Overall I was pleased with many aspects of Celtic’s play yesterday. We dominated large parts of the game and got in and around the Hearts penalty area often enough to score the proverbial barrel load.
Hearts scored a good goal. The flick from Beattie and run from Skacel were both exquisite, although a deflection off the blameless Kelvin Wilson was crucial. Enough has been said about the second Hearts goal already. Defensively we were good.
Midfield also played well, to a point, forcing Hearts into retreat for all but the opening 20 minutes of the second half. Ki Sung-Yueng should have scored twice but he’s never been a player for back post headers and I was more surprised he found himself in that position than he missed both opportunities. He is a player who continues to impress.
The question we should turn our attention to is why Celtic didn’t score more goals?
It is probably not an exaggeration to suggest Emilio Izaguirre is the best left back at the club in 30 years. Skilful and intelligent in possession, Celtic look composed when he is on the field, but he’s being kept out of the team by a free transfer from Aberdeen because Charlie Mulgrew is manufacturing the most crucial item in the game – goals.
I’m close to advocating ‘Give the ball to Charlie’ tactics. He has the ability to fire in remarkably dangerous crosses and has an instinctive awareness that the purpose of the game is to score goals. Kris Commons shares this awareness but Kris has had a wretched season and is still rescuing his game from injury and early season loss of form.
In these circumstances, Neil Lennon cannot afford to play Izaguirre if it involves dropping Mulgew as this would severely hamper Celtic’s ability to put the ball in the net. If the manager wants to use Emilio, particularly in Europe next season when retaining possession will be crucial, Charlie has to play left midfield.
Scoring goals is the primary responsibility of the strikers. None of Celtic’s current crop are impressing at the moment, but we need to look further upstream first.
We have an outstanding original canvass painting of Neil Lennon available for purchase on eBay to kick start our summer charity fundraising. This year the beneficiaries will be Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, Martin Chambers Foundation and The Neuroblastoma Alliance, Aberdour PS PTA, The Haven, Blantyre. The painting, by US based artist, Joseph Gormley, is an outstanding memento of our manager during these times.
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Lee Wallace happy to go back to Swinecastle
I see theres still plenty of feeble minded sparrowhearts trying to give our manager advice on diplomacy, all I can say is they should get to the back with the children and let the men get on with defending the club.
new article posted.
RogueLeader on 17 April, 2012 at 10:45 said:
Just I will be collecting cheque for Euro Lottery multiple roll over on same day.
Rangers in SFL Div Three. It just ain’t going to happen.
The headlines about 17 game bans for Neil are similar to the campaign against him when he had a run in with Stuart Dougal.
It is a campaign to raise the stakes prior to the tribunal.
It was the same with others, for example, Bobo Balde.
In contrast, however, there was the case of Diouuf and Bougherra.
It all went quiet very quickly after the game. The tribunal did not take place for a month or so.
Someone called Clyde and asked DKing why there had been little or no comment about it and certainly no ‘hanger and flogem’ headlines.
DKing explained that now was not the time for that kind of discussion but there would be comment when the case was decided. He told the caller that he did not understand how the media works.
That was choice because the caller was showing up just exactly how the media works!
Rogue @ 14:45
Every cloud has a silver lining:
Looks like the Foe Malign’s itinerary for next year will include trips to:
Stranraer
Queens Park
Elgin
Annan Athletic
Berwick
Peterhead
Clyde
Montrose
East Stirling
Stirling Albion
The words ‘he’ and ‘he’ spring to mind …
FF