The players would have had a light training session at Lennoxtown today as muscles continue to refill after Wednesday night’s exertions. Expectations of Celtic in the Champions League are not high, and were exceptionally low when this group was drawn, but even so, these games have a huge financial, physical and even emotional impact on every area of the club.
One argument suggests the last thing we need is a cup semi-final four days after a Champions League outing. An alternative thought is that this is the perfect game for Celtic right now. Memories linger of sitting stressfully at Fir Park days after Celtic beat the reigning European Champions, Milan, as (subsequently liquidated) Grenta held onto a lead until the 87th minute.
While playing (subsequently liquidated) Rangers away 64 hours after winning a Uefa Cup semi-final 1200 miles from home in 2003 proved to be the perfect game to instil steel into the legs.
With what passes as a fully fit squad, Brendan has choices to make for Sunday. Did Patrick Roberts do enough off the bench against Borussia to justify a start? Perhaps. He’s a player who owes us one at Hamden too.
Callum McGregor will also fancy his chances ahead of Nir Bitton, who didn’t have a great Scottish Cup semi-final against the same opponents in April.
It would be a huge surprise if Moussa Dembele didn’t start as the lone forward, despite Leigh Griffiths itching to get on alongside him. Brendan will not change formation for this game, while Moussa will fancy his chances against a defence he punished to ruthlessly last month.
For me, our two most important players on Sunday will be Scott Sinclair and Tom Rogic. They are the epitome of the modern footballer, strong, skilful, intelligent and difficult to defend against. If we can get them on the ball often enough we’ll score a lot of goals.
Pretty much every Celtic fan I know expects Mark Warburton to have learned a lesson from his Celtic Park whipping and for him to deploy a more defensively-minded team this time. My Newco pals don’t expect this to happen. Warburton hasn’t varied his game-plan since arriving at the club and is apparently reluctant to start experimenting now.
He took his team to Hampden to face Celtic against similarly long odds last season. Within minutes we knew we were in a game, and despite the clear chasm between the teams, it was Newco who faced Hibs in the Scottish Cup final.
A repeat of the 5-1 win at Celtic Park is possible, but you’ve seen enough football to know that nothing can be taken for granted on Sunday. Remember that Newco came close to levelling that 5-1 game at 2-2 early in the second half, and the latter part of their collapse came after going down to 10 men.
I’m off later to meet those from the Tyneside No. 1 and friends, who have walked (yes, WALKED), from Merthyr Tydfil and will reach Doherty’s Bar in Hamilton this afternoon. They’ve pretty much walked a marathon a day for 13 days and will make the final journey to Celtic Park tomorrow.
This herculean effort has been made to mark the memory of Jonathan Thomas, who aged 30 lost his biggest fight one year ago tomorrow.
We’re lucky as Celtic fans that we get to meet and read about people who do these things in our name. It’ll take you 2 minutes to let them know how inspiring they are here.
It’s also worth marking the events in Aberfan, the village a few miles from Merthyr Tydfil which was visited by unimaginable tragedy 50 years ago today.
John Humphrys: What we owe the people of Aberfan 50 years after tragedy struck the village, and why it shows authority must be challenged. pic.twitter.com/OdjyaAGTsQ
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) October 21, 2016
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G64
That’s no what you said :-)
HH
VFR800A8 on 22ND OCTOBER 2016 9:28 PM
Hope you’re right amigo. Playing at Hampden gives me the jitters.
I agreed with Paul’s article during the week. The last time we played them the timing of events played a significant part in the final 5-1 score line. Had they scored just after half time with the chance they had it would have levelled things at 2-2.
The red card was at a perfect time for us too.
I think tomorrow will be tighter and I’ll take Celtic to win 10-0 :-)
Reading Celtic are planning t v outside that is a total disgrace.
You would think that they would spend some money on
The main stand it is a shite hole ,toilets are crap and the
Food is the same ,a few of roof sheeting have holes in
Which been reported nothing done .i wish some of you C.Q.N. guys
Should be helping to report this ,I really think something bad
Is going happen. They talk about ibrox being unsafe well I
Think the same with the main stand.
Hello again all you young rebels.
THE CHANTY WRASTLER
Moped about for a couple of days after the CL game, you would
think at my age and seen it all that a defeat wouldn’t matter too
much, but i really thought we could take the Germans.
Down at training seeing the bhoys immaculate in their hoops fair
cheered me up, no hiding away with theses lhads, got talking about
the game and i ended up saying ” never mind we’ll hammer the
chanty wrastlers on Sunday ”
Now, we have bhoys of many different nationalities and they have
trouble understanding me at any time and they always look at the
wee mhan for an interpretation ” Papa whits a chanty wrastler ?
now i had trouble back in the day when my father used that
expression, i knew a chanty po was what you used during the night
and i had a vision of some madman wrestling with it but he just
said ” anybody that messes about in toilets is a chanty wrestler ”
Well thats what they do.
So bring on the chanty wrestlers.
H.H Mick.
P.S. Parkheid for me.
Hunderbirds
Bitton has been at the heart of all of our spectacular failures in recent times. It may seem harsh to pin the blame on him but he really is a player of questionable temperament. When pressured his bottle crashes big time. Malmo, Red Imps, Sevco, Molde, the 2nd leg in Beer Sheva, 7-0 against Barca and Wednesday night are all matches when he was extremely poor and very culpable.
TET I know what I mean but sometimes I don’t mean what I say. Hh amigo
HUNDERBIRDS ARE GONE on 22ND OCTOBER 2016 9:31 PM
Can’t agree. Big Nir had a smashing game against them last time. I expect the same tomorrow.
HT, if you don’t get any takers for the tickets before Monday evening, let me know.
FAC the Act
KTF
VFR
Will do mate. I’m taking the car if you needed a lift.
THETIMREAPER on 22ND OCTOBER 2016 9:43 PM
Hunderbirds
Bitton has been at the heart of all of our spectacular failures in recent times. It may seem harsh to pin the blame on him but he really is a player of questionable temperament. When pressured his bottle crashes big time. Malmo, Red Imps, Sevco, Molde, the 2nd leg in Beer Sheva, 7-0 against Barca and Wednesday night are all matches when he was extremely poor and very culpable.
—-
As was almost the entire team in the games you’ve mentioned.
G64
I know, but 442 is pish, it’s a dinosaur system played by has beens :-)
HH
Modern Chanty Wrasslers are rubbish. Pure rubbish ;)
THETIMREAPER on 22ND OCTOBER 2016 9:43 PM & HUNDERBIRDS
I find questionable to lay the blame of these defeats at the feet of one player. So is the inverse therefore true? That all the good performances and wins were when Nir Bitton played well?
It’s a team game FFS!
FAC the Act
KTF
HAMILTONTIM on 22ND OCTOBER 2016 9:47 PM
Ok, let me know on Monday.
Tet I’ll match my 442 against any system you care to play. Hh
VFR800A8 on 22ND OCTOBER 2016 9:49 PM
What I’m saying is that in those games he played poorly, went missing, bottled it, lost the plot etc etc. Of course there are mitigating factors and others (players and manager) were also to blame. On Wednesday night he wanted off (as he has before) early in the second half. It’s a huge worry for me that a lynchpin player chucks the towel in like that. The message for the opposion will be get in about him and he won’t fancy it.
He’s a smashing big player at times all the same.
G64
Thankfully don’t have to, I will leave that to the likes of Brendan, he knows what he is about and he doesn’t play a 442, I read an interview with him a while back where he said that he has never played a 442 and prob never would :-)
HH
Re Biton (and whoever is being targeted; couldn’t believe some barbs aimed at Toure on here).
Hope you guys don’t act like that at the game ! Hate it when Celtic supporters moan at the players, it’s so counter-productive. There’s an almost panic like rage coming from our stands at times.
Nothing good to say huh ? Then keep it to yourself is a good mantra to adopt.
HUNDERBIRDS ARE GONE
You’ve got it correct, it was chanty WRASSLER.
H.H Mick
VFR
I am a fan of Bitton when he plays well, which is the normal state of affairs in standard SPFL games. However I strongly agree with TTR, in that Bitton’s temperament, and possibly his bravery, are questionable in crunch games. The kind of fear he exhibits can spread to others in the team, so removing him from the firing line for this game makes sense.
Of course defeat is never completely down to one player, but he played a salient role in our last unsuccessful Semi-Final against Sevco.
Don’t think Bitton has been the same player since that extra ‘t’ was added to his name…..
Tet Good stuff. Like all trends 442 will someday come back into fashion. Hh
Tommie20: And there isn’t even a fans’ café, beside the Superstore.
Oíche mhaith. Early start tomorrow.
G64
Aye it might, no in our lifetime I would imagine tho.
HH
Melbourne Mick
Keep the wee Mhan doing what he’s doing, only getting bits and pieces of the blog but love the fact you met Almores Bhoy, you & Paddy are a credit to Celtic & Paul’s blog
Hail Hail fae the ML5
BIG-CUP-WINNERS on 22ND OCTOBER 2016 10:03 PM
Big difference between the blog and being in the stands. You could sense early on Wednesday that Bitton was having a mare. The crown were on his case sharpish. I’m not one for turning on players but whilst i don’t necessarily agree, it comes with territory at a club like ours. None of the players are under any illusions.
TTR
I would get a Doctor to have a look at yer Jitters.
Left untreated, they can quickly develop into the Willies or the Creeps.
And I don’t have to tell you how dangerous full blown Heebey Jeebies can be ;)
TOMMIE20 on 22ND OCTOBER 2016 9:40 PM
It’s not a TV, it’s an Advertising screen.
I’ve shared your concern regarding the roof with the Supporter Liaison Officer.
THETIMREAPER on 22ND OCTOBER 2016 10:00 PM
HUNDERBIRDS ARE GONE on 22ND OCTOBER 2016 10:04 PM
So the opposite of the criticism when he plays poorly is that when he is on form the team plays well?
I also didn’t see him “wanting off” on Wednesday; he was available for the ball, albeit that he didnae dae much wi’ it! But neither did Brown.
Rodgers is still teaching his players the system and they are still learning it. We are only 3 months into the season and this will take time. However, if Bitton and Brown have the ball and the movement up front is poor, or the full-backs don’t get into space to receive ball then they are limited in what they can do and that manifests itself by the ball going back and square.
having said that, I am convinced we will roll over them tomorrow!
FAC the Act
KTF
A wee bit Res12 Housekeeping.
Back in March we needed a mandate that enabled our lawyer to supply names to the SFA who were using the excuse/reason that they would not deal with anonymous persons.
Some of those mandate forms were scanned and e mailed others were posted to a Glasgow address.
The mandate did not ask for e mails as they were being passed on but we have e mail address’s for the latter but not those who posted the signed forms.
It would be helpful to have as many e mail addresses as we can gather for ease of communication purposes so if you posted the mandate can you e mail
auldheid046@gmail.com
with your name and first line of your address in the body of the e mail so that the e mails can be matched to the mandates that we do not have an e mail address for.
If you have e mailed Auldheid on Res12 before as some have you do not need to do anything.
HUNDERBIRDS ARE GONE on 22ND OCTOBER 2016 10:16 PM
Metaphorically speaking ;)
GERRYFAETHEBRIG
The Celtic family Gerry its what we do, and a great lhad he is
tried hard to bribe him to get his dad to drop the cafe till i got
my wee shoppe in Melbourne but no chance :- ))
H.H Mick
The latter in my previous meaning those who scanned and e mailed the scanned form.
The request applies to those who posted their mandate .
VFR800A8 on 22ND OCTOBER 2016 10:21 PM
Trust me he wanted off.
Anyway, we will see what happens tomorrow and discuss later.
GBO. Download the Weblock app and it will kill ads for you. It’s fairly simple thing to set up. Run the tutorial and it will walk you through the 3 or 4 steps needed. I was having the same trouble and this app works fine.
You need to set up once for every wifi network you use but it is worth the bother.
Auldheid
Back home tomorrow and will endeavour to give you a phone.
VFR – thanks again for all the help on Wednesday. Great to meet you, Hot Smoked and acgr. Shame about the performance but it was a great trip. Looking forward to bouncing back with a comfortable win tomorrow.
Folks, regarding the ad blockers for your phone and browsers; without coming across as condescending, you need to actually switch them on. They don’t always automatically turn themselves on when you install them.
Just a wee thought!
FAC the Act
KTF