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No trophy left behind

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

Sunday’s trip to Perth is the only away game Celtic have this month. With three home points from Livingston in the bag, we have home games against both St Mirren in the Scottish Cup and  Aberdeen – who are going through one of their more interesting periods, before the Hampden League Cup Final against our new adversaries.

By winning on Wednesday St Johnstone avoided defeat for the first time in eight games; this does not make a summer. St Mirren have everything going for them, although they will not look forward to returning to Celtic Park, the venue of their worst result of the season only two weeks ago.

One of the truisms in football is ‘it’s all about the next game’. I know this and so it’s with a bit of trepidation that I suggest we might want to plan for the three fixtures before Hampden as a group. We have a new striker, defensive mid and central defender all needing game time to get up to full fitness. I’m also sure Sead Haksabanovic could do with 60 minutes playing time. Use these games to make sure we arrive at Hampden with as strong a squad as possible.  The bitter anquish at only winning five of the last six League Cups cannot be smoothed over.  There should be no trophy left behind.

Playing in such a weak league has few advantages, but being able to build an early lead and then develop players is surely one of them.

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  14. Tom McLaughlin on

    Good morning from the Village.

     

     

    3 of my 4-team accumulator came up yesterday.

     

     

    Hibernian

     

    Dunfermline Athletic

     

    Brentford

     

     

    The 4th leg is Celtic to beat St Johnstone by 3 or more goals.

     

     

    If it happens I win £585.29 🤞

     

     

    Come on you Bhoys in Green.

     

     

    Prediction 4-0 Celtic

     

     

    🟩⬜🟧

  16. Greenpinata on

    COYBIG.

     

     

    No complacency, but we have been sooooooo impressive and professional recently.

     

    Subsequently, Celtic to win 3 -0.

  18. Burnley78 on

    Tom Mc

     

     

    The Hibs win there was a real ballsy selection imo.

     

     

    Hopefully you win your money today and in a relaxing manner with us leading 3-0 at ht and we can let some of the new guys experience ploughed field soccer in Perth.

     

     

    Never gambled on sport or cards much myself due to the odds stacked but credit to you for picking those.

  19. paulsthroughball88 on

    Just watched MOTD.

     

     

    What a signing Casemiro has been for Manure.

     

     

    He’s given them a real stranglehold on midfield, and they’re going full throttle for a top 4 finish now.

  20. An Dún on

    Reports that we’ve opened talks up with Mooy, Hart and Turnbull as all of them our down to 1 year this summer.

     

     

    Hart and Mooy I’d imagine will get done but Turnbull could be a different story. He has a big decision to make and is getting limited game time.

  21. Tom McLaughlin on

    BURNLEY78

     

     

    Thank you.

     

     

    Yes Hibs was a real gamble and the one that kept me on tenterhooks till the final whistle.

     

     

    I fancy a 4-0 today which would do very nicely.

  23. bognorbhoy on

    Ange Postecoglou: Away games are always a challenge

     

    By Ryan Maher

     

     

    Share

     

     

    A trip to Perth to face St Johnstone is up next for Celtic this Sunday (February 5), in a fixture that brought some extremely late drama the last time the Hoops visited there.

     

     

    Leading 1-0 going into stoppage time, the Hoops lost their lead and then regained it to secure a dramatic three points back in October.

     

     

    It’s a marker of the threat that away games in the league can pose and Ange Postecoglou is all too aware of the dangers of St Johnstone come Sunday lunchtime despite his side’s incredible form this season.

     

     

     

    Speaking ahead of the game, the Celtic manager said: “Playing away from home is always a challenge because it’s not always the team you’re playing but the conditions.

     

     

    “All teams at home have a bit more self-belief, so the fact we have been so consistent away from home is great from the lads and they have belief in our football.

     

     

    “In some games, we’ve had to work really hard to make sure we didn’t drop points, so it’s about knowing the players have the character and belief in our football to go and contest these games and know if we play to the levels we know we can then we’re hard to stop.

     

     

    ‘It’s been a big part of this team that aside from the football it’s the character they’ve shown.’

     

     

    “This group of players has handled things really well and the main reason is that we haven’t focused on our position in the table. What we are focusing on is trying to improve.

     

     

    “We’re a better side than we were last year and that’s our aim to keep improving and add layers to our football and improve our players individually and collectively.”

     

     

    After such a hectic start to the campaign, the fixture list is rolling at a consistent pace of one game a week, with the occasional midweek fixture added in.

     

     

    But even with fewer games, the manager is committed to his belief that any success that comes between now and the end of the season will be achieved by the effort of the full squad, and not just any particular starting XI.

     

     

    He added: “Even when I’ve rotated the squad, particularly during our busy period with the Champions League, it wasn’t pre-mediated, it was using the best information I had before me.

     

     

    “I’ve tried to put a squad together that gives us many options and my job is to use it in the best way.

     

     

    “It’s a squad game and substitutions have made a huge difference to the way we play our football and we try and be clear with our message to the players that whether you start or finish a game the expectations are the same – that’s something the players have embraced.

     

     

    “We don’t have midweek games but it doesn’t mean there won’t be changes to the team and they will be made to give us the best chance of success.”

  24. bognorbhoy on

    CELTIC: Hart, Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Starfelt, Taylor, McGregor, Hatate, Mooy, Jota, Kyogo, Maeda.

     

    Subs: Bain, Haksabanovic, Abada, Turnbull, Kobayashi, Oh, Iwata, O’Riley, Forrest

  25. mazzy on

    Some great memories from Matt Corr in The Celtic Star this morning about previous games down the years v. St Johnstone. My own favourite memory as a young child (and Matt talks to this match) was a 2-2 draw in late August 1969. He notes a 60k crowd comparing it with typical attendances during the Stein era of 25-30k. But, of course, there wasn’t any great correlation between “official attendences” in those days and the number of fans actually in the ground, so I’d always be cautious about accepting recorded 60’s and 70’s attendance figures.

     

     

    Indeed that would continue throughout the 80’s under the White/Kelly stewardship when CP would be bulging at the seams, but we would he assured only 27k were in the ground.

  27. quadrophenian on

    Evening,

     

     

    These new Opta Power Ranking make for a sobering read, if you’re prepared to peruse with an open mind:

     

    https://theanalyst.com/eu/2023/02/who-are-the-best-football-team-in-the-world-opta-power-rankings/

     

     

    Ranking ‘the best’ teams in the world – by a thing called an ELO points rating – we come in at 62 in the world!

     

    Behind such other names like Brighton, Crvena Zvedza, Freiburg, Union Berlin and Koln.

     

     

    Tho’ the best Aussie club side comes in at 350-odd, it’s sobering to see how the stattos of the world view us. Perhaps the potential transfer targets of the world do likewise?

     

     

    Anyways, interesting read at least until the game kicks off at 11pm downunder here in VIC.

     

     

    Looking forward to seeing some of our new bhoys do us proud. HH

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