Rarely in the last 40 years have Celtic been so comfortable at a game in the captial. The champions went ahead within three minutes courtesy of a sublime Matt O’Riley volley, from a forward-pitched cross by Luis Palma. It has been an education watching Matt (still only 22) develop as a player.
Matt’s talent was evident when he first arrived in January last year, a £1.5m snip from MK Dons. His midfield role was less effective last season, but Brendan Rodgers has tweaked his game incredibly. We are fortunate to have seen many great Celtic goals in recent seasons, yesterday’s opener from Matt is up there with the best of them.
I regularly read opposing views on Daizen Maeda. With space to close down, as he had when we were down to 10 men at Livingston, he is a class apart. Then there is his distribution. Yesterday he drove into the box midway through the first half to convert Reo Hatate’s cross and effectively tie up the points for Celtic. He made the game more interesting midway through the second half with a pass in front of his own 18 yard line that found Lawrence Shankland, who thumped the ball in off the post.
You would think Kyogo would be permanently marked when inside the opposition box. Most of the time, this holds, but Kyogo looks for space while his supporting cast from the Celtic midfield arrive in the area hunting the ball. Defenders the world over are drawn to the ball and to movement. This scene played out early in the first half. Kyogo, all alone with the ball and facing a startled Zander Clark, made no mistake.
Last week, discussing Callum McGregor, “one of the world’s busiest players”, I wrote:
“Brendan Rodgers has many challenges: pressure to win every game domestically, then having to make the huge step up for Europe, with few genuine advantages. One, though, is the luxury of winning many games early, another is having central mid options. He should make the most of them.”
Brendan immediately hooked Callum on Tomoki Iwata restoring our three-goal lead. Wise management of the player will extend Callum’s career, it will also allow the development of Iwata, Bernardo and Holm.
Like you, I don’t have a dog in the fight over what happens at Hearts, but their Steven Naismith experiment is so obviously doomed. Vacant seats were visible at the start of the game, while the home sections of the stadium were practically empty before fulltime. Running a football club is easy, as I am sure Ann Budge will tell you – as long as you stick to talking about Celtic fans.
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GGH
It’s common among opposition managers but Hearts managers are by far the worst ,whether it’s Jeffreys , Levein or Neilson . An especially bitter breed .
Glendalystonsils
Agree 100%.
Felix Zwayer from the German Football Association has drawn the short lot and will referee the match this Wednesday night.
Glendalystonsils- that’s part of the reason they get the job
Felt that our penalty award was the opportunity for the media to have a reasoned debate on how we view these tackles in Scotland, of course there’s no chance of that when we get a decision.
Thing is though if any of our defenders on Wednesday challenge Griezmann like that it’s a definite penalty, not even up for debate. Just one of the many issues that hold Scottish teams back in Europe.
BORGO67 on 23RD OCTOBER 2023 6:02 PM….
It would have been a big help if Crawford Allen had done a presentation on tv during the off season, going through all the different types of VAR interventions, showing video of what is a handball and all the other stuff that has been argued about since VAR was introduced. Even better is this was followed up by a Q&A involving sensible pundits – ok Michael Stewart….
This would have been a great opportunity for everyone to understand where the red lines are, and give us a benchmark for future honest mistakes.
But that’s not the kind of helpful stuff that the sfa excel at, sadly.
Weeron
Good evening, friends.
A really good spread of opinions on our 3 top performers from yesterday. Loads of votes already but hundreds of minutes left to join in the fun – polls close at 10pm. SENCELPOTY@GMAIL.COM
The Celtic Board should have barred the lot of the media in Scotland years ago ,any decent wins we achieve they also dig up something negative to say ,tell them like you said to The Green Brigade,anymore negative stories about our team performances ,then you will be no longer get access inside our stadium .
A BIG shout to my Big Pal AN TEARMANN.
This man is a Gentleman and a STAR !
He did me a Massive favour Today, and wouldnt accept any Money for his time and trouble.
I am truly humbled and forever grateful to AN TEARMANN.
I hope to buy him LOTS of Drink one day…..or for a few weeks ?
HH AT….Thank you so much for your help.
Celtic only ALLOWED Hearts to play as best they could yesterday. They just were NOT good enough to compete with Celtic….SIMPLES !
Its the usual crap from the SMS….happy to IGNORE how well Celtic played yesterday for most of the game.
At the same time, the Huns gub a poor Hibs team, and the Hun players are suddenly world beaters ?
Some things just never change.
HH.
I really hope we are more pragmatic in team selection on Wednesday, we can’t afford to play 3 up front against a team like Atletico Madrid, Iwata in midfield in place of Palma IMO,we can’t get over run in midfield again……
Bada Bing
Rather than change a really strong and positive group of players who play a formation they all understand would it not make more sense to ask them to play free low percentage passes and take a more circumspect / pragmatic approach to our distribution. Ie Cut out the risky stuff and don’t go chasing the game too hard.
Celtics Annual Report 2023 is out
HH
!!BADA BING!! on 23RD OCTOBER 2023 7:29 PM
I really hope we are more pragmatic in team selection on Wednesday, we can’t afford to play 3 up front against a team like Atletico Madrid, Iwata in midfield in place of Palma IMO,we can’t get over run in midfield again……
BURNLEY78 on 23RD OCTOBER 2023 7:44 PM
Bada Bing
Rather than change a really strong and positive group of players who play a formation they all understand would it not make more sense to ask them to play free low percentage passes and take a more circumspect / pragmatic approach to our distribution. Ie Cut out the risky stuff and don’t go chasing the game too hard.
………………………….
Typical Celtic Supporters CSC
All that money and we couldn’t beat Kilmarnock.
Spurs 1-0
Looks like they’ve found a manager
Is that bombscare playing CH for Fulham the same Bassey who played for the Huns?
Good evening all.
Is that bombscare playing CH for Fulham the same Bassey who played for the Huns?
—-
Shirley not?
😁
B78- usually only the top teams play 3 forwards in Europe….
Ha ha Bassey sells the jersey again😂
Bombscare bassey gives the ball away again, then plays players onside leading to another goal.
Hard to believe he has went for over £50million in transfer fees.
Bada
Copenhagen (3rd seeds) have played 4:3:3 in half their games. Of the genuine CL 4th seeds Antwerp play 4:3:3 and Sociedad do a 4:3:1:2 that is almost the same.
All formations are fluid anyway and Maeda as a front 3 does more defensive work than Matt O’Riley at times. What we maybe need is a winger counterpart of Maeda since neither Palma, Yang, Abada or Forrest are too diligent or too competent on defensive duties.
Noooooo….£50m??
Shirley not.
Calvin Bassey makes the exact same error twice to gift Tottenham two goals.
Apologies, friends, but tonight’s results will be a wee bit delayed. Hopefully posted just after 10.30….
SENCELPOTY@GMAIL.COM
Spurs trackside boards advertising ticket exchange for sold out game v West Ham, can’t be that difficult to organise
The blogger
Sorry £41 million, 22 and 19.
But the 22 is a sevco figure so you can’t be sure.
Did Fulham actually scout Bassey before signing him? Watched him a lot in person at Ajax last season and he simply is not a ball playing CB. That’s two goals tonight that have come from him trying to play out from the back.
Above from BBC sport’s online comments.
Did the Ajax Director of Football smoke something before signing Bassey from Sevco?
Jeez, that’s incredible. The world’s gone mad.
How much is CCV worth?
Bassey just misses out on a hat trick
Another Bassey howler almost leads to a third goal for Spurs. Almost feel sorry for him. Almost.
Almost a hattrick fir Bassey😂
im not one for conspiracy theories (well i am…)
but
Bet365 main BetBuilder bet tonight
Spurs Win
Son over 1.5 shots on target
Palhinha to get booked
the first 2 are in.
but Palhinha has had 2 tackles in the game which were both yellow card offences yet he got booked for neither
clearly Bet365 are bunging the ref not to book him
Let’s- I think referees are told before games who the big money is on too get booked, it’s the easiest bet to fix,I had Paulinha as well btw,
Big Jimmy
No worries Pal,catch up again BigJ,take care now
HH
i can kind of understand his first tackle not getting a yellow just because it was really early in the game (which shouldnt be an excuse for refs but is used as one)
but his other tackle didnt have that excuse
i find it hard to believe that refs and betting companys would behave in such a dishonest way
😄
*to get booked….