After the defeat at Ibrox on 29 December, we anticipated changes, but the most significant decision Brendan Rodgers made was the most unexpected. Celtic’s man of the match that day was goalkeeper, Craig Gordon, without whom the score would have been significantly worse than the 1-0 defeat. Remarkably, he was dropped and has not played since.
The reason for this has nothing to do with Craig’s ability between the sticks, it gets to the reason we lost control of the game: how quickly and accurately we move the ball. Despite a man of the match performance, Craig was dropped because Brendan realised our game plan can be easily dismantled if we are pedestrian in possession.
While Scott Bain is better with the ball at his feet than Craig, and Craig’s liability in this area is limited, central midfield was significantly more culpable for what went wrong at Ibrox.
Since then Callum McGregor has been restored to his normal midfield berth, Scott Brown has retained his place and Olivier Ntcham has been absent through injury, so the manager has had no major selection choices to make in this area. Olivier is now fit and in with a chance of making his first appearance of the year in Sunday’s Scottish Cup tie, while just as we were at Ibrox, we are short at left back, where McGregor moved to fill in.
Brendan has some big decisions to make this week. A central mid of Brown and Ntcham is not right for the football we play. In taking the least expected decision, to drop Gordon for Bain, I hope we saw a sign that Brendan values the velocity with which we circulate the ball.
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Defoe dive
https://twitter.com/gibbogibby1/status/1094305851668615168?s=21
Thanks to those who provided the link to Twitter with the clip of the “penalty incident” involving Defoe.
Despite Fool Time Whistle’s protestations, Defoe initiates the contact on Boradfoot by flicking his right leg out. Clear and obvious attempt to deceive the ref. Yellow card.
Fool Time, I’ve been in your position many times. I see things one way and all around me watching see the opposite. And since I’m never wrong I merely scoff inside and let them think they are right.
The game today. Will St J try and win the game by actually venturing outside their defensive 25 yard line (aka the Penalty Area for Sevco opponents)?
Or will they go for the tactic of holding out as long as possible and get a sneaky goal?
Another 2-0 victory will do for me.
Would I be right in saying sevco have had more penalties this week (6) than we’ve had all season (5)
First Time I have seen it – the Dive. So embarrassing.
Polaris Big Time.
C’mon the Bhoys Today.
Jobo re. your question about the ref for today? I arrived late for a game last year and just sat down and asked the guy next to me who the ref was. Without batting an eye he responded immediately with “A hun!”. “Fair point”says I.
Huns are and always have been cheats it’s in their DNA. Morelos & Defoe may indeed have been OK guys before they shook hands with the devil. However they are now damaged goods, FoolTime Whistle sounds like a decent guy but hopefully as Defoe continues to drop like a fly in the penalty area, he will see the light.
Of far more importance is the game today, having beaten the Saints twice in quick succession there is a major danger of complacency. I think we will win but the win will have to be earned it is not a given.
I’d like to see Bayo start and hold Tim O’ back for the last 30 minutes. Looking forward to game. COYBIG
Right, aff oot tae Mass. I’ll say a wee prayer that today’s game is played on a good sporting spirit and that the best team, which will be us, wins ;-)
Matt@2:56AM,
Incredible, Magical and truly Wonderful.
Met a hun in the boozer last night .
Said to him you must have missed your penalty . He said aye the keeper saved it . I honestly thought he was joking .
Another penalty !!! Astounded .
Good Morning… Rainy and breezy round the aul Chilterns today…
Some excellent posts recently, not least Tontine Tim & Matt Stewart…
It is always worth remembering what the scourge of Ireland’s Kindreds did also to the highland Clans. The massacre at Glencoe was a heartless, cold blooded act. William of Orange wanted to make an example of the MacDonalds.
Looking forward to a belter of a match today, St Johnstone have been getting to know all about us and will be doing everything for a result in this one off match. But we’ve got too much game for them and should win with aplomb.
Having said that not wanting to tempt fate but St Johnstone might challenge our excellent run of clean sheets.
I’m going make comment on a couple of Daily Record/Sunday Mail pieces…
Firstly the Record…
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/celtic-vs-rangers-bizarrely-ranked-13974186
It’s a piece about the famous Glasgow Derby. A few things in it interested me…
Firstly the fact that Talksport has relegated this fixture out of the top ten, though quelle surprise, three English fixtures make it;)
This for me is a good thing, the fixture should have been confined to the history books and it is, as it stands, an anachronism.
The Record is obviously aghast by this and believes it could be down to Celtic’s dominance, however they do manage to point out the Steven Gerrard’s Sevco Rangers managed a win in the last one and suggest a more competitive fixture will deserve a higher rating.
This is why we needed to beat them in December and keep beating them… they are only relevant as an old firm appendage.
Which brings me to the next point. No “old firm derby” quoted in the piece which starts it’s headline the right way round;) as Celtic v Rangers… are they trying to present the article to the Celtic support who have become rather agnostic towards this fixture?
The next article is a Gordon Waddell piece from the Sunday Mail, a good piece as it happens, raising a number of good points.
Yet even so, if you read the whole article you realise they can’t help themselves. It’s well worth a read…
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/rangers-using-sfa-inconsistency-mask-13977308
But… he talks about the whataboutery of the tinfoil hat brigade yet at the end of the piece this is exactly what he engages in…
Managing to bring Scott Brown in, who apparently got a yellow card for what was probably a yellow card offence.
Yet failed to mention Mr Defoe’s dive…
This is the same outfit who persecuted Jordon Jones, quoting the raging Neil McCann and who lamented for poor Cédric Kipré when he put an arm across Scott Sinclair and Sinclair went down too easily, quoting the raging wife of Keith Lesley et al…
The other thing is, Steven Gerrard being a victim of Morales… really!?
No hint of irony then when he ends his piece thus…
…”Which brings us back to the initial point. We’ve said it often enough, but the quality of the refs needs improved beyond measure and the disciplinary system needs a total rebuild.
None of which excuses managers or coaches who refuse to accept that their players are ever at fault, or that they have a responsibility to sort it.”
Incidentally, looks like Mr Waddell’s spellchecker is as dodgy as mine… a nob is the type of folk the Gers contingent doff their hat too, what Gordon’s talking about here is knobs..
Hail Hail
On Iron Horse heading to Paradise.
Hail Hail.
G’mornin’ Chairbhoy…………..hope the rain holds off in them that Chilterns!
Great points raised and interesting perspective – why give those two awful blatts a clickable opportunity tho’?
Awful, awful guff merchants – imo we should deprive them of as much commercial relevance as possible.
Really enjoyed your points tho’……
:)
HH
Cut’n’Paste CSC
Hello again all you young rebels.
FOOL TIME WHISTLE is entitled to his thinking on whether Defoe
dived or not ,as we all are, personally i’m waiting on him coming
on the blog again and saying ” Gotcha all, of course it was a fecking
dive ” some right kidders on here 8-))))
H.H Mick
BANKIEBHOY1 @ 11:11 AM,
:))) Thanks and point taken… although I forewarned fholks think C&P is the way….
Celtic vs Rangers ranked in bizarre position in list of world’s greatest derbies
The famous Glasgow rivalry has been overlooked on a new list by people who clearly have some strange ideas.
By
Record Sport Online
13:13, 9 FEB 2019UPDATED13:14, 9 FEB 2019
They don’t agree on much but ask any Celtic and Rangers fan and they’ll tell you there’s no derby quite like theirs.
Two teams in the same city with a storied and at times sinister rivalry that stretches back more than a century.
The fact they’re the two most successful sides in Scottish football history only fuels the fire further.
Glasgow comes to a near standstill when these two collide and there’s many other cities on the planet that can lay claim to a fixture with such cultural significance.
Which is why it’s always a surprise when it’s overlooked for other derbies that just can’t possibly claim to live up.
A list compiled by radio station talkSPORT can only find it a position in 12th when compiling the top 20 derbies in world football.
Fair enough there are some belters in the top 10 – Boca Juniors vs River Plate topping the list is hardly a surprise.
But Everton vs Liverpool? Arsenal vs Tottenham? Even Manchester City vs Manchester United has only been considered a top derby in the past decade or so since the blue half of the city won the lottery.
(Image: Action Images via Reuters)READ MORETimothy Castagne breaks his silence on Celtic interest
The reasons for leaving the derby out of the top 10 were that Rangers haven’t provided proper competition for the Hoops in years.
Fair point, but when have Everton and Liverpoollast been on a level footing? Also, they have failed to acknowledge Rangers beat Celtic in their last meeting.
The list claims to rank the derbies on passion and ferocity, not on star quality which the one thing you could never accuse Rangers and Celtic fans of lacking.
Here’s the full list
20. Partizan Belgrade vs Red Star Belgrade
19. Bolivar vs The Strongest
18. Ijsselmeervogels v SV Spakenburg
17. Aston Villa v Birmingham City
16. CSKA Moscow v Spartak Moscow
15. Barcelona SC v Emelec
14. Nacional v Penarol
13. Lazio v Roma
12. Celtic v Rangers
11. AC Milan v Inter
10. Benfica v Sporting Lisbon
9. Fenerbahce v Galatasaray
8. Everton v Liverpool
7. Flamengo v Fluminense
6. Olympiakos v Panathinaikos
5. Arsenal v Tottenham
4. Al Ahly v Zamalek
3. Atletico Madrid v Real Madrid
2. Manchester United v Manchester City
1. Boca Juniors v River Plate
Is Celtic vs Rangers the world’s biggest derby?
Rangers using SFA inconsistency to mask player stupidity is a complete cop out – Gordon Waddell
The Sunday Mail’s chief sports writer delivers his hard-hitting verdict on a controversial week in Scottish football.
By
Gordon Waddell
06:00, 10 FEB 2019UPDATED10:47, 10 FEB 2019
Rangers and their fans turned the nob on their self-righteous indignation all the way up to 11 on Friday when Alfredo Morelos and Allan McGregor were both done.
In fairness to them, trying to explain the randomness of the SFA’s disciplinary process is getting harder by the week.
It’s virtually the only thing keeping tin-foil hat makers and our finest purveyors of whataboutery in business.
But using its inconsistency as an excuse to mask your players’ stupidity is a complete cop-out.
So let’s deal with this in two parts – first the players, then the process.
Morelos? If you search long enough and hard enough for just the right camera angle at exactly the right split second, and start quoting the rules about excessive force, then squint right, stand on one leg and put your hands over your eyes, there’s probably a way to make it look like he didn’t deliberately stud Scott McKenna in the nuts.
But for everyone else not making a fool of themselves trying that? He deliberately studded McKenna in the nuts. Not particularly heavily, sure, but any guy with a pair will tell you it doesn’t have to be. He dangled the boot in there just long enough – it’s a red card all night long.
Anyone doubting it, just take a look at the player’s surreptitious glances for the ref as he’s rolling around on the deck, looking to see if he’s getting away with it.
Guilty as a kid caught watching the 10-minute freeview on his bedroom telly at midnight.
His lack of discipline is a problem for Rangers. All this stuff about “never change” and “you lose a part of him as a player if you take away his aggression” is garbage.
You’re not asking him to cut off his right leg. You’re asking him to learn some control. It’s a coachable skill. Or it should be.
He’s a terrific striker, tenacious, unplayable at times. His 23 goals this season are evidence of some serious quality.
But at what price? Steven Gerrard was left without a striker worth the name for the League Cup semi loss to Aberdeen because of his truculence in the previous round.
You can be aggressive, a handful for centre-halves, play right on the edge, and still resist the temptation to kick players after the ball’s gone, grab their privates, stamp on them.
It was an absolute miracle he escaped unscathed from the last Old Firm game.
There have been some remarkable accusations of a witchhunt against him, claims even of racism, that a white Scottish player wouldn’t get the ‘treatment’ he has. It’s nonsense.
He’s not being picked on. He’s being highlighted because he’s a high-profile player, but who has control issues. It’s nothing to do with his nationality or the colour of his skin.
As for McGregor? Any keeper from toddler up will have been told at some point about the need to protect yourself. Personally? Learned the lesson the hard way with studs across the nose in Primary 7 in an identical situation to the one at Aberdeen the other night.
But straight-legging Lewis Ferguson with his studs up, was miles beyond ‘protection’. It was needless, delivered with intent, and a penalty and a red, clear as day.
Which brings us neatly to the process which saw him banned.
A process that tells us you can’t re-referee games over incidents seen and dealt with by the match ref. Example: John Beaton in the Old Firm game, still blowing in the wind the SFA hung him out to dry in.
Yet also a process which has done exactly what they say they won’t do on at least three different occasions now. And it’s hard to see which part of the incident Bobby Madden didn’t see clearly from his completely unobstructed view. Again, that’s not
to say the decision arrived at by the compliance officer and panel wasn’t the right one. But it’s the “make it up on the hoof” aspect to what gets dealt with and what doesn’t that’s earning the system the caning it’s getting.
It needs overhauled in a hurry .
Just in case anyone has made it this far and is frothing at the lack of objectivity in this column, let’s make the rest of it a quick-fire round.
Scott McKenna? Spot-on with the red. Minimal contact to the face or not, his intent was enough.
Jozo Simunovic? A shocker of a challenge to these eyes, by a player trying to escape justice with a ‘who, me?’ display of sympathy. Should have been ‘complianced’.
Darnell Johnson? A yellow which probably should have been red, but done by the hypocrisy of a system which isn’t supposed to re-referee.
And Scott Brown? Let off by what appears to be the “Scott Brown” clause, which allows the Celtic captain the free burial of a rival per game without repercussion.
It was a terrible tackle – deserving of the yellow he got, maybe a red.
But if we start to review every one of those, we’d never get games played.
And therein lies the problem. If you have a set-up which allows you to retrospectively look at and administer discipline, you’re always going to spark a riot when you draw the line above or below the challenge someone else thinks is the one that needed justice served.
Which brings us back to the initial point. We’ve said it often enough, but the quality of the refs needs improved beyond measure and the disciplinary system needs a total rebuild.
None of which excuses managers or coaches who refuse to accept that their players are ever at fault, or that they have a responsibility to sort it.
Hail Hail
Chairbhoy………….yer some Mhan!
:)
Every Little Helps ;)
HH.
Back to foreign referees officiating at our games in Scotland!!
Think I am right in saying no other country I know of has that problem, and by and large, refs are usually home grown. Is it not therefore, a very sad indictment on not only our game in Scotland, but the country itself that such actions are deemed necessary, think about it.
It’s not just the refs or the SFA, it’s the entire country, jeezo that really is pathetic, is it not.
Off to peel some spuds
3 – 0 the good guys today
KINGLuBO
Jobo–
BIGRAILROADBLUES on 10TH FEBRUARY 2019 9:55 AM
Jobo hun 666.
—
As BRB says Hun 666, from Ludge 1690, you will notice his 1872 tattoo and Swastika on his massive foredome.
HH
D. :)
Celtic’s domestic cup record under BR –
Games: 23
Wins: 23
Goals scored: 69
Goals conceded: 7
Clean sheets: 18
Trophies won: 5
Tremendous stats. We want to extend that today.
HH
Kinglubo – I know what you mean, but if we followed the supposedly best model for officiating and supposed best league in the world EPL, and have Referees declare who they supported, then it would go along way to helping the situation, not saying it would clear up the cheating but it would help.
As someone on here says you would not have an international match, say France v Italy in Paris refereed by a French referee.
Only in a bigoted country where some peepel feel they are still living in the dark ages. Step forward Scotland’s very own KKK the Orange/Masonic order. Utter bitter, bitter cavemen running our game.
I honestly think I could do a better job of running our game?
D. :)
DiveFoe DiveFoe…………..
Down in the box he goes.
The call for foreign referees is never going to be from Rainjurz.
All referees are Rainjurz fans, they genuinely believe this, think its fine, and thats why they’ve targetted Conroy, Clancy and Collum. The mindset of the ‘Protestant country’ is that everyone who is non Catholic favours, and will have a natural bias towards Rainjurz which they alo think is fine
Protestant country, protestant referees simples.
Silly ‘Timmy’ Brendan Rodgers wants foreign referees from Spain or Argentina so that he can cheat the pants off Billy, like what they do to all others in the SPL with their legions of Dallas.
Its only a game of football, a question of ignorance and education because Celtic are a protestant club too.
Open To All CSC
Connaire
It was also dark and wet so definitely an April afternoon in Greenock?
Any team news yet?
As soon as Kieran is fit again, I would love to seem him and Mikey on the left and Jeremy and Timo on the right.
Or jeremy and Jamesie !
Or Oli and Jeremy.
MM
Yes, I see Oli as a winger. So fast.
Yes, reminds me of the original big Yogi.
Where is Bada with the team news?
Back to bed for me. Not well.
Cheerio for now.
Please do the business today, Celtic.
JJ
I assume Ajer available for today? But think only change will be for Izzy, with Hayes most likely.
David 66
Yeah, agree. The sad truth is though, that the very root of our game is rotten to the core and the chances of change are remote in the extreme. I hate cliches but turkeys voting for Christmas and all that.
Bottom line is that “they” don’t have or see a problem with the current situation and it is up to Celtic to convince the other clubs the problem is not just between us and the bigots.
KINGLuBO
HOT SMOKED
Hope a good win perks you up.
Best wishes.
H.H Mick
Celtic team v St Johnstone: Bain, Toljan, Boyata, Simunovic, Hayes, Brown, McGregor, Christie, Forrest, Sinclair, Burke.
Subs: Gordon, Lustig, Ajer, Bitton, Ntcham, Weah, Edouard.
David 66
Yeah, agree. The sad truth is though, that the very root of our game is rotten to the core and the chances of change are remote in the extreme. I hate cliches but turkeys voting for Christmas and all that.
Bottom line is that “they” don’t have or see a problem with the current situation and it is up to Celtic to convince the other clubs the problem is not just between us and the bigots.
Cannot see any change until there is a will for it to happen
KINGLuBO
3 changes
Forrest for Weah,
Hayes for Izzy
And Bayo dropped from the bench after nearly coming on in midweek!
Bayo drops out because he’s not in the Euro squad.
Subs: Gordon, Lustig, Ajer, Bitton, Ntcham, Weah, Edouard.
Now that’s what you call a bench
Look at that bench:))
Mon The Celtic