Did you notice during last night’s game the most important goal-type we’ve scored all season? Nir Bitton headed the ball forward to John Guidetti, who could have knocked it on, but instead was shoved off the ball, resulting in the ball progressing anyway. This scenario created the most valuable commodity in football: space.
There is an enormous amount of misunderstanding when teams line-up with ‘only’ one striker. Especially when this striker plays as a false 9 dropping deeper than a conventional striker would. Intuitively this sounds lacking in attacking edge, but it you have three whippet-like midfielders in support you create space for them to dart into, just as Stefan Johansen did to such effect at Firhill.
Whenever I see criticisms of this strategy I think back to Ireland’s victory over Louis van Gaal’s Netherlands in a must-win World Cup qualifier in 2001. Netherland’s started with van Nisterlrooy and Kluivert as strikers, before adding Hasselbaink and our own van Hooijdonk (replacing a midfielder and defender respectively), but they failed to beat Shay Given.
The game was a textbook lesson in how to deny your own strikers that most valuable commodity, the Dutch went out of the World Cup that afternoon.
Ronny still has plenty of work to do, but you can see his plans mature by the week.
I’m enjoying the many comments on the English TV deal, and our paucity. Without getting too philosophical, money often determines your sense of self. Our comparative lack of money will temper our ambitions for Celtic. Three years ago, losing a player to Southampton would have seemed an affront. In future, this might look like an objective.
It’s not all doom and gloom. We have a place in the football world, and in the Champions League, but we should talk about it, as well as future TV deals. Pick up on it tomorrow or next week.
Thanks for everyone who got in touch yesterday about CQN11 St Patrick’s Dinner on Friday 13 March. We’ve almost got the line-up confirmed, and it’s a cracker. Email me for booking information, celticquicknews@gmail.com
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Memo to self: Don’t ever feed a troll again.
Back to lurking for me.
Keep the faith Ghuys
HH
What is the stars.
I couldn’t get on to my on-line betting shop last night so lost 7/1,went to my local bookies this morning and put £20 on @6/1,come back home to find my on-line account is working again,had a wee look at the price now and it’s down to 4/1 fav, put another £10 on, all we need now is for your tip to win.
kdc – Tully’s corner
I think you missed the point of my post, it was more can Ronny build something special at Celtic where players want to stay rather than head off to England.
I don’t think any of the post this morning about VVD were obsessing about us not being able to recover, more a discussion of where Celtic find themselves in the great scheme of things.
HH
Stefan is fast becoming my favourite player at Celtic at the minute.
Bundles of energy, decent passer, decent tackling and can score a goal or two. Reminds me of Petrov. Hope is signed on a long(ish) contract.
HH
bournesouprecipe.@ 12 50.
I am intrigued by your comment re Mancini. I haven’ t seen / heard a word from him since the day the draw was made. On that day he was bland ,polite and non commital.Any links to him commenting on the forthcoming games ?
” I haven’ t seen / heard a word from him since the day the draw was made.”
Sot,
He hasn’t even mentioned us????
Arrogant bassa :)
My friends in Celtic,
We are making progress under RD and JC. To those of us stating that we should expect to beat teams in Scotland; well we can only beat who is in front of us.
Inter will be another test, and will give us a clue about European progress. I received an e-mail from Celtic stating , that apart from some hospitality packages, the game is a complete sell out. Hopefully it will be another great Euro night, and the springboard for RD in our euro campaigns.
I read yesterday about EPL TV deals, and I still think our long term aspirations must lie in that company. While some of our competitors contemplate part time teams the differential between our finances will only widen.
I make no comment, but our LC semi was screened in over 55 countries.
HH.
I seem to remember Pierre scoring a screamer on his debut at Hampden v Hearts. He was a bit of quality we had been missing up front for a few years. Wasn’t in the first 5 mins though. Dawn of the positive new era despite the Hampden doldrums.
I had the verys same thought as P67 on our pressing last night and the false 9. Ireland played a game v England in the same fashion at Wembley.
Play the same against Inter though?
This tie is becoming as pivotal as our game against Valencia when we lost on penalties. A victory would be fantastic but just to show that we can compete would be great. The style of play needs to be modified slightly though. We played last night almost as we should have done against Legia.
However the difference is that we have Biton and Brown facing the opposition and no longer have Mulgrew coming back with his back to the opposition to pick the ball up from our defence. Time and time again we had Mulgrew and others lose the ball because they were not used to receiving the ball in midfield and then turning to face the opposition I make a forward pass. Charlie and some others just seemed incapable of that.
At times last night we fell victim to the same as we tried to move the ball forward more quickly. We were a wee bit better at it and recovered quickly when we did lose it in those positions. However, we cannot afford to lose the ball around the half way line against inter or the will do us over.
A false number nine is an upside doon six.
“There is an enormous amount of misunderstanding when teams line-up with ‘only’ one striker. Especially when this striker plays as a false 9 dropping deeper than a conventional striker would. Intuitively this sounds lacking in attacking edge, but it you have three whippet-like midfielders in support you create space for them to dart into, just as Stefan Johansen did to such effect at Firhill.”
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Astute point made by Paul – Ronny plays an up-field pressing game – by definition this means that is almost no gap between attacking mid-fielders and whoever is leading the attack, be that one, or, two players.
We have seen Barca, masters of the pressing game, sometimes play without a recognised number nine – Messi et all, can then take advantage when the ball is won back.
The dynamic between VVD & Denayer and Brown & Biton is working perfectly – the two wing-backs and the two wide mid-fielders also work as a ‘mini-team’ – this leaves the player at the head of the diamond – e.g. Johansen/Commons free to dovetail with our number nine ( who ever that may be).
Centre-Backs – VVD/Denayer – Cover = Ambrose/O’Connell/Mulgrew/Lustig
Wing-Backs – Lustig//Izzy – Cover = Mulgrew/Mathews/Fisher
Holding Mid-Field – Biton/Brown – Cover = Johansen(?)
Wide Mid-Fielders – Forrest/GMS/Tonev/Henderson/McGregor/Wakaso
Head of Diamond – Johansen/Commons/Armstrong
Strikers – Guidetti/Griffiths/Scepovic/Stokes
So we are in my opinion well covered except in the Holding Mid-Field area – if either Biton, or, Brown get crocked, there appears to be no one of equal ability in that specialised position, to slot-in.
Of course Johansen could do a turn and even Denayer could be moved forward to fill-in – however both moves could see the other key areas weakened.
Let’s hope we can keep Nir and Scott fit and free from suspension.
Mid-Term Report could read – so far, so good – just finish off the job
The only quote ive read re Mancini was; “Playing Celtic in Glasgow in front of 60,000 fans will be a beautiful experience.”
Paul
I remember that Ireland Holland game very well,I was there that day,Sept 2001 just a few days before the world changed forever with the Twin Towers attack.
The dutch were very arrogant before the game,all interviews gave the same answer,no matter what Holland would win comfortably.Roy Keane ( a much maligned man these days) had other ideas and he was magnificient that day.
However it was Louis Van Gaal who stole the show that day we the greatest act of stupidity since that infamous coward General Percival surrendered Signapore to the Japanese in 1942 despite the fact that his forces outnumbered theirs.
Anyway Van Gaal ended up with 4 centre forwards and commenced to launch long balls forward to them.Given the fact that our centre backs that day (Richard Dunne was one) were world champions at heading high balls to safety this was one of the most stupid tactics ever in a football match
Ah them dutch,dont ya just love em
See some idiots on here would have played one up front when we had Larrson Sutton and Hartson and we had the great stan getting into the box tons of times every game, the guy in charge is just not up to it I expect we will get a right dooing against milan even though not at there strongest 10 times any side weve played this season
Hi Fellow Celtic Fans.
The Celtic Wiki (http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/Scoring+Debuts) shows a list of Celtic Players who have scored on their debut. (Thanks Celtic Wiki!!!) No Henrik Larsson or Jimmy Johnstone, or even Jimmy McGrory on the list. The list doesn’t show how long it took the players to score. The most recent before the Partick Thistle game the other night was Teemu Pukki (14/09/2013 Hearts 1-3 Celtic) and the very first was John O’Connor (01/09/1888 Celtic 5-1 Shettleston).
With Teemu Pukki, Rami Gershon and Regi Blinker on the list, the evidence doesn’t suggest that either Gary MacKay-Stevens or Stuart Armstrong will go on to become Celtic Legends. Then again they do join a list of illustrious names such as Pierre Van Hooijdonk, Dixie Deans, Joe McBride and Jimmy Quinn.
Mike Haughney is the only Celtic player to have scored on his debut against the original Rangers scoring in a 3-2 win in the Scottish League Cup on 13/08/1949.
Gary Hooper is the only Celtic Player to have scored on his debut in European competition doing so against Braga in the UEFA Champions League on 04/08/2010.
Yours in Celtic,
TB&F.
Not Celtic debut but Celtc related
Joe Craig in his one and only Scotland game
scored with a header(first touch)
two mins after coming off the bench.
Gave rise to Quiz question which player
scored for Scotland without
having kicked a ball for Scotland
and it wasnt a own goal.
To expand on my last point, we should be looking to move the ball from defence to attack by letting our two centre backs come forward and pass further up the field or get better at longer passes beyond the congested middle areas. Those longer passes give us more risk of losing the ball but in less important areas and we can press from those positions as well.
I wonder what Ronny thinks of the situations we seem to get into of short passes into the midfield when the receiver has a man on his back with back to goal. Does the defender who passed to him need to show in space or drop a few yards further back in order to have the space to clear upfield? If he clears upfield or is lucky enough that the short pass movement opens space elsewhere great but it rarely happens.
In short I feel that short passes from defence to our midfielders don’t work unless the midfielder is facing forwards. Otherwise the guys we have at the moment don’t have the skill to turn and beat a man I a congested midfield run and find a pass.
I have a suspicion that Ronny thinks that as soon as the ball is passed from defender to midfielder in the back to goal scenario that someone should be moving into space to help the guy receiving the ball. Loathe him but Neil McCann pointed out the width between our centre backs last night. That is down to us trying to create attacks from them.
Changed days from big Johan being the main delivery weapon from defence or using the full backs to get out in a slow slow tempo with Strachan or Lennons teams.
Sorry if that was over indulgent claptrap.
.
Winning Captains..
Just Checked out ‘The New Site’ Again as You Asked Again..and Again..;-)
But Surely it’s Not ‘the’ New Site..Its a Different Site as it has a Different name..it might be Viewed by the Same Posters and have Similar Name to CQN and Use the Same Colours as the Olde CQN..and Based in Reema Road.. l have even heard some Respected Posters say its the Worst CQN Site in it’s 10 Year History..
And l Doubt Your estimate the ‘The New Site’ has 500 Million Unique Posters is Accurate..
I’m only Stating this as l feel Strongly about CQN and Don’t think ‘The New Site’ is the Same site as CQN was in it;s Heyday..it also seems to be Full of Avert ‘Spivs..Asking the Gullible of CQN invest in Books and DVD..When it is Pretty obvious the Money won’t go strait back to CQN to Invest on New Servers in the January Celtic Blogs Window..
But All the Best with the New Site and Look Forward to Reading it when it and If it ii in gets into the Premiership (NewsNow.co.uk Celtic fc)
Summa of OnlyPullingYourLegCSC
One of the 7 0 percent,
More than one way to skin a cat especially if the cats different and you get bored skinning it the same way or or the skinning aperatus is blunt or you have Arthur itis.
did JVOH not score on his debut, coming on as a late sub, mabye against Hibs??
I think as long as our Goal tenderer, four solid Guards and a top class Booter play all 4 periods with the same concentration and enthusiam I think we may just do ok the Europe Nations Qualification Super Bowl.
It be good to keep the time outs down to a minimum to.
MWD said AYE rope holderer
Elbows 2 game ban stands
https://twitter.com/stellaceltic/status/565806865075146752
Sorry again but…
That time again folks, I have my begging bowl out (AGAIN) for NCCA UK (Neuroblastoma charity) in memory of my wee pal Oscar & to raise money for other kids and their families
Plz donate if you can
https://www.justgiving.com/TommyMelly-Edinburgh-Run
Thanks to all who have donated so far HH
Lomond,
I thought you had one there but Goggle says he was on for about 14mins neebs.
HH
MWD
Subtle
Paul67 a few boys are having a debate on Twitter can you answer this plz.
@hen1rik @__gally I may be wrong? But when you appeal the ban does it not normally get increased cause you never accepted original sanction?
@hen1rik @__gally
http://t.co/RUXzUA3WGx
So he loses appeal & gets same initial ban
I was really surprised at GMS workrate last night,covered back brilliantly.
Elbows 2 game suspension stands. Hibs to appeal.
hen1rik-i thought an appealed ban got increased if you lost it…
Seems derry were trying to get paul george to replace duffy
Meanwhile the Brandywell men missed out on signing ex-Celtic winger Paul George, after the 21-year-old decided to stay in Scotland and signed with Dunfermline Athletic, until the end of the season.
Guy walking round my office right now forlornly trying to give away two tickets to the Sevco game tomorrow. No takers. Hilarious.
Gents,
The ban is only increased if it was deemed a frivolous appeal just to enable the player to play next game
HH
!!bada bing!!
13:38 on 12 February, 2015
—
He did indeed..wouldnt rule him out of a starting place againsy inter.
I think forrests days are numbered sadly if GMS keeps playing well.
Bada @1338
Aye totally.
Hopefully more of the same to come.
HH
“The game was a textbook lesson in how to deny your own strikers that most valuable commodity, the Dutch went out of the World Cup that afternoon.”
——————————————————————————–
Two sentences – or one, but lacking a conjunction. You could have used, “so”.
——————————————————————————–
Only because I care. (Sometimes.)
Your resident punctuation Nazi,
Al
Elbows ban is effectively only one match (against Hibs), the next match he was meant to miss was the next time he is in the Scottish Cup………..that ain’t happening.
From Andy Scotzine.
Grant is correct – the notice of complaint was a charge not a judgement. So therefore the two match ban imposed today was @hen1rik @STVGrant the first judgement and not McCulloch’s appeal. Now if he decides to appeal 2 match ban then if he loses ban can increase