Brendan the man-manager, Leigh – smarter than you may think

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It’s really refreshing to hear the positivity towards the manager from senior players at the club. He has the squad pulling in his direction like no one has since Martin O’Neill. This hasn’t come about by chance. When a player asked Brendan if he could arrive late one day this week to see his child start school, training was changed for the entire first team squad.

With term starting across several days at the start of this week, training at Lennoxtown started at 11:30 Monday and Tuesday (we’d a game on Wednesday, in case you forgot). The fathers all got to see their kids start, or return to, school, while the others fell into line.

This kind of family support is credit in the bank for Brendan (a lot more than some entire clubs have). Players want to him.

I watched highlights of the Hapoel game and caught things I’d missed on the night. Leigh Griffiths’ delayed run for his first goal being the most striking. As Scott Sinclair pushed the ball right to James Forrest, Leigh stopped his forward run, waiting at the left edge of the box.

This created space. With that space, he built-up sufficient momentum to out-jump a defender and power a header into the net. It was a stunningly intelligent thing to do.

I had a word with a Celtic coach a while back on how intelligent you need to be to be a modern footballer. It turns out footballers need to be smarter than you probably think. There are outstanding talents in football, and we’ve had more than a few at Celtic, who are just not clever enough to understand how and when to use an abstract entity like space.

Today’s great teams deploy very complicated tactical systems in defence and in possession. It doesn’t matter how good you are with the ball at your feet, if you can’t keep up with the tactical demands of the game, you’ll bounce around clubs never quite fulfilling your early promise.

Some big decisions for Brendan about the line-up tomorrow. McDiarmid has often been a tricky place to go, so resting players could result in points being dropped. We’re three days away from the >£20m game in Israel, which I’d be reluctant to take risks with, despite the three goal advantage.

It’s probably a good opportunity for us to have a look at Dorus de Vries but I’d be reluctant to tamper too much. Only the two big Glasgow clubs haven’t dropped points yet, and I’d like us to be the last man standing in that race. A win for us in Perth and a draw at Pittodrie tomorrow would do nicely.

Sorry to see Scott Brown retire from international duty but it’s unquestionably the right decision. It’s also an acknowledgement that he needs to manage his fitness and recovery cycles carefully.

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  1. glendalystonsils on

    ….”only the two big Glasgow clubs haven’t dropped points yet….”-))

     

     

    Aye Paul, but that’s only because we gave Thistle a reprieve last Saturday.-))

  2. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    BOURNESOUPRECIPE

     

     

    See,that’s jooost fishing for compliments(!)

  3. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    BSR

     

     

    and inflate your gargantuan melon even more ?

     

     

    MikeMyers CSC

  4. Bsr@2.34

     

    I was just about to post that having met you on Wednesday that you were much to handsome to be a hun….having said that not too sure about that Eurochamps chap x

     

    HH

  5. Melbourne Mick on

    Hello again all you young rebels.

     

     

    Not posted for a wee while, don’t know if its because i’m shattered after

     

    all the extra training trying to push the wee mhans team over the line

     

    the last few weeks, or the constant scrolling by all the numptys on this

     

    fine blog nowadays, seems the better Celtic get the worse the trolls are.

     

    Regarding the palestinian flag debate, imo its what we always done as a

     

    support, we rebelled against unfair or unjust crimes against humanity

     

    and thats who we are.

     

    Done the shopping run with the princess today and an Aussie couple we

     

    know stopped us and said ” that was a great gesture of support for the

     

    Palestinian people you guys did the other night” and we didn’t even know

     

    if they watched fitbaw or maybe it was on the news, but kudos to us

     

    anyhow

     

    Oz tims.

     

    This week is our usual third Sunday of the month Celtic celebration at the

     

    Bay Hotel Mornington, expecting a great turnout after that tremendous

     

    effort from our team midweek so get there early and our halfway to Paddy’s

     

    day coming up in September too, so better get the paracetamol stocked up

     

    lol. see you all there.

     

    H.H Mick

  6. Reggie, if it is based on the previous seasons then it’s end of season 2014/2015 we are looking as if we would be 25th and miss out on Pot 3. That’s based upon Salzburg, Viktoria Plezn and Copenhagen being above us in the rankings. It looks like both Viktoria and Copenhagen will miss out based upon the result of the first leg, but Salzburg are in a good position, getting a 1-1 draw in Zagreb.

     

     

    My apologies, I was looking at the rankings at the end of last season.

  7. That Joleon Lescott medical in full

     

     

    Doctor: Everything’s fine so far but if you do sign for them you will certainly need your head examined son.

     

     

    Joleon Lescott: Aye, fair enough Doc, thanks for the advice

  8. Text of letter in today’s Herald

     

     

    LAST month the second leg of the Palestinian cup final was cancelled when a number of players were refused permission to travel from Gaza to the occupied West Bank.

     

     

    I would suggest that this is more worthy of condemnation from Uefa and Fifa than any flag-waving at Celtic Park (“Celtic fans on flag protest”, The Herald, August 18).

  9. GlassTwoThirdsFull on

    I take it Guardiola hasn’t been asked about Le Joey’s comments about Hart?

     

    I guess the EMSM would be a bit better than our lot at spotting an attention-seeking nobody when they see one!

  10. VFR800A8 on 19TH AUGUST 2016 2:54 PM

     

     

    No apology necessary, easy mistake to make, just wasn’t sure where you were getting your info. I don’t care what pot we are in as long as we are in it.

  11. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    VFR800A8

     

     

    MIght be interesting if the new Villa owner threatens legal action against those outlets who printed the lie about the medical.

     

     

    Could be a long line of-it wisnae me,he telt me tae say it!

     

     

    All the way down to a GSL who will deny it!!

  12. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    Scotsman saying rumours abound that the huns have cancelled their shirt deal with Puma

     

     

    HH

  13. RAYMY

     

     

    Thanks for the information on Zombie Nation and the links. Watched and listened to the You Tibe vids of all three. Really liked Mystery Meat Affair. Still loved Kernwerk 400. The fact that two beautiful young women were strutting their stuff was purely coincidental :-))

     

     

    You learn something new each day on CQN!

  14. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    REGGIE

     

     

    I don’t care what pot wur in either,as long as we’ve got one to piss in.

     

     

    That makes us unique in this OF pish we keep getting told about.

  15. Vfr @1507

     

     

    Oh man. If you follow that link to another tweet there’s a cracking bit of banter. I literally burst out laughing.

     

     

    A hun comes on the thread and asks if a villa guy doesn’t like him (lescott)

     

     

    Villa guy says “he’s just lost his way and SPFL could be good for him.”

     

     

    Hun guy says “cheers and good luck for the season.”

     

     

    Villa guy says “cheers and I hope you finish a healthy 3Rd behind Ross County and Celtic”

     

     

    :)))))

  16. traditionalist88 on

    Don’t want to jump the gun but(going to anyway) the dream of being paired with the English champions in the Champions League and taking them apart at Paradise, and shutting an entire nation up in one fell swoop, is powerful :)

     

     

    And I think we would.

     

     

    Not sure whether I’d rather beat them or Real Madrid :)

     

     

    HH

  17. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    AWENAW

     

     

    Good to see you and Mags back yesterday,I even got a mail from your young bro too.

     

     

    Thought it wiz my birthday!

     

     

    King is gonna have to go some to justify simply cancelling a contract. He seems to be happy to have a habit of doing that with retail behemoths.

     

     

    Maybe buying a dictionary might be a start.

  18. An Teach Solais on

    AYE_NAW at 3.15pm

     

     

    Re thems wanting to cancel their shirt deal with Puma, don’t really care if they have to wear Poundland T shirts but what legitimate manufacturer would want anything to do with that lot. Surely any remnant of credibility would be out of the window if they break yet another contract.

     

     

    Onward to glory with Brendan. HH

  19. sixtaeseven - Gardez la Foi on

    Joleon Lescott medical…?

     

     

    Doctor:

     

    You are fully fit, despite the fake stookie on your leg.

     

    please sign here…

     

     

    Joleon:

     

    Get stuffed.

     

    I’m gonna go home to my model wife, big house, cars, and I’m gonna count all my money.

     

    I don’t need no stinking Ibrox.

  20. THEORIGINALSADIESBHOY on 19TH AUGUST 2016 3:23 PM

     

    TD 67

     

     

     

    Brilliant video. Thanks for that. You and I can lead aff the Green Brigade in doing it at the Huns game on 10 Sept. :-))

     

     

    Yer on yer Owen there :))

  21. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    TRAD88

     

     

    Problem with that is if Leicester aren’t up there in their own league this year.

     

     

    It would just be used as an example of how much they have fallen.

     

     

    Arsenal,similar. More calls for Wenger to go.

     

     

    Spurs,fell away to finish third. What do you expect.

     

     

    Citeh,massive rebuild.

     

     

    Ffs,every result we get is a freak to them,every kicking a reality.

     

     

    Strangely,not so much with the “man in the street”. But Sky and Talksport in particular have a lot to answer for.

     

     

    Plus one or two journos,but most of them are viewed as an irrelevance now.

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