from his gumsy mouth with all those lies he tells.
Our snipers are indeed wrong. We’ve played Aberdeen, Ross County, Kilmarnock, Hearts and Dundee United. Anyone can make of that what they will, but they are the five teams we’ve played and beaten. Assuming Celtic will be ‘found out’ on that basis is foolhardy, just like assuming they will necessarily transfer that form into a league winning campaign.
The league table tells you very little at this stage; this time last season, Hearts sat at the top of the league with three wins and two draws while Celtic languished in mid table.
The XG table is the thing to look at. It’s the main thing the bookies look at. Celtic currently sit on top of that (as they did even when they were mid table 12 months ago) with 2.66. Rangers aren’t too far behind with 2.44. Rangers’ home XG is slightly better than Celtic’s, but they’ve played one more home tie and Celtic’s home opponents have been slightly stronger. Celtic’s away XG is considerably better.
All positive, but no particular reason for wild assumptions one way or the other. It’s true enough that Rangers have so far played more games (as they did throughout the business end of the last campaign) and by virtue of qualifying for the group stages via the non-champions route, have acquitted themselves well in those games. A 3-2 aggregate defeat of PSV was the same aggregate victory as in their last two games against Celtic, for whatever that’s worth (not a lot, other than to pull expectations, one way or another, into a more measured stream).
Well we haven’t actually played anyone yet. Let’s see how we fare against the huns and Real Bastardos. Then we can re-visit this discussion as it is way too early to be having it.
Off topic !What’s the odds on cheatin Beaton for the game this weekend ?
I wouldn’t mind the “we haven’t played anybody yet” dig if it was being aimed at both Celtic and Rangers but it’s only being aimed at us!! At least we’ve played Hearts and Aberdeen – the two teams who will undoubtedly finish 3rd and 4th in the league this season. Rangers haven’t played a team in the TOP SIX yet – yes that’s correct – so far ALL their domestic opponents languish on the bottom half of the table !!! Lets see how they get on when they actually play the better teams in the Premiership whilst playing in Europe midweek….
The point is that Rangers have had qualifiers, via the very difficult non-champions route, and have succeeded where we repeatedly have not, even via the relatively more straightforward champions route.
The top six after five games doesn’t mean a hell of a lot. I’d be surprised if the eventual top six doesn’t involve any teams in the current bottom six.
And, Rangers have been playing in midweek throughout the bulk of this time. Celtic have played five competitive matches; Rangers have played nine. Your final argument is, if anything, better directed at Celtic at this time.