Playing three at the back creates a specific role for the wingback. Wilfried Nancy had Alistair Johnston on the right when the pair were at Montreal. Johnston’s pace, endurance and ability to cross from the byline is perfect for this formation.
Alistair’s return is months away, so the manager will need to come up with an alternative to reinvigorate our right side which has been poor all season. We don’t have a perfect facsimile. Anthony Ralston can hit the line and cross, Colby Donovan has energy, but we have only seen a small sample size.
Yang is the best crosser at the club (oh yes he is), but he is not a wingback. Similarly, there is nothing I can see in Daizen Meada that suggests he is a better option through the middle than Johnny Kenny. Daizen, though, has the energy and pace to play wingback, he is an obvious choice to move wide.
As we discussed yesterday, playing Daizen in front of Kieran Tierney, with Auston Trusty in the middle and Liam Scales left, is a better deployment of resources than Sunday’s lineup.
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RIP Dixie .
Sad news indeed.
Great goal scorer , I remember as a young lad seeing him score the 6 goals against Thistle.
HH
Dixie and Bob Marley
https://youtube.com/shorts/CsFMjREh1fA?si=PjapbdjetpiQC3IM
Where does a returning Jota fit into Wilfried’s formation?
Are we gonna play him as a wing back or as part of a box midfield ?
He’d be utterly lost and we’d be losing one of the best wingers we’ve seen at the Club in recent years.
bournesouprecipe on 9th December 2025 1:53 pm
Nice one
AN DÚN on 9TH DECEMBER 2025 1:54 PM
Where does a returning Jota fit into Wilfried’s formation?
Probably as a winger.
In place of your main man Tounekti
Brugge have immediately given the job to Ivan Leko who’s CV makes him look like a very similar appointment to Lenny
Best in the world. / Bundesliga II callbacks.
Hilarious.
CELTIC40ME on 9TH DECEMBER 2025 2:00 PM
AN DÚN on 9TH DECEMBER 2025 1:54 PM
Where does a returning Jota fit into Wilfried’s formation?
Probably as a winger.
—-
You mean as a wing back then.
We’re not scoring and we’re gonna drop our best winger 20/30 yards further back…
Must see…
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eOECvaTcV6E
And while we’re dropping Jota further back, we’ll have 3 CBs standing on the half way line whilst we’re in possession rather than the usual 2 – in a league where we own the ball. Further reducing numbers going forward.
The amount of times Hearts cleared the ball on Sunday and we had 3/4/5 players standing doing nothing near our own half way line was ridiculous.
Wilfried needs to be pragmatic. If he loses the good work done by MoN, there’s no coming back.
He’ll be gone before the renewal letters go out.
After Dixie scored the 6 against Thistle I had a drink with him in the Devil’s Elbow, now the Millenium.
We were in there after the game and ended up at Dixies table!
Great night and a lovely, very modest man.
Rest in peace, Sir!
Goose bumps reading about Bob Marley and Dixie Deans (and I’ve heard that story a few times before too). Loved Dixie’s exploits as a wee bhoy and wish i’d seen Bob Marley live. Absolutely hate the Theatre/Musicals and all that but Get Up, Stand Up at the Lyric in London was absolutely fantastic. The film was pish by comparison rigth enough.
AD
If he WN continues to expose our defence as this system does, with its lack of pace lack of physicality in midfield and at wing back then he should be dismissed quickly and with whoever brought him in, which, looks like Tidsdale , that game of draughts on the touchline will be mocked forever long we are on the planet, problem is it isn’t funny to Celtic supporters.
WN and his board will be the new Mclaren and his brolly if we dont get our act together.
RIP Dixie……gave us Joy many times
‘ Yang is the best crosser at the club’ made me smile on a sad day …..maybe Paul missed KTs cross for Engels header …….no matter keep the junior/ cheap buys flag flying
Loved reading the Dixie Deans / Marley story again.
RIP.
Some mentions of our casualty list. I know CCV is out for season but what about Jota, AJ and Osmand. When are they back?
AN DUN …he doesn’t…..simple …..not many players we have atm do though tbf
however not forever but in a different sentence it will be appropriate
Yang the best crosser ! well it is panto season. Oh, no he isnt…
or maybe i’m getting pantos mixed up with Punch n Judy ! Always hated both of them.
i dont know how some posters are not getting jobs as managers as they seem to know more about football than managers in place at the moment. one game and knives are out. for gods sake get some perspective and leave the tactics to the professionals, give wilf a chance.
Tis the season to be scrolly 🎄
All we are saying is give Wilf a chance
BADA @1.27
Still no faith in any British government.
Happy thereafter Dixie
You lit up so many lives in Scotland
Dixie Deans was famous even before he joined Celtic, for his name more than for anything else, nobody had ever heard of Everton’s Dixie Dean. When he got a 6 match ban he also made the headlines, as did Jock Stein’s bold move to sign him during the suspension. Although Dixie had a fantastic scoring record he needs to be remembered as part of a brilliant forward line with Dalglish, Jimmy Johnstone (a great pal of Dixie’s) Harry Hood and Paul Wilson, all scoring for fun. The interplay between them was phenomenal. That set of players got to the European Cup semis twice. It was Stein still playing with 4 forwards, what a joy.
I was in Dixie´s company on a couple of occasions, he lived near my house and he contributed to the school fair I was collecting for and he tipped me a fiver many years later when I was a waiter at a charity event.
I´m reading some slovenly stuff on here about whether Dixie had certain beliefs or others. as if that has anything to do with a club like Celtic which prides itself on being all inclusive.
And to bust one of the myths these pseudo Celtic supporters peddle….Dixie Deans did score against Rangers.
It was a vital one at Ibrox at the Celtic end ( 0:45 ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sbKSxsBfBU
The great Arthur Montford says judgement
” Dixie Deans scores, a deflection from Tom Forsyth, one each ”
And the best bit was that it was a deflection off the face after Dixie hammered it !
Dixie raised his two arms towards the support and that is how we´ll always remember him, making us happy.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Dixie Dixie !
BJB- Absolutely mate
“what about Jota, AJ and Osmand. When are they back?”
There’s not a great deal of info in the public domain, but here’s what we know:
Jota’s ACL injury is typically 9 months recovery following surgery, more often 12 months. If we see him again this season it’ll likely be late and fleeting. Pragmatically, you’d probably prefer to avoid the risk of re-injury at the end of the season, concentrate on conditioning and look towards the start of next season for a return. Who knows, he might surprise us.
AJ and Osmand had surgery on their hamstrings 3 weeks ago. The recovery period is typically up to 6 months following surgery so see above re Jota +/- a month.
CCV’s achilles rupture is a bugger of an injury as it requires a prolonged period to re-stretch the tendon once it has healed. Call it 9+ months. See above.
It’s unusual to get 4 players with such severe injuries simultaneously, let alone that 3 of them are first picks. But here we are and there you go. We’ll need to win the league without them, by the looks.
RIP Dixie
Re stakeknife
The second the IRA established its internal security unit, it was a major target for infiltration by British Intelligence.
Giving such a small group unrestricted access to the entire IRA structure was undoubtedly the single biggest error the PIRA ever made. Absolute sheer lunacy.
Weebobbycollins on 9th December 2025 2:14 pm
Must see…
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eOECvaTcV6E
That , IMO, deserves to go as wildly as possible.
” mursheen on 9th December 2025 2:37 pm
i dont know how some posters are not getting jobs as managers as they seem to know more about football than managers in place at the moment. one game and knives are out. for gods sake get some perspective and leave the tactics to the professionals, give wilf a chance.”
I couldn`t agree more.
Stakeknife was singled out by the UFF to be taken out.
Agents in the FRU angled the UFF away from Scapaticci and told them to target IRA “godfather” Notarantonio, who was 66 and in ill health.
Notarantonio was not active in the IRA at the time, nor had he been since the Border Campaign of the 1950s.
Sanitising songbooks to cultivate an image for some of those with a penchant for soup will not be happening anytime soon.
Bob Marley.
One of our own.
I think Calmac aside, Hatate is our best player by far.
Tin hat on
kingLUBO
AN DÚN on 9TH DECEMBER 2025 2:15 PM
And while we’re dropping Jota further back, we’ll have 3 CBs standing on the half way line whilst we’re in possession rather than the usual 2 – in a league where we own the ball. Further reducing numbers going forward
…
I believe the opposite is the plan , the right and left centre back break the lines into midfield and start attacks , so we have more men forward.
Auston pushed up in the 1st half on Sunday only for Hearts to take until the second half to block him off and with KT very wide , we we’re left with Scalesy on the ball , it wasn’t his best half of football.
Personally, I’d let things settle down before parking your tanks on the managers lawn.
We have mostly very good ball players at Celtic so I’d expect to adapt to different tactics relatively quickly.
HH
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Dixie was hardly the tallest but was brilliant in the air. The heart of a lion. I remember winning away to St Johnstone when he had a bloodied face. Can’t remember score but I think it was tight and we won.
A draw tomorrow would be great and unexpected. Support Nancy all the way. MSM in wait with their negative stories, which foolishly some of our own swallow.