Real and Atletico Madrid have met twice in the Champions League final (2014, 2016), once in the semi-final (2017) and once in the quarters (2015). Atletico’s only win over those games was effectively a dead rubber, as they went into the 2017 semi-final second leg 3-0 down.
The teams meet again tonight at the Bernabeu in the round of 16 first leg. Atletico sit a point behind Barcelona in second place in La Liga, two points ahead of Real and are unbeaten in the last 8 matches against their more illustrious rivals.
I find it difficult to praise their manager, Diego Simeone. There is nothing likeable about the man, but personality aside, he is remarkably effective. One point about Atletico’s season in particular is worth highlighting. Antoine Griezmann (33) has played more minutes than any other outfield Atletico player this season, and he has only played 80% of the time.
Simeone shares the load around, protects key players from burnout and utilises the resultant space in the team to develop fringe players. Many components go into any side who sit about Real Madrid in La Liga this deep into the season, but few can be more important than this one.
Celtic have rotated more this season than any I recall, although Callum McGregor’s historic low of playing 87% of our games is due to injury (and not being forced to play through an injury).
Atletico compete against the biggest two clubs in world football; Celtic are resourced well above anyone in Scotland. Scope for us to rest and rotate should be higher than anyone in Europe. It is a metric we should measure.
We might look at the Due Diligence concept later in the week. At first glance, it appears as poorly understood in Scottish football circles as insolvencey rules were in early 2012.
131 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
Chairbhoy on 5th March 2025 5:41 am
Wow, I didn’t know we had so many Academy coaches.
HH.
CHAIRBHOY on 5TH MARCH 2025 5:38 AM
Empty cliches about fitting in to Celtic jerseys aside, theres a very clear and obvious flaw in the “great development” set up if you dont have the personnel to develop in the first place.
Signing experienced first team ready players is fine for the now, but in a small (Jock Stein sized) squad that you suggest Brendan wants you restrict the space for development players to come in. Sign Adam Idah for £9m and he has to play. And if you dont sign enough of them then catchwords like pathways and development strategies are pretty much empty. They wont get the opportunities if the manager isnt prepared to sign them and take the risk.
And they wont come either. Kuhn’s agent explained very clearly why he came to Celtic, it was because of the opportunities that we had give to players with his profile in the past.
Its very simple, you cant talk about a great development system if you don’t sign enough players to develop. In the real world home- bred players will largely not be good enough or leave as soon as they can if they are. Even Brendan cant turn every youngster into a first team pick or a decent value sale, as we saw early on with his efforts with Mikey Johnston and David Turnbull. There was obviously a player somewhere in Bernabei but neither Ange nor Brendan could mange him into a Celtic player.
You cant have it both ways no matter how you dress it up. More (not exclusively) development players or there is no great development set up.
Seems strange all these midweek fixtures being played and we are not playing,Nice chance for the players to rest up between weekend fixtures now until the one midweek fixture after the split.
Chairbhoy on 5th March 2025 5:41 am
https://www.celticfc.com/academy/boys-academy/academy-coaches/
——
Cheers CB.
Interesting.
My stock (zzz) question.
Do you, or anyone else, know if there is an org chart for the academy published anywhere on the club website?
Can’t find tickets to gain access to Kerrydale Suite on Sunday. Any help appreciated.
Perhaps directed more at those aged 45 or under.
Hampden Park.
Cup final day.
A team wearing green win the game.
Their euphoric fans pour onto the pitch to celebrate.
The team in blue lose.
Their fans don’t like the fact.
Furthermore they don’t like the “green” fans celebrating on the pitch.
So they invade the pitch and start a big fight.
Q: What year is being described above?
a. 1980
b. 2016
c. Both (a) and (b)
🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
BRRB- Is it not first come first served,and your match ticket gets you in?
Bada
For the Sports Bar that applies, can’t seem to access the Kerrydale with standard tickets and hospitality is sold out I think.
in
SS3- Celtic Invincibles
BRRB- Didn’t know that mate HH
One thing I will say ,is no matter how long it takes to confirm the 49ers will they won’t they ,Dermot will know what’s going on , you don’t get deep into finance and become a billionaire without hearing the word on the street first . And if it does come off our club will be ready for it .
Who would win in a fight between the 49ERs and the 49Quidders ?
JIMTIM – DD has Keith Jackson on speed dial to keep him abreast of all things Ibrox. And that’s an exclusive.
Back to Basics…
In 1965 a team wearing green won a game at Hampden against a team wearing blue.
When the team wearing green began a lap of honour the fans of the team wearing blue invaded the pitch and
attacked the team wearing green.
T’was always the same….
🎶 We got Hibs in the final and oh what a scene ole Hampden was covered
………….in banners of Green🎶
new article posted.