After being cuffed away to Kazakhstan and Belgium, and humbled at home by Russia, the four Celtic players in tonight’s Scotland squad to face Belgium at Hampden would be forgiven for wanting the European Championship 2020 campaign over as soon as possible.
More to the point, you and I really don’t want to see Callum McGregor, James Forrest, Ryan Christie or new boy Greg Taylor playing competitive football into June and July, a whole year after Celtic’s season started and days before next season is due to begin.
A defeat tonight would allow Steve Clarke to play out the remainder of the campaign by experimenting with his squad, unburdened by the pressure of qualification. Callum McGregor, in particular, could do with some down time during the October and November international breaks. Celtic players will have two games a week outside of international breaks until the middle of December. The season is not viable for them to constantly be under this level of playing pressure.
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HUNDERBIRDS ARE GONE on 10TH SEPTEMBER 2019 6:45 AM
I really think International football has had its day
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The big tournaments are brilliant, and the nations league, convoluted as it is, has been a huge success.
Then there are the likes of Kosovo, whose achievements in this campaign really highlight the incompetence of the SFA. Scotland were at 6 World Cups out of 7 from 1974-1998 and now we are looking admiringly at Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Wales, Iceland etc.
Incredible.
Its not rocket science either. Get more kids playing the game for free instead of making it hard for them. Give our national sport the platform it deserves.
HH
The sfa should lose their authority to run the game here, instead a professional setup should be introduced learning from your Icelands etc in how to develop players, this also includes refereeing where the emphasis must be on protecting the skilfull, power can be developed through conditioning through life , decades have been wasted by this organisation at hampden who are self serving and utterly useless, that is before any significant look is taken at their practices.
DESSYBHOY on 10TH SEPTEMBER 2019 9:07 AM
Yeah, a few years ago when Billy Stark was manager of the U21s he famously said that nowadays players like Xavi and Iniesta wouldn’t have made the grade in Scotland due to their size.
I think the wrong people took that as a compliment or a sign that things were going well.
I don’t even think its about developing players at this stage. Its getting more and more youngsters to play and make a habit of playing before you can even think about developing them. The bigger the talent pool the more you will produce enough players of better quality.
HH
Rest Calmac and French Eddy for the Accies game.
Don’t Rest Calmac and French Eddy for the Accies game.
THE_HUDDLE on 10TH SEPTEMBER 2019 9:44 AM
Don’t Rest Calmac and French Eddy for the Accies game.
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Agreed. At this stage of the season a couple of days off training will suffice for those involved in internationals.
We’re only short of wrapping some players in cotton wool between matches.
Be brave, get them out there and get the job done.
Our young bhoys are chomping at the bit to play. Lets keep the recent momentum up and give NO team any encouragement.
HH
French Eddie’s going to be worth at least £40m by January if he continues his current form .. if Lenny doesn’t wrap him in cotton wool .. lawwell will.
So Eddy plays for just 90 mins over 2 France U21🇫🇷 matches and scores 4 goals ⚽️⚽️⚽️⚽️ ! Ends any debate about who is best – magnifique @Oedouard22 🍀🍀🍀🍀
Does nobody believe in squad rotation? Are Bayo, Griff & Ntcham not up to the task against Hamilton?
I say they are.
CalMac and Eddy will have started 3 games in 8 days.
My team for Accies is: Forster, Bauer, Elhamed, Julien, Boli, Brown, Ntcham, Forrest, Elyounoussi, Christie, Griffiths
Does anyone have/know how I can get two tickets for the away game for Rennes next Thursday? Thanks
The route for almost all players is starting with local teams at age of 7 or 8 . The teams are dependent on volunteer coaches. At some stage these coaches have to get their licences and go off to get accreditation at SFA run courses.
I would suggest that the problem with Scotland’s dearth of football talent may be intertwined with the method of coaching.
If you coach youth football in Scotland there is a strong likelihood that you will have been through the SFA ‘sheepdip’ approach at some stage.
This model isn’t working but the SFA set the rules so it continues. It is a self serving arrangement which keeps the blazers occupied in committees, pondering how Scotland has failed for over 20 years.
If a manufacturing design team produced products that repeatedly failed .. how long do you think they would be in a job?
There will be much handwringing over the next few days , what can be done?
When they next get together they should be brought into a conference room, sat down at one side if a very long table and made to look into a very long mirror.
The Onlooker.
JOHN1314MAC on 10TH SEPTEMBER 2019 10:29 AM
French Eddie’s going to be worth at least £40m by January if he continues his current form .. if Lenny doesn’t wrap him in cotton wool .. lawwell will.
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He can’t continue his current form if hes wrapped in cotton wool!
HH
TIMALOY29 on 10TH SEPTEMBER 2019 10:34 AM
Does nobody believe in squad rotation? Are Bayo, Griff & Ntcham not up to the task against Hamilton?
I say they are.
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Believe more in picking your strongest available team but mainly letting the manager decide who needs a rest! A couple of days off training may suffice.
Also believe in continuing momentum and giving no encouragement to ANY other club. Ntcham is definitely up to it, we know that. Bayo we are not sure of, and Griff is still transitioning back to first team duty.
Of course we have lots of options, but certain guys have made jerseys their own.
HH
Germany, then Holland and then Belgium all went back to grass roots, all playing the same system from under fives upwards. How long will it take for our lot to figure that out. Even our old foe England are reaping the reward for this way of football.
As they say, not rocket science!!!!
KINGLuBO
SIEMPRE CELTIC (FORMERLY TRADITIONALIST88) on 10TH SEPTEMBER 2019 11:14 AM
Martin O’Neill didn’t rotate and his teams collapsed at the end of seasons.
The great coaches like Pep, Klopp, and Ferguson all utilize rotation. Callum McGregor shouldn’t be playing 65+ games every year.
KINGLUBO on 10TH SEPTEMBER 2019 11:32 AM
Its most alarming when you understand we’re a small nation and we product less technically gifted players but when you can’t produce uncompromising centre halves good enough to play the position its clear something is very wrong.
HH
Our manager should already be rotating the squad.Some of our players (Calmac particularly) have had little or no proper rest for about 2 years. A couple of days off training doesn’t address that.
TIMALOY29 on 10TH SEPTEMBER 2019 11:42 AM
Ferguson rotated mainly in the cups. Liverpool and Man City will pick their top players if fit.
You’re talking about putting Bayo and Griffiths in. Let the manager decide if they are ready and up to it.
We’re not even in the middle of September. As Paul67 often alludes to…give players an excuse and they’ll take it.
Lets transmit energy to the team and not continually tell them they should be tired 12-13 games in to the season.
No one is in desperate need of a rest right now. That may change as Europa games kick in or at the end of December but there will be rotation through necessity due to injury and suspension anyway.
These are young athletes chomping at the bit to play football matches. Its what they train for.
Try and tell them they’re not playing! If anyone has to, Lenny will. But only with good reason.
HH
new article posted.
PARKHEADCUMSALFORD on 10TH SEPTEMBER 2019 11:54 AM
A couple of days off training doesn’t address that.
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Rest is rest. Our training is high intensity, so much so that there are injuries picked up regularly during it.
Roy Keane famously said of his time at Man Utd some of the training sessions were tougher than some of the matches. They’re not for the faint hearted.
Like Rodgers if Lenny thinks CalMac is up to playing I am sure he will play.
HH
SIEMPRE CELTIC (FORMERLY TRADITIONALIST88) on 10TH SEPTEMBER 2019 11:55 AM
“Ferguson rotated mainly in the cups. Liverpool and Man City will pick their top players if fit.”
Not true. Ferguson rotated in the league.
“You’re talking about putting Bayo and Griffiths in. Let the manager decide if they are ready and up to it.”
We are on a Celtic fan blog. Fans give their opinions. Not much to say if we just agree to wait and see
“We’re not even in the middle of September. As Paul67 often alludes to…give players an excuse and they’ll take it.”
3 games in 8 days is a lot any time of year. We are playing again on Thursday.
“Lets transmit energy to the team and not continually tell them they should be tired 12-13 games in to the season.
No one is in desperate need of a rest right now. That may change as Europa games kick in or at the end of December but there will be rotation through necessity due to injury and suspension anyway.
Try and tell them they’re not playing! If anyone has to, Lenny will. But only with good reason.”
Rennes is a huge game and you want everybody at 100%. They will need to put in a shift for 90+ minutes.
We don’t need Eddy or CalMac to beat Hamilton.
The case for rotation has been proven. Physical fitness is a tangible variable in performance. It can be measured. “Momentum” cannot.
TIMALOY29 on 10TH SEPTEMBER 2019 12:09 PM
I said Ferguson *mainly* rotated in the cups.
Our manager and fitness staff will monitor the players and if they think they are good to go then its laughable than anyone on a blog thinks they know better.
Our young players are top athletes and cover 9-11km per game depending on various factors which is very doable with recovery time in between.
Of course over time fatigue can become more of a factor, particularly for players in their 30’s, but can be managed on a case by case basis.
Its not one size fits all.
W’re not even mid-September.
Lets try transmitting energy to our team instead of talking about tiredness of players like Edouard who is on fire at the moment.
We’ll be a long time without Edouard when he leaves. Lets enjoy him now and not rest him for resting sake.
HH