Yesterday, we learned one of the least surprising things to come out of the transfer window so far. Martin O’Neill is indeed thinking about a tactical shake-up which involves playing two strikers. He is convinced, as we all are, that the days of relying on one tactical shape are over, and I don’t know about you guys, but that is music to my ears.
Clearly, he is thinking about two strikers, and so it is apparent that we will have to get the wide men sorted because they are crucial to any two-striker system we intend to play. I don’t want to see Camilo Durán playing permanently on one of the flanks, and the manager clearly doesn’t want that either. Players on the left and players on the right are going to have to come in, and I hope the club is busy.
At present, I don’t think we look good on either flank. We have players who can play in those positions. We have Yang and James Forrest on the right, and we have Michel-Ange Balikwisha and Sebastian Tounekti on the left. If we are depending on those guys for the rest of the season, we are going to struggle, and everybody knows it because nobody is convinced that between this lot there is a long-term partnership.
It does seem that we are going into the first game of the season with only a modest number of new players in the squad and numerous positions still not filled. We are just a few weeks away from the Champions League registration deadline, which is 13 August. We can submit two changes up to the day before the game.
We cannot still be in this state when the first of those deadlines arrives.
The manager has set out his intentions, but he cannot do this on a whim. He needs to know what players he is going to have available and what the make-up of his squad will look like before he can make a final determination.
This is what this lazy and complacent board of directors does not seem to understand. Speed is not just about satisfying the demands of supporters. It is about putting in place the pieces the manager needs so that he can begin implementing his plan, getting players up to speed with his needs and wishes, and allowing tactical systems to evolve at the proper pace with everybody on board.
You cannot fully integrate a new tactical plan without the players who are supposed to function within it. It is different when you are working only with players who are already at the club. They know one another. They know what the relationships are. They have probably spent the summer tweaking things and standing in front of the tactics board getting used to what the new system is.
Brand-new players arrive without any of that knowledge, and they have to be integrated quickly. The sooner they are in, the sooner that integration starts.
Even with the best will in the world, anybody we sign right now may be eligible to play in the Champions League, but he will still need time to get up to speed. That is where this board has a blind spot and will continue to have one.
They think that, as long as the players arrive, it does not matter when they arrive.
But it does matter. When a manager is trying to implement a full-scale tactical change, it would be nice if the players he intends to use in that system were present while he is trying to get those ideas across.
Still, the confirmation that he intends to shake things up is very, very welcome. All of us know that the system we have been watching for the past few years has become predictable and difficult to watch.
He has signed two fabulous attacking players, and I would imagine he is keen to get them both into the team and playing in his new system as quickly as possible. I am now looking forward to Monday’s game for exactly that reason, because it will be good to see what he has in mind.
But it is shocking that we appear to be going into that game without further business being done. It is almost as though the people in the boardroom got the Kasper Høgh deal done, patted themselves on the back and decided that they did not need to do anything else for a while.
They are dead wrong.
They are dead wrong about a lot of things.
Supporters are not simply going to forget all the months of chaos because the club completed one deal. It is one excellent deal in a summer largely absent of them, and the manager knows that as well as anybody.
He wants his players, and that need becomes even more urgent when he has a new system in which he wants to use them. Others at Celtic better be moving behind the scenes, and they had better be moving faster than they have over the summer.
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The front three will be Hassan, Høgh and Duran.
I would prefer to see a front 4 Danny.
Hassan, if we don’t manage to fk that transfer up, Duran, Hogh and a n other. That other being a quality winger that is capable of holding the fort until Jota eventually returns.
We don’t have any quality wingers right now.
When MON first came he got rid of Celtic nightmare oliver tebily replaced him and more with a strong physical team , it’s what he knows , i was hoping all along that the kasper chat was true and for the simple reason that it showed intent , these signings are because of MON , he won’t stop there , he likes big defenders and tough midfielders we will see more additions , of that there is no doubt
He is the reason the G B are back and has told the board that he wants them back without sanction
I followed this man when he first arrived in glasgow , like B Rs a born Celtic , he ripped the the establishment a new ass , the punks didn’t know what hit them
Have no fear Martin is here !! Hail Hail
on a different note , wheres the clan man not being on for a while
I was recently wondering that myself Bertie, I take it you mean Clach, I do hope he is okay.
Aye Clach has gone missing, hope everythings OK with him. miss his forthright views.