15 games into the campaign and a rainy night in Perth is the setting for our next ‘biggest game of the season.’ Two points below us in the league, St Johnstone were on a decent run of form before capitulating at Ibrox on Sunday – only their second loss in 11 outings.
You know what to expect from them. Tommy Wright will have watched Kilmarnock, St Mirren and Hamilton defend their penalty box and keep it tight. He will play for penalties but hope to get men forward through a set piece whenever possible.
Saturday’s opponents, Aberdeen, endured extra time at Easter Road last night. They have an extra day’s rest over Celtic, but advantage will be nullified if Celtic can get the job done in 90 minutes tonight. As such, I would expect our strongest team to start the game, but what that is, is open to debate. We need craft to open packed defences.
Over to you, Brendan. Win tonight and it’s semi-final time at Hampden.
Really appreciate all the help for the Foundation ahead of the Great Scottish Run on Sunday. It puts fuel in the tank like nothing else. Thanks to everyone who has contributed, the link is here if you would like to join in.
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The things you see when you are not logged in…
Start Lewis Morgan, he could be the spark we need. Play him on the left, his favoured position at St Mirren.
Wear the hoops
BMCUW
Is it in Belfast?
http://celticbynumberscom.ipage.com/ringing-the-changes/
Rodgers admits making too many line up changes can disrupt the team. Do the numbers back him up?
Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood afternoon all.
Mon the Hoooooops
Is it just me or does Brendan look like he has lost a bit of weight?
Hopefully the stress of the job isnt getting to him
Its only football
It looks like we are waiting for something to happen rather than MAKING something happen.
We need to stretch the defences, pull the defenders out of position. Wingers should be getting to the byline. Roberts did this. Would beat a player then another player would come out to close him down. Then the cutback is on, with two defenders out of position. More space. Unfortunately we don’t have an Armstrong type player attacking that space.
Need to get more crosses in too, especially from the right. More overloads and link-up play. Gamboa got forward against Partick, linked up with Forrest and two goals.
Would like to see Morgan getting a chance.
Should have enough to win this game but we need to start being more proactive.
BHOYLO83
My wife has been pointing this out to me for weeks.
We watch a game and she says “Brendans nose is more pronounced”
Me: WTF
She says” Brendans shoulders seem to have shrunk”
Me: well, he’s been carrying Peter Lawwell for the past two years!
Hopefully, it’s just carrying the weight of expectation of CQNers.
Graft and craft needed.
In response to conclusion of the header…
Only so much Brendan can do…team selection, tactics etc. To find an answer to unlock the buspark defences we face adnauseum in Scotland is a shared responsibility between the players and the coaching staff imo. The players need to step up and do their job tonight. I think they will.
HH
HRVATSKI JIM
The HOOT on November 10th is in Glasgow.
Starts around 2.00pm and ends when you go home, whenever that is!
Get BMCUWP email from Paul67 and he’ll fill you in with the details.
Embdy else scratching their head at why Gamboa and Ralstons’ stock has sunk so low given our dearth of RB foraging and repeat weakness from that flank. Craft, graft and nae too saft is def reqd: Start Mulumbu and replace w Olli if needed.
Billy Bhoy
As long as his nose isn’t getting longer when he’s being interviewed
BR works with a personal trainer. The weight loss is probably intentional.
Personal trainer’s fair giving him a run for his money.
Philboy
Thanks – i may be able to join for a while but i am on jury duty the next day so don’t want to have 2 reasons to go to court on the Monday.
Personal trainers? I’m too old to wear trainers these days…
carpetslipperscsc…
Re Brendan’s nose…is it not a case of it being out of joint rather than more pronounced?
Anyway, he shouldn’t have gone into the ring with Pistol Pete…he’s a bit of a heavyweight…
and Brendan’s just a wee guy…
david17 on 26th September 2018 1:15 pm
‘BR works with a personal trainer.’
####
The world has gone mad.
Surprised Gamboa never got more of a run after game at Firhill, where he made 2 goals..
‘Over to you, Brendan’
Funnily enough that’s what Brendan said to Peter when he handed him his transfer targets in the summer.
As i was saying the other day, P67 quite happy to keep the narrative focused on BR. It has and always will be the Managers responsibility to find solutions on the park. That job has been made ever more difficult by the Board failing to recruit his desired players and undermining him by trying to punt his big hitters to top up the bonus pool. No wonder he is downhearted and this is having an effect on the team. A shambles created in the Boardroom with no sign of any leadership to resolve matters.
Sack the board.
BSR
If Spurs can be managed by Pochettino why shouldn’t we be managed by Pinnoccio? :-)
Paul67 et al
The craft will be well represented up in Perth tonight, won’t be wearing Celtic strips mind you!
CBN
Cheers for that, although the statos out there might question the validity of your definition of “changes”.
You’re measuring changes from the team that started the previous match, which is entirely understandable as it’s easy to measure. The problem arises when the previous team was changed to rest/protect players for the subsequent game ahead.
For example, we might play, say, Hibs on the Saturday with a “full strength” team. The following Saturday we play Alloa in the Cup and lob in some youngsters/squad players, and the following Wednesday we play Bayern Munich in the UCL with the top performers back in the side.
Your data will show, say, 7 changes for the Alloa match, then another 7 changes for the Bayern match. We win v Alloa and lose v Bayern, suggesting that changes were “positive” for Alloa but “negative” v Bayern, but the context is hidden. If it turns out we lost to Bayern with our strongest 11, a conclusion might be that our strongest 11 weren’t good enough, rather than any inference drawn from the apparent changes made one game to the next. (God forbid that we might have lost to Alloa :¬) )
I suppose, retrospectively, we know our strongest 11 from the starts data for each position. For 2017/18 it’s probably Gordon, Lustig, Boyata, Simunovic, Tierney, Brown, Ntcham, McGregor, Forrest, Sinclair, Dembele.
How many changes were made for each match relative to that team (if that’s the one) might be instructive, if you can ever be bothered running the data.
Thanks again.
TBB
Ernie Lynch
Bradley Simmonds is his name.
https://www.instagram.com/bradleysimmonds/?hl=en
Table booked at Coias for Saturday at 1PM. Me, DD, David and HRVATSKI Jim. Anyone else?
KTF
We need craft to open packed defences.
we will never do that with our with our slow boring repetitive sideways/backwards passing within our own half , i don’t think its craft but tactical and forward movement to open packed defences and its not that we haven’t had a lot of practice to unlock packed defences as this has been the opposition tactics/formation for as long as i can remember.
“rainy night in Perth”
———–
hah,
lazy journalism
Never mind opening packed defences. Learn to score from corners and the job’s done.
And on the topic of personal trainers and all that new age bollocks, is there anything done to sharpen up the players’ brains? Like getting them to concentrate and pay attention?
Maybe it’s time to resurrect Quizball.
Don’t care about Brendan’s nose, as long as it’s not turning blue.
HH
Drop the French !
Greetings from the Airbräu brewery pub/restaurant in Munich Airport, attending my 32nd consecutive Oktoberfest. At €2.75 at 1/2 litre of Weißbier and a half a pork knuckle dinner totalling €17 for both it has to be the cheapest airport restaurant on the planet ?
Hopefully be able to watch the game tonight on the dog and bone.
Hail! Hail! PMTYH
ernie lynch on 26th September 2018 1:31 pm
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The world has gone mad.
*********************
Could you let me know when it wasn’t.
Since I am a founder member of ISMA – Intelligent Species My Arse – I am assuming that you meant just prior to the emergence of consciousness.
Hail Hail
Matt
Pogmathonyahun aka Laird of the Smiles on 26th September 2018 2:27 pm
Is dog and bone on the menu?
Hail Hail
Matt
!!BADA BING!!
Aye, young Christian pulling us out a hole v Thistle and being a first pick World Cup RB isn’t quite enough to justify a regular start in a stalling stuttering side it seems. Baffled.
hi bhoys I would play morgan tonight, and tin hat on, give Kieran a rest and play gamboa.hh.
More evidence of mankind’s totally risible ridiculousness.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45650969
If there is a supreme being I have a suspicion that he will be sending another asteroid quite soon.
Hail Hail
Matt