Tomorrow will be the first time we’ve gone into a game at home against the Ibrox club very much the underdogs in the eyes of the media. They’ve fallen into an ancient trap. They’ve fallen in love with an Ibrox boss after an early good start, and made him into a world beater. In doing so they’ve ignored poor performances and even poor results. They see what they want to.
They look at Celtic and see a club in a bad place.
Certainly, our form has not been great and nor have some of the performances. Rodgers is finding it tougher being here the second time around. The signings have been terrible, a consequence of his leaving such a critical matter in the hands of people who should never have been in a position to decide that stuff on his behalf. He has behaved stupidly. He has to know it, and if he allows it to continue, he will be the one who pays the price.
The complete lack of faith many of us have in the “head of recruitment” is a sideshow. The stuff that goes on behind the scenes is always a sideshow. The real issue has been out on the pitch, where the new system doesn’t look like it suits some of the players. That’s something they have to work on and which the manager does have in hands … but he’s good at this stuff and he knows what he’s doing. That’s why the picture of a club in crisis is largely false.
But what’s more incredible is that the media has somehow conflated our internal issues and a few wins by the new boss at Ibrox and drawn themselves a completely false picture.
The Ibrox “form” has nothing to do with Celtic at all, just as our own bad performances don’t make their club better than it is. They cling to a great result in Betis as if they’ve forgotten that the team which beat Dortmund and Leipzig and got to a European final came second to us that season and in the one after it was swept away entirely.
They talked up Van Bronckhorst after a good start. They hero worshiped The Mooch. Every word that has been written pouring honey on Clement in these past few weeks was being written about those guys in the early stages too. I know that because I waded through it all with the same weary amusement. It was never going to last.
We are the bigger club, although we don’t always act like. We are on the brink of being the more successful club even accounting for The Lie, although that’s going to take some serious work on the part of the players and the coach. We are the home team, which would have been a huge thing in our favour had we not recently lost to Hearts … nevertheless, our record there is formidable and especially in the games where it really matters.
I think we’ve got the better manager. Tomorrow might put that in its proper perspective and make it clear. I know we have the better squad, even in spite of our stupid summer of waste. I believe that every Ibrox boss gets the same hype, and that the only thing different here is that it has coincided with a slip in our own sky-high standards and that has pushed it to hysterical levels. But I still prefer to deal with reality, not the illusion thereof.
And the reality is that we’re the champions, playing on our own turf in front of our own fans helmed by a proven boss who has been over the course before and that we are just too good when we’re on our game to have any real concerns here. Before we went to Ibrox earlier in the season we were assured that it was a waste of time turning up; just weeks later they were sacking their manager after we had emerged from three points with a makeshift side.
I am not afraid for us tomorrow, even without Carter Vickers in the team. I think his absence actually exposes a problem which we now have to solve in central defence and that it will give people at the club pause. Some want to blame Rodgers for not “developing” the signings he’s been given, but you know what? I would rather the manager wasn’t forced to field footballers he regards as sub-par or unsuitable for this squad. If those above his head were better at their jobs he wouldn’t have to work miracles, for which they’d want to claim the credit.
We’re suffering from self-inflicted wounds. Those wounds will heal if given the chance to. But nobody should be mistaking our problems with any rise in Ibrox’s standing. They won the League Cup because we were out. They progressed in Europe out of a dreadful group and needed a late scrambled goal to do it. They have played reasonably well in the SPFL but needed late favours from VAR to win several of their points.
Without our drop in form there might already be serious questions being asked over there. We have the advantage of points on the board. Win tomorrow and we stretch the gap to eight; even with their games in hand that’s a lot to claw back because the psychological pressure of knowing they have to starts to come to bear. They have never got in front of us, and they can’t tomorrow no matter what the result is … that alone gives us a slight edge.
This is our house they’re coming to tomorrow, our house to play against a team which has won its last two and in a manner which is streets ahead of the way we’d played in the four games prior to that. If we rise to the moment we’ll win. If we play our natural game we’ll win. If we’re at our best it doesn’t matter how good they are, we’ll win.
Let’s be blunt; we have to. Because if we do slip, they have the edge. They have the knowledge that their first game in hand can put them clear of us and their next one can open the gap … the whole thing pivots if we don’t get the result. The pressure shifts from one place to the other and starts to rest heavily on our own shoulders.
And you know what? That makes it simple. We will win tomorrow because of that, because we have no room for error, because we can’t afford not to.
GVB was 13 games unbeaten until his club played Celtic and Beale was 14 matches undefeated,until his team also played Celtic.I’m confident the same will happen to their latest manager.
Two major factors tomorrow….
Play Maeda on the left to nullify 75% of their attacking options, Tavpen detests playing against him…….
The crowd MUST keep the atmosphere rocking and not get edgy with the team – that’s what crippled them at Mordor in the last derby…..
HH
Of course, hope we get the 3 points tomorrow, but without the assurance
of CCV at the back, Hart is going to be flapping around like a budgie. 🙁
And whilst we have a full house behind the team,
they have the ref & VAR.
Hope the Green Brigade do us all a favour and have banners
calling out the penalty scam around sevco?
And maybe a banner calling out the ‘Wise Monkeys’ on our Board,
who are wilfully ignoring the brazen cheating in the Scottish game?
I don’t see why we can’t win tomorrow. We certainly can although playing Welsh and Scales as the central defensive pairing is a big concern. Other than CCV and Hatate being out, we have a strong first 11. What we have on the bench is a concern. When Mikey Johnston is being brouht on to change the game, then I will be worried. Just now I am looking forward to it.
As for that lot, they are not conceding goals (or penalties, lolz). I think they can win tomorrow. I think they fancy their chances to, at least, get a point.
Brendan and Celtic have something to prove tomorrow. The fans really need this. If we lose (or even draw), the mood will be very low for some time.
The worst thing we can do tomorrow is go in thinking we are entitled to win because we are better than them. I know I love my boxing analogies (it’s because I love boxing) but that sort of hubristic attitude will end in defeat because they will be well up for the game. I expect a more attacking approach from us than in game at iBrox in September but we need to have the same attitude – total concentration and leaving nothing to chance. They will have licence to assault our players at will and our lads need to understand what they will face, and have a plan to deal with it. Do all that and we’ll win. We did it in September, against the same bunch of players led by the ‘Brains Behind Gerard’. We can do it again, but we will have to earn it because they will not roll over and die.
I left out the boxing analogy!
It was going to be about Apollo not training properly for the bout against Drago and Rocky doing it right……
….or Moorer against Foreman….
….or Tyson and Buster Douglas….
Blind faith is one thing, beating the huns being the be all and end all is another, even if that is the level of ambition which most seem to have, but why wouldn’t we continue with the self harm?.
What’s your point? That I have “blind faith” – I am not running around screaming about us getting beat you mean – or that we shouldn’t WANT to win anyway? Get a grip man, your comments are daft.
Ad hominem James,lol.
I’ll keep it respectful, eh?. My point is pretty clear, wishing for something doesn’t make it happen, especially when the thing you are wishing for has been hard to come by. Add in the no pens, usual officials cheating etc and it very quickly becomes a lottery, a 50/50 chance at best, when we should actually be out of sight.
Simple enough now?.
This season has been a fiasco. You could call it corporate error. Bad signings. Some strange utterances from Rodgers. Inconsistency. Would not be surprised to win tomorrow and lose at St Mirren. The standard of SPL this year is abysmal
The season has been up and down. I’ve seen fiascos. This is not one of them. Yet.
With our players, ah have been quietly and fully confident that we can be the ones tae bring their over rated, non-beaten and braggin run tae an end. Tho must say, the nae CCV news has made me a wee bit less confident tbh. That ain’t good for us and a huge blow imo and ye just know their tactics, more so now, are gonnae be tae win as many set peices as possible near our area. We’re gonnae have tae deal with that. Anyhow, here’s hopin.
The Manager always carries the Heavy Can..£3 M Times. 3. He inherited Double Treble side.
Has has Kyogo doing backwards..And the Team
No Excuses he knows the rules.
The bookies have us at evens, sevco are 2 to 1, I’ve yet to see a poor bookie
We have been flat in some games but also good in other games but if Rodgers has trained them we’ll this week we can and should win the match but that’s providing the players are fully focused . The new coach clement has done well not losing a match and won silverware so his team will fancy there chances to beat us will be a interesting match.
Better ground, board, staff, manager, players, support…and the opportunity to prove it.
I think we will create plenty chances…
Unfortunately we will spurn the majority of them as per usual –
Which isn’t a good place given the influence the cheats hwith whistles,flags and monitors will have on the day !
Stand up and be counted tomorrow and we win! No sevco fans is an extra man for us! 2-1 the tims.
Hoping for a good game where VAR and the ref are anonymous. That being the case we have a full Celtic crowd and a much more experienced manager to edge things.
Any win for us and 2-3 First team ready buys in January will get us over the finish line.
Cheque book out, get the new players in early.
We should technically win this game tomorrow being a home game ,but I worry about refs and VAR ,we cannot afford any rash hot headed tackles etc because we will get punished and sevco will get away with them , even at Celtic park,yes we should win but do not underestimate sevco with all their cheating diving underhand tactics.
Oh one more thing if we get any corners tomorrow perhaps make them count,we got 20 against murderwell scored none ,they got 2 corners scored a goal ,our record for corners is not great anyway we concede ,teams sometime score ,any we get we never score,can someone on here tell me the point of short corners that we seem to do,we never score from them whereas you fire a fast corner into opponents box you can score a goal hitting of someone’s ,shin ,arse , thigh shoulder anything.but hey we live and learn and we still don’t post someone on the back post at corners ,I remember many times we could have scored against sevco but they always organised at set pieces to cover the back post.
it’s just another game, on just another Saturday, in front of just another full partisan Celtic crowd, and it’s just another 3 home points to hoover up as we head towards just another title. We have all the advantages in what is just another league encounter to be taken in our stride and put to bed as efficiently as possible, the opposition doesn’t actually matter, for with the right attitude we will always be victorious in the beloved home patch that we call Paradise.
COYBIG!