It’s been a while since Celtic have taken the field without Kris Commons or John Guidetti in the team. Commons was absent through injury on Saturday while Guidetti was largely peripheral to proceedings after opening the scoring, but they are the two most capable match winners in the squad right now.
With Guidetti ineligible I’m sure Ronny Deila will give Commons every chance to make the starting line-up, the manager needs goals and Kris is the great creator. This requirement will have to be accommodated alongside the performance of the midfield on Saturday, led by Stefan Johansen in a more advanced than usual position.
Astra are bottom of the group and we can anticipate they will defend deeply, a scenario made for Commons’ close control and ability to shoot from the edge of the box.
Many thanks to everyone who donated to Mary’s Meals while we ran the competition to win a pair of tickets for the Kilmarnock game, courtesy of club sponsor Magners. Thanks also to Magners for their help.
Thanks to those who ordered Caesar & the Assassin, the accounts of Billy McNeill and Davie Hay as Celtic managers, yesterday. It documents the period of our history from when Billy took over from Jock Stein in 1978, through to the end of his era 13 years later, including Davie Hay’s four years in charge.
Billy and Davie will both sign the early orders we get to them, more here.
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Paul67
Not sure RD will play Commons as it means reshuffling a winning side, in a differing format. Commons for Guidetta can’t be a straight swap, so it’ll be an interesting decision either way.
The one thing RD must surely crave is continuity in selection, and Scepovic needs to step up to the podium.
Paul67
can we not remove the highly inaccurate posts from earlier.
Thanks
HH
P.s can you be more explicit with regards the new thread change. GMT OR CET ? ;-)
Now that I have that off my chest 3.0 YES NIL as in ZERO for the tic tonight.
HH
Can anybody update me re catering at Celtic Park? Can you drop in furra snack / pint. Just pre-match? Thanks.
My first car was an Astra. One of the old models. Very reliable but as aerodynamic as a brick.
Then came the Alfas… Beautiful cars. Spent most of their time in the garage…
Timgreen I’m in the kerrydale at the moment. Pretty busy, food looks good!
Singer in the kerrydale giving it “Bruce Springsteen circa 1985” with the vocals.
Clear yer throat, man!
Car parked up at Celtic park … Think I will sit here with the heating on rather than sit freezing for an extra hour .
Mon the hoops :)
Jobo18.15
Bad day. Work commitments now mean unable to make game tonight. My son is on supporters bus with my ticket. Anyone. looking for spare ticket in JS stand he will b at CQN corner 30minutes before kick off. Not looking for face value.
Nor all bad today. Thinking Tommy Gemmell . HH
http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl/celtic-deila-confident-zaluska-incident-a-one-off-1-3580789
with Video footage of Ronny being interviewed
HH
Any previews of the EPL teams playing in the CL this week included, appropriately, goals they have scored, and/or conceded, in European competition.
Reporting Shortbread just showed the Hamilton goal in their sports segment.
by STEPHEN HALLIDAY
Published on the
23 October
2014
00:00
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Have your say!
RATHER than hit the ground running in the manner hoped for by a club’s biggest summer signing, Stefan Scepovic has so far found himself bogged down in mediocrity.
No goals from his first six appearances is not the return Celtic would have anticipated from the only one of their seven recruits for whom they have paid a transfer fee under Ronny Deila’s management so far.
Such has been the difficulty Scepovic has found in adapting to life with the Scottish champions, he has been named in their starting line-up only twice and shown little to encourage belief among supporters that the £2.3 million paid to Sporting Gijon for his services will ultimately prove a sound investment.
The Serbian international striker has been completely outshone over the past few weeks by John Guidetti, one of Celtic’s five loan signings, who has scored four goals in his first six games for Deila’s team.
But with Guidetti ineligible for the group stage of the Europa League, tonight presents Scepovic with a fresh opportunity to display the ability with which he netted 23 times in the second tier of Spanish football last season and which persuaded Celtic to pursue him so vigorously at the close of the summer transfer window.
According to Deila, he has seen the evidence this week to convince him Scepovic is ready to make his mark against Astra Giurgiu as Celtic look to strengthen their position at the top of Group D.
“Stefan is very hungry to play and he wants to show himself,” said Deila. “He came on as a sub against Ross County on Saturday and he had a good chance there. You can see in his eyes that he wants to improve. He is a good player, I’ve seen him score some fantastic goals in training this week. I’m looking forward to seeing more from him on the pitch.”
Among the criticism aimed at Scepovic has been an observation that he lacks the physical presence to impose himself on opposition defences, prompting Deila to confirm recently that the player would be placed on an intensive gym programme to bulk him up.
“We don’t take any drugs, so that will take a bit more time!” added a relaxed Deila yesterday. “It will take maybe half a year to get him to the strength we want. But he is working all the time. It’s also about his mentality. Against Ross County he kept the defenders working, his touch was good and now he has to go on from there.”
After a laudable 2-2 draw away to top seeds Red Bull Salzburg on matchday one was followed up by a nervy and hard-earned 1-0 home win over Dinamo Zagreb three weeks ago, Celtic now have an opportunity to considerably enhance their prospects of reaching the post-Christmas knockout stage of the Europa League.
Romanian Cup holders Astra have won only one of their last eight games in all competitions and morale is reported to be low as new coach Oleg Protasov is the latest to try to satisfy the demands of wealthy but eccentric owner Ioan Niculae.
But although Astra are pointless at the bottom of Group D after their first two games, including a 5-1 thumping in Zagreb, Deila is wary of perceptions that Celtic should find it straightforward to secure maximum points against them both in Glasgow tonight and then in Romania in a fortnight.
“If Astra played in the Scottish Premiership, they would win it if we didn’t,” said Deila. “They would be among the top teams in Scotland. They are not a bad team. The richest man in Romania has them and I also played a friendly against them in January when I was manager of Stromsgodset and they have some quality players there.
“Of course, if you look at the group you see they don’t have any points yet and that is a sign they may be a little bit weaker than Salzburg and Zagreb, but those two teams are very good. It looks like a battle between three teams (for the two qualifying places) and Astra are one of the teams who we have to beat. If we do that, we are in a very good situation in the group.
“I hope people who assume it will be an easy win for us are right but I don’t think so. I think it will be a tough game. We have to prepare well. But I think in the last month things are happening for us and we are going in the right way. The players are starting to get confidence.
“I can see we are starting to get better relationships in the team, patterns in our attacking play and also better in transition defensively. I hope to show that again on Thursday night.”
Full-backs Mikael Lustig and Emilio Izaguirre are both fit to play, despite not completing 90 minutes at the weekend because of injuries, but Kris Commons remains doubtful with a muscle injury which could allow Stefan Johansen to retain the advanced midfield role he carried out impressively during the 5-0 win in Dingwall.
“We have different options now,” added Deila. “That’s good, it’s what I want, I don’t want to stick to one system. We want to look at an opponent and pick the right system against them.
“It’s important it’s not about systems, it’s about principles and the principles are getting the full-backs forwards, the wingers coming in, triangles on the sides, getting crosses, getting people into the box. I think you can see that more now and hopefully we can get even better now.”
Astra was the beer of choice in the early noughties when I was living in Hamburg. (Hamburg + Berlin are probably the two worst cities in Germany for beer drinkers btw).
Anyway Astra had a kind of sailor motif on the logo but they changed it to a limited edition Astrababe label (a la 70s tenants lager cans) and it became the beer of choice among the designer crew in Hamburg. Interestingly once it became cool even arch-feminists drank it for the cool factor…
Celtic team to play FC Astra: Gordon; Lustig, Denayer, van Dijk, Izaguirre; Brown, Mulgrew; McGregor, Johansen, Stokes; Scepovic
Celtic Football Club @celticfc 37s38 seconds ago
Celtic team to play FC Astra: Gordon; Lustig, Denayer, van Dijk, Izaguirre; Brown, Mulgrew; McGregor, Johansen, Stokes; Scepovic
A night deserving of the first introduction this season for The Big Coat.
Doors to manual.
See you on the other side Bhoys and Ghirls. Hope the rain stays off for the CQN Corner gang.
Alvin Stardust
RIP
Commons not on bench either.
Good starting 11 though. Might even bet us at minus 1 now…
Happy with the team. Mon the Hoops!
LB
tbj
……starting to show signs of getting old?!
Get oot of that car man and jump aboot!
Good line-up
Big scep to break his duck tonight
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29727632
Long Live Wiliko Johnson
HH
Thunder rd
No argument here about getting old … And grumpy
The next wee boy that chaps my window to ask to mind my car is getting told to gtf in no uncertain terms
That’s a very attacking line-up. Mon Celtic!!
Go at them from the start and then let Griff loose as soon as we can.
Got a good feeling about this game for some reason more than usual.
Charlie M get your free kick boots back on and take the ball from Anto please.
“Richard” Wilson
spokesman for Dave King.
bankiebhoy1
I don’t believe it
Love
Subs: Zaluska, Ambrose, Matthews, Tonev, Griffiths, Kayal, Wakaso.
tbj
How much do they ask for nowadays to look after a motor?
I’m happy with team, no tinkering from RD.
2-0 the tic.
COYBIG
SOAL
:)
Awe_Naw
They got ‘im on milk and alcohol!
Couple of posts on last night about him.
Decent looking line-up. Feeling quietly confident. A nice early wee goal from Scepovic will see us nicely. Mon the Hoops………..2-0 to the good ghuys I reckon.
HH
Happy with that team
HH
Cmon the hoops.
don’t forget 7.30 new article coming up..
or about 20 past for podium chasers
Two playing, Mikael, Izzy, and Lucasz on the bench, which seemed unlikely over the past few days.
Good on them all.
I loved DR Feelgood and Nine below Zero .. very underated band
Aye Good Luck to him
HH
Ronny’s obviously been reading CQN and gone with the majority view that Saturday’s line up was pretty good, and thus has made only the forced change of Scepovic for Guidetti, all else as was.
Fair enough.