Celtic faced a familiar problem yesterday. Hearts packed the midfield, which sat close to their defensive line, making it difficult for Celtic to get through, over or wide. Their best chance in the first half actually came from a Hearts corner kick, one of the few occasions the visitors ventured forward.
Sure, we need to beat Rangers, but dealing with the challenge of teams sitting tight and packing midfield will be key to winning the SPL, and that starts at Perth on Sunday. St Johnstone will not be in confident mood after their 0-3 pasting at home yesterday, so you can expect them to sit three central midfielders in front of the defence.
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Number 7 Larsson wins it for O’Neill
Martin O’Neil works his magic again. 2-1 Sunderland.
And Larrson scores the winner…..sound familiar?! lol
T4
Larson does it for MON again
Packed midfields and defense’s are only part of the problem.
We have a system based on possession but very little forward momentum that allows team to set defensively.
Hooper has the ability to play off the defenders shoulder but what’s the point when our attacking seems to be based on lots of square passing and hopeful crossing?
Robert Tressel has the right idea of playing man between opponents midfield and defense but our centre mids can’t make a forward pass.
Ledley should be played central as he’s the only one with ability to pass and move.
Commons on left also gives us quicker movement and earlier direct passing.
Our coach needs to lose his obsession with possession and concentrate on afaster and more direct approach.
kikinthenakas says:
11 December, 2011 at 15:03
:-)))))))))))))
Hi guys, looking for two tickets for St Johnstone Next week. My son turns 16 on Saturday and asked me if I could take him to the game. Don’t usually get to away games apart from Pitoddrie/Inverness where I always wangle to get up there to carryout some work for the company.
Been to Celtic Park yesterday and all letters have been sent out .
Worst comes to the worst I might get a couple for the home end. (Put on Perth accent)
Hail Hail
Larsson comes to Oneills rescue again!
Do they have accents in Perth?! :-)
T4
tommytwiststommyturns Kano 1000 says:
11 December, 2011 at 15:27
Do they have accents in Perth?! :-)
T4
I am told every second car is a Hyundai :-)
Good win for Sunderland in the end – but Martin O’Neill has a big job to do
O’Neill and Larsson (No. 7) cross paths again!
Martin O’Neill really carries the midas touch doesnt he.
Anyone know who the Blackburn player was who was carried off? Looked very serious.
Young James mc Clean did well when he came on,delighted for him and his family..Spoke to his mother yesterday and they had an idea he might get a run out..
Outside the top 4 or 5, the EPL is a mess of mediocrity
says on wiki he’s from the Creggan
other CB’s
Alessandro Nesta
Ronald Koeman
top notch !
tommytwiststommyturns Kano 1000 says:
11 December, 2011 at 15:27
========================
Maybe not an accent as such, but def speak more articulate than myseff
HH
Top corner,Creggan is in Derry,were im sitting now and its just started to snow!
Ah Danny Mc Grain?? What a player?. I remember Celts were playing up at Broomfield and me and my mate who we called BIG A cos he was BIG and his name was Alec this Airdrie lowlife was giving Danny pelters for playing for us you’ll know the rest.
BIG A was gettin more and more agitated like the HULK turning green. So he tapped this guy on the shoulder. I actually thought he’d broke it re the yelp he let out BIG A says to him. “See the next time you $%£&$ shout $*&%^$ anything at Danny UL land on that &}(&^% pitch!!
He left!!!
Palacio67
Usually plenty of spares at Perth, I’d imagine you’d get 2 no problem.
Paul67
I think the tactic that is causing us problems are teams going out to kick Forrest off the park without any threat of punishment.
Ref had a nightmare yesterday. It seems, Aunt Sally’s wee outburst has hit a nerve…
HH
Luke Chambers of Nottm Forest being linked with a January move.
Can I thro in big Mike Haughney in for best defender debate?? lol
Paul 67
re article – your comment about St Johnstone – I don’t think it works like that.
Yesterday St Johnstone will have set up to win the game and they came unstuck – next Sunday they will set up not to get beat. Look at Hertz recent results but when they play us they set-up to defend and of course are pumped up.
I don’t see next Sunday being an easy game.
Jinky – couldn’t agree more about the EPL (one of my sons is a Stoke City season ticket holder – its all about not getting beat)
From a wet North Staffs
A SON OF DAN
Just off the phone to my sis,who was at the game,on the subject of JF.
To me,playing him wide is wrong.
Firstly he is not a winger,he’s a No. 10,
Secondly,he gets kicked with impunity out there,as the ref can declare he was not in a threatening position when halfed in two.
Give him a rest,then slot him into his proper role,watch him wreak havoc.
If not,sell him,as we will ruin him by playing him wide,and letting him get booted all over the place,as was happening to Aiden before he got rescued.
Who was the british boxer that said. You’ve got to knock them out in America to get a draw? Randolph Turpin is my shout.
ASonOfDan says:
11 December, 2011 at 15:51
I think the tactic that is causing us problems are teams going out to kick Forrest off the park ….
______________________________
Forrest has star quality – potentially. I’d like to see him doing more to force himself into the game when things are not going for him. I’d also like to see more effort to retrieve the ball if he loses it.
Breaking through a packed midfield is never easy unless you are Barcelona. They not only are great at posession football. But the way they play by keeping the ball, frustrates the oposing team, and draws them out to try and get the ball. Barcelona also play up and down the pitch rather than across when attacking at speed with intent to get in on goal. The brittish way as always been to get to the byline and cross for a big forward to get is head on it.
I like the comment earlier about being able to shoot from long range we must do more of this. Also for me George Connolly was a massive loss when he retired early.
To be fair Forrest yesterday hearts had at least Two players on him sometimes Three. No-one in the team was helping him out. hearts after a few testing crunchers to see ref’s reaction then knew they could boot him stupid…
Breaking down packed midfields :
Practice.
The tools at Celtics Disposal are more than enough.
If they are not quickly identify the weakness and do whatever is
needed to solve the problem.
And when opening shampoo with your teeth make sure the lid is clean.
‘Foamin without a seizure
For the first time in my life’
to the tune of Roamin
ASonOfDan
agree with what u say but sometimes james throws his arms up in the air for no reason other than he has lost the ball, for me he has looked tired the last 3 or 4 games and should be given a rest, it worked with hoops and stokes and kayal (until yesterday)
jude2005 is Neil Lennon \o/ says:
11 December, 2011 at 16:01
Well, Randolph should have taken his own advice when he fought Sugar Ray in the States.
When Jake LaMotta was asked to name his best three fighters of the twentieth century he replied without hesitation, ‘Sugar Ray, Sugar Ray and Sugar Ray’.
coorslad is Neil Lennon says:
11 December, 2011 at 15:34
Good luck to the lad.
Timing could be just right for him too – O’Neill might take it upon himself to start isolating the ‘egos’ in favour of team players.
Stoke 1 up
thomthepedant.
I believe that the Barcalona lynchpin is CARLES Puyol. The spelling may ba a Catalan thing.
As far as our ability to break done defences is concerned; my opinion is, until we play with one up front and stabilise our midfield, then we will always have bother against mediocre teams.
When fit, we should have a midfield based on four from Brown, Kayal Wanyama, Ki and Ledley, with one from Forrest, Commons and Sammi.
Of the four, I think that Ki can be the most vital. He is the only one with the vision and skil to play a killer pass through a tight defence. he also has the ability to switch play.
Most of all, he is the one with the best strike from outside the box.
One of our problems at corner kicks, is that after failing to score, we allow teams to break out of defence. This, I believe, is through the lack of the extra man lurking outside the box. We commit all our players into the box, except for, e.g. Cha on the halfway line.
Not good enough.
I sincerely hope that when we have Izzy and Ledley fit, Neil uses his wingbacks as wide players, covered by Brown on one side and Ledley on the other to bring the required width and crosses for the lone striker and advaning midfielders.
No top team plays with two up front. Home or away.
If pushed, from our current strikers, I would drop Stokes as he lacks the required pace for the job.
It was embarrassing watching him in the clear, on two occassions at Tannadice, and lacking the pace to make it count. would have saved us a bit of tension.
DAVID PETER DEANS
Ah,George Connelly…..
Whit a player…..
It’s widely recognised that Big Jock left us with a worse team than the one he inherited,but was it his fault that in three years he lost Hunter to loss of form,Big Billy to retirement,Hay to Chelsea,Dalglish to Liverpool,Deans to age,Stanton to injury,and the best of all to God knows what. And that’s just he ones off the top of my head.
Oh,and Jinky too.
I haven’t read George’s book,the memories of how good a player he was would render it unreadable with regrets.
no wonder blackburn fans want rid of mckean 1-0 up at half time ,second half 10 men trying to defend the 1-0 lead and end up getting beat 2-1 , ill bet mckean is sacked next week, anyway sunderland deserved there win, and good luck to martin oneil and his staff for the remainder of this season.any hoops supporters like to see young templeton in the hoops in january .
Apologies for spelling mistakes. Lack of predictive text. All my own work.