Footballers often play two games a week but their peak fitness levels are achieved when the play once a week. More often than that and the muscles don’t recover quickly enough. Top players’ muscles are finely tuned to deliver 90 minutes of exertion. To reach this peak, they NEED games as well as training. It appears to be beyond the ken of sports scientists to create a training routine which matches actual matches.
Apart from a 25 minute run-out against Hearts two weeks ago, newco’s players will not have played a football game in 22 days when they line-up against the champions on Sunday. If the boot was on the other foot, I would be concerned.
Celtic watchers will note that they score more goals late in games than early. Ronny’s team try to win the battle for territory, the ball and energy before running over the top of opponents. Whatever happens in the opening 20 minutes on Sunday I would expect Celtic to be far more effective in the final 20 minutes of the game, when their superiority will be most effective. There’s a chance newco will crumble early on, but I don’t expect many chances at either end until later in the first half.
While we all know how Celtic will play, it’s harder to figure out how Kenny McDowell will line-up tactically. If he was Ross County manager he would defend his 18 yard line for 90 minutes and hope for a breakaway, but I’m not sure that’s a viable strategy for Sunday. Lose an early goal and he would be caught between damage limitation and attempting to get back into the game. It could get very messy.
My hunch is that he’ll play a conventional 4-5-1 and attempt to find space out wide behind Celtic’s full-backs for Kenny Miller to run into. The full-backs will play forward, there will be space, we’ve just got to be faster than the 35-year-old ex-Celt now plying his trade in the lower leagues.
Despite their form against Hibs and Hearts this season, newco have an excellent record against Premiership competition in the cups. Three wins, against Inverness (only one point behind Aberdeen on same games played), St Johnstone and Kilmarnock, without a goal conceded, is a measure of what they are capable of, when they put their minds to it.
The wins against Kilmarnock and Inverness are particularly noteworthy, as both Premiership clubs enjoyed the majority of possession, but were frustrated in attack and hit with sucker-punches. This is what McDowell will seek to do at Hampden.
Ronny, get the job done. Very, very, very, thoroughly.
A reminder for North American readers that the Annual Celtic Supporter’s Féile is on in Philadelphia this weekend. The events include live music each day, the US premier of The Asterisk Years, with a Q&A with Paul Larkin and Graham Wilson of Beyond the Waves podcast, as well as live coverage the semi-final. You can find out more, including how to book, here.
Have you booked for the CQN11 Str Patrick’s Dinner on Friday, 13 March? We’re hoping to raise enough money to build Mary’s Meals a school kitchen in Malawi. Mary’s meals emailed an hour ago with a report on one of the kitchens we built last year, in Kholoni, where they are now feeding 1245 children each day, a considerable increase in the roll-call since the availability of kitchen facilities, see the photo above.
Email me for tickets, celticquicknews@gmail.com (to the Dinner, not Malawi).
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eddie
no-one could ever be more welcome, you’re one of the Big Man’s good guys!
Sips
you are too!!!!
HH jamesgang
DD
Haha i do think they get a bad press…
Synth Britannia on now
Im a sucker for a bit of synth
B-)
BSR………….
way earlier….
Nae jumpin’ hedges?………..
Ye’ve never lived till you
and an elite selection of your finest fleet-of-foot friends have set off through and over assorted privet back garden hedges…………narrowly evading snarling dugs ( always Alsatians, usually called Sheba) and an assortment of narky neighbours.
We were Olympians.
HH.
See this gambling lark, easy when you win, saw Wolfsburg were 11/2 earlier, thought they were worth a wee wager, like a bellend, didn’t wager enough, still, more than I started with is a win all day long.
HH
So, my team for Sunday
Gordon
Lustig, Denayer, VVD, Izzy
Brown, Bitton, Stokes
Commons
Guidetti, Griffiths
Nothin fancy, except I’d like to see Guidetti and Griffiths paired up.
Bitton worries me a wee bit, a tidy player, but not sure he can handle the rough stuff yet… and lately he’s been too keen on the safe pass… but maybe that’s down to instructions. If Johansen is fit, therefore, I’d probably play him instead.
Last one from me
http://youtu.be/P_4C8b7Zn00
bankie
Been there.
We used to call it……….’The Grand National’
HH
Mick, thanks.
Sipsini
Enjoy Sunday. Keep safe and enjoy our destruction of the lowlife filth on the park. Glad we deterred our weans from attending. Hear the hun is in the toon tonight. Gonnae be a mad weekend. Some heavy bhoys fae down here are meeting huns tomorrow in the toon. Stay away unless your handy. :)
Meanwhile..in another part of the Forest…..
Wan Day tae go,joe.. Doncha Know?
Well.. Ah dae.
N..
Still, no sign of ANY Help .. arriving at Fort Paradise..
Whit Happened..? Ur them Damn Inians Revolting again..n …cutting us aff at the Pass?
Looks like it..
Still No sign of the Expected? Promised? ..How aboot..
NEEDED?…. New Recruits?
That’s Settled, then..
NEEDED..Fresh Legs.. fur the Decrepit..n.. Failing ..Celtic Mid Field.
Whit a Difference wull a Day Make?
Dunno.. but..
Ah am doonherted n Sad..on THIS Day.
Ah expected Help .. n..the chance of THAT arriving, jist in the Nick..
Looks Mighty..Dicey.
Kojo
Troubled n Disappointed.
Anybuddy Else..oot there.. feelin’ the same?
Hmmmmmmmmmm
BSR
I remember when jumpin’ dykes had no sexual connotations!
:-)
My bhoy has been waiting for his uncle Eddie to phone all night to see if he has him a ticket, a moping seventeen year old asking me has he phoned yet is wearing me down.
My brother has two bhoys and two silver debentures…one bhoy is Celtic daft, the other is an artist and has no interest in football but decided he fancies going on Sunday, young sips not too happy about it…such is life.
To be honest I’m glad he won’t be going, parents what we like ;)))
Is this wishful thinking Bhoys? Correct score…7 – 0 .? It would top the 1957 match of 7 – 1.
Y.N.W.A.
Bhoylo
I love Kraftwerk. My 21 year old son loves Coldplay and Techno and synth. He sees where his sounds came from now. Dusseldorf!
Praecepta….funny…im laughing…
With mucho respect to all those who pick their teams, would it not be prudent to pick a formation that would be at least similar to what will take the field ?
Ronny will not change from his 4-2-3-1, so again, why bother with anything that differs ?
Very seldom have I ever picked a team, so here goes…………
The weans
HH
prae
Ha – et tu brute.
Lustig for right back . Griff in the central striker role as a reward for his ability and graft over the past few months. Stokes and Commons somewhere in the 11. Forrest from the bench to destroy the yards behind their defence as they (hopefully) chase the game .
I’ll be honest the over confidence amongst everyone is beginning to worry me . You only get what you deserve . We have no divine right to win Sunday’s semi final.
Energy energy and more energy. Whatever else we are, we’re far fitter than them so keep the pressure up .
Praecepta / BSR
Dyke jumping???
Tried that one night at the QM.
……..no joy.
James Forrests latest blog should be compusary reading for every Celtic man…best ive read…..must have wrote in the Gallowgate on a mad wan….well done James
…
Unique game for Celtic playing against a new club, hasn’t happened before?
The gulf between Celtic in football terms is practically immeasurable, and unlike in the day of EBT, thieving, tax evading clubs, that died, this particular game will transcend clichéd ‘form going out the windows’ via Zombieloidese.
I think Celtic will win, and score heavily over the ninety, and twice inside the first ten.
Celtic betting men, should be studying prices, if you know Sevco’s small-scale history!
Guidetti will start…so will Stokes and Commons….
bankiebhoy1
23:19 on
30 January, 2015
Praecepta / BSR
Dyke jumping???
Tried that one night at the QM.
……..no joy.
————
now that’s funny
funny as…….
HH jamesgang
TET,
Where’s the fun in that ;)
Ronnie needs to listen to me… trust me, I’m a gynacolog… a gynologis…
I’m a fekn Doctor awright?
We are among the top in Europe with regards to shots at goal and shots on target…if we keep up our average…we will win the game…simples…
No Excuses….
Yep.. lets not get carried away… we need to win this game first and foremost. Win ugly, win lucky.. I don’t care.. but we all know that justice is never served on the righteous. C’mon the Celts.. lets just WIN !!!!
DD,
Loved this one…minds me of going to maestros….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgS252XT_Ts
Delaneys Dunky
23:16 on
30 January, 2015
She’s a model and she’s looking good!
HH
CRC
Some decent single bets available:
Celtic to score both halves 10/11
Celtic to win both halves 7/4
Over 3 goals 11/8
Faffin about earlier and came across this….
Top bloke frae Coatbridge.
“Mark Millar is a legendary author and is regarded as amongst the greatest comic and graphic book novel writers in the Western World. He was the highest selling British comic-book writer working in America in the 2000s (which is a huge accomplishment).
His work has encompassed many of the best known American comic book characters such as Thor, Fantastic Four, Wolverine and Spiderman, but he has also scripted original classics such as “Kick-ass” and “Wanted” both of which were made into highly successful cult movies (the later of which starred James McAvoy another big Celtic fan).
As a measure of his success, in August 2007, he won the Stan Lee Award at Wizardworld in Chicago. An incredible and fitting honour.
Mark Millar was born in Coatbridge, and despite moving on from there has not forgotten his roots. A big Celtic fan, he said in a BBC interview that he chose comics as easier for him than to get to play for Celtic:
“As a kid I loved comics and I loved films and it sort of struck me when I was about 11 or 12 that somebody must be writing and drawing these books which I’m enjoying so much and it just seemed a wee bit more attainable than playing for Celtic”
A devout practising Catholic, he has pride in his roots and still very much follows his club.
In one notable comic story for Wolverine, he had our hero in a hooped top and had the villain wearing the Huns’ top! (see reprint below). Nice comical touch. Curiously, the arch-villain Mr Rictus in the highly praised ‘Wanted’ graphic novel more than has a passing resemblance and knack for Rangers keyman Bill Struth.
A lot of pride for all of us to have such a legendary author as Mark within the Celtic family. Maybe one day he can do a superhero novel on the Lisbon Lions or Henrik Larsson.”
Shaun of the dead and Zombieland on tv…i feel another statement coming ….
Sipsini
Maestros classic indeed. :)
Sports Direct
titanic csc
reading James Forrest in advance of Sunday and listening to UB40.
The great flood of tears that we’ve cried
For our brothers and sisters who’ve died
Over four hundred years has washed away our fears
And strengthened our pride, now we turn back the tide
We will no longer hear your command
We will seize the control from your hand
We will fan the flame of our anger and pain
And you’ll feel the shame for what you do in God’s name
We will fight for the right to be free
And we will build our own society
And we will sing, we will sing
We will sing our own song
When the ancient drum rhythms ring
The voice of our forefathers sings
Forward Africa run our day of freedom has come
For me and for you Amandla Awethu
We will fight for the right to be free
And we will build our own society
And we will sing, we will sing
We will sing our own song
And we will fight for the right to be free
We will build our own society
We will sing, we will sing
We will sing our own song
And we will fight for the right to be free
And we will build our own society
And we will sing, we will sing
We will sing our own song
TAL brothers and sisters
HH jamesgang
PS now listening to bob. mr marley. a hunskelper if ever there was one!
Andy
Absolutely. Two big obstacles that Ronny and JC need to prepare the bhoys for are the hampen pitch and Craig Thomson. We have previous with both.
Be positive from the start and don’t take a backward step. Led from the front by Broonie.
CRC
Nice tribute to the lady in your life. :)
Jamesgang
The Huns die screaming :-)
Bgx
Haha surely that cant be a coincidence?!