It is more than six weeks since Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate played and a little over five weeks since Yosuke Ideguchi took the field. That is an equivalent period to the close season in Scotland. Consider all three to be in the same physical condition as the squad on their first preseason outing.
The return to full training of Jota and James Forrest are both hugely welcome, but both fall into the same category as our new signings from Japan. Expect too much from them tonight and we could exacerbate our injury problems.
The bulk of the heavy lifting tonight will be done by the squad that was in place and fit before the transfer window opened. Tom Rogic singlehandedly destroyed Hibernian when the teams met at Easter Road earlier in the season, so much will fall on his shoulders again tonight.
When you are six points adrift, the next game is always your biggest game of the season. Need I remind you of the elation ahead of Robbie Keane’s debut away to Kilmarnock on 2010? A raft of new signings full of confidence joined Robbie on the bus to Ayrshire that night, the title race was all but over before the headed home.
The team will need all our support and patience tonight.
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Bielsa’s Leeds are trained exceptionally hard. They run more than any other team in the prem, possibly in europe. They put an absolute premium on athleticism over strength
It’s not unreasonable to suggest a 17 year old skinny center back playing in Scotland where he’d be up against a totally different sort of striker than in the epl bulks up. We keep hearing about how Mikey needs to bulk up
Good luck Celtic, 3points please ,be at it from the start to finish, high tempo throughout and I’m sure we will be fine, bang a few in early would be great .
CELTIC40ME on 17TH JANUARY 2022 6:06 PM
The culture under Lennon was never going to deliver the league. the lad is just one example of this.
Nothing like a good negative Celtic headline to get the cynics juices flowing. Leo Hjelde left Celtic to get onto the big money, we weren’t prepared to pay a development player. What about the training at Ross County where he left off from, were they ‘deficient’ like Celtic?
Now we even have critics of Ange Postecoglu’s players getting trained too hard.
Cannae Win CSC
COYBIG. Getting the reb tunes on already. So looking forward to seeing Maeda.
Rumoured team……
Hart
JJ
CCV
Starfelt
Taylor
Rogic
McGregor
Hatate
Abada
Maeda
Forrest
Big Wavy
I heard the same rumour
Abada through the middle, James right and Maeda left ?
After the game in Perth I’m a big fan of Liel through the middle….
HH
LH @ LU — fitness / conditioning focus — Us vs Them
Interesting stuff.
Last season — and for a couple of seasons before that — we were not cutting edge when it came to sports science / fitness / conditioning / performance metrics.
Not sure about LU apart from the manager’s emphasis on speed and stamina but EPL standards are way above what NL was delivering last season or any other season for that matter.
Consequently they are right and we — 20/21 anyway — were wrong.
All comes back to the DG vs Spurs? squabbles of 20 years ago — he might have looked a picture of health but his manager at the time said he was carrying a bit of timber.
Body timber — looks good but it is not quite muscle.
Also there were the comments from AP back in August where he threatened the squad with the performance stats of his squad in Japan to highlight how far behind the curve we / they had become.
LH is a good case study.
We were into loans and bulking him up to deliver a more mature appreciation of the game and a more mature physique.
They are into hot-housing him into the team ASAP because of injuries and trying to focus on his speed and his stamina.
Interesting lesson showing how backward we become when we lose our focus.
MON left the squad in very poor physical condition in 2005 — CQN articles of the time and the efforts of WGS to improve things are there to be read.
NL thought that stag weekends were the future back in May 2011.
So the physical state of the squad last season should not be a surprise to anyone.
RD had a mutiny on his hands when he tried to change the breakfast menu.
Hopefully things are getting better.
If they are not then we will pay a price on the park.
One element that links the two viewpoints — strength is not about bulk.
Confirmed…that’s the team..
Jota on the bench.
Stauner alert…
HH
Hart
Juri
CCV
Stars
Taylor
McGregor
Hatate
Forrest
Rogic
Abada
Maeda
CELTIC: Hart, Juranovic, Starfelt, Carter-Vickers, Taylor, McGregor, Hatate, Rogic, Forrest, Abada, Maeda.
Subs: Bain, Scales, Giakoumakis, McCarthy, Jota, Johnston, Ideguchi, Ralston, Welsh.
DG and the carrying timber jibe?
When he was playing at AV in 2000 seemingly.
If that was the state of him after 5 years in the EPL — what state would he have been in with NL as his coach?
Two new guys straight into the team — AP is certainly not the shy and retiring type.
Mon the hoops!!!
Really, really missed the team and games over the winter break
Lets get into them
Was not trying to be negative at all about Ange and the new regime.
Great looking team and even a strong bench, put these Edinburgh Hibernians to the sword Celtic!
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