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Celtic, so many good options for so many positions

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

I know I’m going to feel differently about this tomorrow, when the events at Ibrox will feel absurdly important, but they are not. They are only fractionally as important as what will happen in Brussels on Wednesday evening. I could make a good argument that they are not as important as what happened at Dens Park two days ago.

With that in mind, it will not have escaped your attention that Jozo Simunovic is struggling with a persistent knee issue at the moment. He is fit enough to play at Ibrox, but if we only know for sure that he has one 90 minutes in him this week, Brendan should save him for Anderlecht.

Dedryck Boyata is injury free, but needs game time. I would start him tomorrow, alongside either Mikael Lustig or Nir Bitton (Anthony Ralston strikes me as being built for these games, and will be more than able to play at right back).

We are in the fortunate position of having to choose between two strikers who appear to relish smacking the ball behind a Newco keeper. In making his striker selection decision, the principle question Brendan should ponder, is who he will play in that position against Anderlecht. My hunch is that Moussa is more suited to what I expect will be a counter-attacking away game in Europe, so I’d give Leigh the nod tomorrow.  Let Moussa continue to ramp up his training schedule through the weekend.

Scott Sinclair will play on the left, but what a choice on the right: Patrick Roberts or James Forrest. Either should be able to destroy Newco on the flank.  Both are in delicious form.  My hunch is that Patrick will play for the first hour.

Scott Brown is a stick-on certainty to start, but what to do elsewhere? Perm any two from Olivier Ntcham, Callum McGregor, Stuart Armstrong and Tom Rogic.

Olivier often gets the nod for the slot alongside Scott, but Callum, Stuart and Tom are each so effective at putting Newco to the sword. I would start Tom behind the striker, and rest Olivier for this one, but I cannot decide on Callum or Stuart.

Have you ever known a Celtic team with good options in so many positions? Me neither.  We can afford to force a high-intensity game, then make changes without weakening the team.  The major viable risk comes from referee Craig Thomson, who has performed very poorly at previous Celtic visits to Ibrox.

Yesterday was a wipe-out for me. I didn’t have time to explore those historically great financials. Maybe later. I know we’re a day late, but they are worth it.

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‘YOU’RE NOT RANGERS ANYMORE,’ ROCK STAR PAUL GALLAGHER

To get you in the mood for tomorrow we thought we’d re-post the launch edition of the CQN Podcast – A Celtic State of Mind, for you to enjoy. If you missed it the first time around you are in for a real treat.

You’ll love Paul Gallagher’s Celtic stories and will enjoy his digs at Sevco Rangers, specifically his forcefully stated views on the same club myth.

Paul is featured in the second half of the podcast if you want to jump forward…

The CQN Podcast is presented by Paul Dykes with Kevin Graham and you can catch up on all the subsequent podcasts on Celtic Quick News.

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  5. Like no other on

    You’re right Paul, what a team we have right now. We’re “drowning in riches”.

     

     

    Lovely problem for Brendan to have

     

     

     

    HH

  7. Like no other on

    FRIESDORFER on 22ND SEPTEMBER 2017 9:51 AM

     

    57 is a good number!

     

     

     

     

    Hahaha. Going for the Heinz!!!

  8. Neil Lennon & McCartney on

    POGMATHONYAHUN AKA LAIRD OF THE SMILES on 21ST SEPTEMBER 2017 10:05 PM

     

     

    I’ve watched our last two midweek games in a cracking pub in Forres but I am unsure of watching this Saturday’s game v zombie Utd of Sevconia there.

     

     

     

    Does anybody know where the Moray CSC drinks?

     

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     

     

    As a Forres loon born and bred in the town, I was delighted to read your comment. If the pub you refer to is the Red Lion (locally known as the Beastie) then you can’t go wrong for the Zombie game. Been a while since I was back, but I remember most pubs to be mixed with no more than friendly banter. Enjoy!

     

     

     

    HH

  9. Like no other on

    I too believe that next week’s game is more important, but the thought of ruining that wee s**t McCann’s weekend is just so so sweet.

     

     

    HH

  10. corkcelt on

    If it’s an either/or issue with Jozo, he should definitely be kept in storage for Wednesday.

     

    Obviously as Paul says come kick off time tomorrow, I’ll be frothing at the mouth but the reality is the Hun don’t matter any more.

     

    The Big Apple for us is post Christmas European Football and that is where our priorities should lie.

  13. ernie lynch on

    WEEBAWBABITTY on 21ST SEPTEMBER 2017 11:01 PM

     

    ‘Just reading back, just thinking if it is to costly to go for a review, why don’t the board just announce as far as a club supporters and shareholders are concerned., we view the new rangers asa new club and keep referring to them as such . Am sure most supporters would be happy with this thoughts please’

     

     

    ####

     

     

     

    I would be satisfied with that, provided that it was also made clear that the new club had no entitlement to the old club’s record.

     

     

    I don’t think it’s likely to happen though. Just look at all the excitement around the build up to this weekend’s game.

  14. Maradominic on

    Choices? We have one decent centre back and he cannot play 2 games in a week. we should have signed an experienced CH and a promising younger CH,,,not a project . Boyata is mince.. a few months at the end of the season when the ball almost never came that far up the park.. but he is good at corners for us..not so much as defending them

  15. Maradominic on

    ps I was slagged for saying we should have bought Moult for 0.5 M… he is lloking good..a ;layer who suddenly finds formin mid twenties. maybe just knuckled down to find that extra half yard of pace

  18. KINGLUBO on

    Young girl asks her mum if you can get pregnant with anal sex. Mum says, of course, where do you think rangers supporters come from.

     

     

     

    KINGLuBO

  19. Burnley78 on

    Maradominic

     

     

    For a guy who doesn’t even support celtic in any way financially you have some negative opinions !

     

     

    Why not go and not support Sevco and see if that makes you happy.

     

     

    Clearly your genius capability might be just the thing to get the newco on track. You certainly know how Celtic are getting it wrong.

  20. Celtic Champs Elect on

    MARADOMINIC on 22ND SEPTEMBER 2017 10:14 AM

     

    ps I was slagged for saying we should have bought Moult for 0.5 M… he is lloking good..a ;layer who suddenly finds formin mid twenties. maybe just knuckled down to find that extra half yard of pace

     

     

     

    That shows you up as not having a clue about fitba. Moult is not and never will be Celtic class you utter clown

  21. Neil Lennon & McCartney on

    Brendan Rodgers firmly believes that Celtic competing in the English Premier League (EPL) would be ‘an amazing experience’ – but he doesn’t believe it will ever happen. The Parkhead boss was speaking to Sky Sports when he was asked about the viability of Celtic and Rangers playing in the English league system.

     

     

    Rodgers said: “Celtic in the Premier League would be an amazing story. It would be an amazing experience for everyone, not just for Celtic but for other teams as well. “I just don’t think it would ever happen, I think there are too many barriers.

     

     

    “Celtic are one of the great iconic clubs of the world and if [Celtic] were in the Premier League, what that would generate – we get 60-odd thousand virtually every home game. “You could take over all the away stadiums – the travelling support where they’re allowed would bring 10,000 or 12,000.”

     

     

    But Rodgers concedes that the financial clout enjoyed by teams in the English top flight would be a stumbling block. “What Celtic doesn’t have is finance. Celtic don’t have the money that the Premier League generates,” Rodgers added. “It would be amazing for Celtic to be there but I can never see it happening. I don’t think it will ever happen. There are just so many processes it would have to go through. “I think there’s probably more chance of Celtic being in a European League than being in the pyramid system down south.

     

     

    Rodgers also pointed to English teams with ambitions of becoming top flight clubs, singling out the recently-promoted Huddersfield Town and earmarking Brentford as the next possible top flight team. “The one thing I would say with England is that every team will believe that they can be a top flight team. Brentford, Huddersfield… you see were Huddersfield were a number of years ago. And now, all of a sudden, they’re playing in the Premier League.

     

     

    “And I think lots of clubs in England have that vision, that ambition to one day be a top-flight team. “It would be very, very tough for Celtic, and Rangers, to be in the Premier League, even though it would be amazing. Then you would see the true, real size of a club like Celtic.”

  22. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    ERNIELYNCH

     

     

    New club claiming defunct club’s titles is a faffing joke. I don’t care that “they’re back”,I don’t care that they’re up to their knees in bigotry,I don’t even care about them getting the pyoor pish ripped out of them by their owners.

     

     

    The going for 55 pisses me off big time. It’s not just an offence against football,it’s a criminal offence to phoenix.

  24. South Of Tunis on

    Since it’s Friday

     

     

    A gem of a choon from 65 . Bought in Sunderland on the day of Sunderland 0-Celtic 5 . A game in which the great Bobby Murdoch demonstrated that he was a far superior player to Jim Baxter –

     

     

    https://youtu.be/yN7Z7JBJu5Y

  26. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    CELTICCHAMPSELECT

     

     

    One of these days you will disagree with someone without being utterly disagreeable at the end of a post.

  27. fieldofdrams on

    Are we playing the current iteration of Rangers tomorrow?

     

     

    We must be, because the Daily Record is running a story about a top Celtic player being pursued by Manchester United. Last season, it was mainly Moussa Dembele; this year, Kieran Tierney is the subject of that ‘newspaper’s burning desire to see this Celtic team broken up.

     

     

    These people are hurting.

  29. Davidopoulos on

    Here, how long will it take before other clubs in Scotland realise that their best chance of beating Celtic is by having a pitch that is more akin to a ploughed field?

     

     

    Not long probs…

  38. Celtic Champs Elect on

    SOT

     

     

    Will listen in tonight to your tunes love a Friday night with nice burgundy and a few peronis headphones on mixing a few tunes for the smoking goat in anticipation for the game tomorrow

     

     

    I am enjoying this tune at the moment by Gene Chandler Ashley Bradley remix all about the paper

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