Anyone who has watched Celtic in recent weeks knows the impact Jeremie Frimpong has on the team. He alone has the ability to run at and past defenders, without him, Celtic are significantly easier to defend against. This has been clear from recent performances and his absence from the starting line-up against Riga was my principle concern before the game.
He did not start last night because when we go three at the back, it is Jeremie or James Forrest on the right. After the game Neil Lennon told us James has struggled with an ankle injury for a couple of weeks, leaving us with the classic ingredients for recency bias. James’ recent injury-affected form has been below the standard or Jeremie’s. But of all the occasions you could make a case to start James Forrest, European qualifiers will be the easiest. He scores and creates goals in qualifiers at a prodigious rate.
Also, watchers of Celtic in recent seasons will know that Injury is the Mother of Invention. Where would Ryan Christie be without Eboue Kouassi and Olivier Ntcham picking up first half injuries at Murrayfield? Jeremie is now likely to get a run at Hibs and Sarajevo. What happens in the middle of the park is more intriguing.
Scott Brown took a knock that will keep him under observation between now and the Hibs game. That clip on Scott’s Achilles’ gives the manager lots to consider. After Hibs, we have four hugely important games: Sarajevo, then after the international break: Newco, Aberdeen away and Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup semi-final. The roster becomes significantly trickier if we overcome Sarajevo, as we would have two Europa League games before next month’s semi-final.
I read many asking, why does Scott Brown play practically every minute of every game? It is clearly not that you have spotted something that escaped the manager’s attention, Neil Lennon does not have a blind spot that tens of thousands of Celtic fans can see through, so let’s not pretend otherwise.
You have been watching football all of your life, so you know by now that what you see on the field is only part of the story. Any team: footballers, salesmen, network engineers or shop staff, need a common culture and leadership to reach their best. What a boss gets from his or her line manager in frontline performance, in any walk of life, is not the entire contribution.
I have a friend who is also a customer. He tells me what I need to do with my staff and I tell him the same about his staff. Neither of us take the others’ advice, because I am using the resources I have to keep my team focussed on our objective and he is doing the same. I talk to him about practically every personal aspect of my life, but I don’t even go into the detail of this stuff with him, because it involves personal details about others. In very simple environments like mine and his, teams are complicated things.
I would like to see Jeremie start more games and I am really keen to see central mid re-jigged. From my seat on the couch, both are crucial to our outcomes this season. But I know there’s a ton of human dynamics in every team that outsiders are clueless about. The manager needs to keep this indoors while suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous opinion. It can be a tough gig. It is good that we have all ‘been there, done that’, when it comes to building a winning football team, so none of us exist in a fantasy that we are the true fonts of wisdom Neil Lennon really has to listen to. I mean, can you imagine thinking like that? Jeez.
Have a great weekend.
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Great article Paul67
Lenny has his faults but he is an excellent man manager and has the experience of a few games in Broonie’s position to draw on.
Not kicking Broonie here – just pointing out that we played incredibly well without him in the team for a period previously.
HH
BGFC
Great post STIVS although the gnashing of teeth seems to
be a permanent feature now whenever the Bhoys play.
So many experts and wonderful coaches hiding behind a
key board.
H.H. Mick
BGFC
Yes, appreciated, but we did play incredibly well with him
in the team also.
H.H. Mick
!!BADA BING!! on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 3:10 PM
SS- can we get a Mark1.5 version of NL? I think players react to a bit of emotion from the bench, and call out shocking tackles and referees for not applying the rules.
———————————–
Maybe just maybe Neil decided on a calmer approach himself. Maybe he knows complaining to officials will only punish him, he wont get anything given. Maybe also at his age, carrying a bit of weight, letting the red mist descend on you isnt the best thing.
BADA BING – spot on. I enjoy seeing our manager involved, coaching and cajoling from the sidelines when it is required. If the players respect him, which I imagine most do, they will listen and respond to him. It is a pity that there doesn’t seem to be a happy medium between Mark 1 and Mark 2.
He is a clever man, he is a passionate man and he is an honest man. By putting a lid on the emotions, his natural passion is being pushed below the surface.
I wonder if it is the same when in the dressing room or at the training ground?
NFL –
601 football matches played as a player. 506 games as a manager.
1,107 football matches.
Many of us on here will had attended hundreds of these. Witnessed it.
Described by many , as a very intelligent man. Articulate, funny, determined to get the best.
And yet, some want us to believe the fella is tactically naive.
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 1:09 PM
Spot on.
anyways, I want to know why the team for sunday hasnt been leaked yet.
did the team fly back last night ? anyone know ?
SAINT STIVS on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 3:29 PM
Does games played translate into tactical awareness and nous?
Neil by his own words doesn’t put much stock in tactics.
ROLLING_STONE on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 3:40 PM
SAINT STIVS on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 3:29 PM
Does games played translate into tactical awareness and nous? Yes.
Neil by his own words doesn’t put much stock in tactics ? where ?
The game last night was crying out for Rogic.
The only midfielder with the ability to pass through tight defences on our books.
Unfortunately our journeyman manager is clueless to this, and we will continue to struggle unless
changes are made.
The journeyman is in charge as Lawwell wanted a yes man after Rodgers publicly tearing him apart.
Lambert14 – do you know what a journeyman is ?
SAINT STIVS on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 3:29 PM
NFL –
601 football matches played as a player. 506 games as a manager.
1,107 football matches.
Many of us on here will had attended hundreds of these. Witnessed it.
Described by many , as a very intelligent man. Articulate, funny, determined to get the best.
And yet, some want us to believe the fella is tactically naive.
Explain Cluj? Why would a technically astute manager play McGregor at left back?
Explain Ferencvaros? No striker?
These are only two examples….never a tactician never…
Explain Cluj? Why would a technically astute manager play McGregor at left back?
No other options, you do know that Rodgers & Ronnie played McGregor there also,
Explain Ferencvaros? No striker?
None fit, the manager explained it right after the game.
These are only two examples….never a tactician never…
you do know waht a tactician is ?
SAINT STIVS on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 3:52 PM
Do you?
https://youtu.be/tgyGBOWsoLE
Unique angle, cracking pass by Christie
Lennon will cost us the ten with his arrogance and unwillingness to change what we all can see on the park. Let’s see where he goes when he leaves us….
I am waiting on another 3 malcontent names from last night for my full house …………
who shall it be, let me see,
ONENIGHTINLISBON on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 3:54 PM
Lennon will cost us the ten with his arrogance and unwillingness to change what we all can see on the park. Let’s see where he goes when he leaves us….
what arrogance ? what unwillingness ? I cant say that I see things that he does not, now that would be arrogant.
LAMBERT14 on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 3:46 PM
100% – cheap option.
SAINT STIVS on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 3:56 PM
You are seriously asking?
tactician
a person who uses a carefully planned strategy to achieve a specific end.
—————
I would think that describes every manager from under 7s to Internationlists.
a game plan.
A journeyman is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that field as a fully qualified employee. They earn their license by education, supervised experience and examination.[1] Although journeymen have completed a trade certificate and are allowed to work as employees, they may not yet work as self-employed master craftsmen.[2]
ONENIGHTINLISBON on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 3:56 PM
LAMBERT14 on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 3:46 PM
You boys happy we won last night or not ?
Did our performance keep you awake ?
Bada Bing
So that’s where the guy with the bloody drum was during the entire match on an open top bus behind the goals, if he was beside me I’d have broken that drum over his head!
MCPHAIL BHOY on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 4:00 PM
Bada Bing
So that’s where the guy with the bloody drum was during the entire match on an open top bus behind the goals, if he was beside me I’d have broken that drum over his head!
—————–
I never heard him cos of the bloody whistler
SAINT STIVS on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 3:52 PM
“Explain Cluj? Why would a technically astute manager play McGregor at left back?
No other options”
Apart from the £3m left bank that Neil had signed.
“Explain Ferencvaros? No striker?
None fit, the manager explained it right after the game.”
Apart from the £3.5m striker that Neil signed and who subsequently played in the next game and looked fine (fitness wise).
Neil dropped the ball.
Back in and caught up.
Like the pitch for small crowds to be allowed at matches article, this one has been received without listening ears either.
I was saddened to see Celtic By Numbers, who provides a site that is highly valued by me, felt that this was in someways a dig at him and his form of game analysis. I have to say I think he’s wrong in that assumption. It reminds me of WGS making the comment about the type of fan who he thought was not worth listening to, which led to a load of “I am Spartacuses” crossing hte road to take offence even though their reasoned critiques were not included in the characteristics that WGS described.
It is possible to believe both the following statements:-
1) Fans do not have the whole picture in which to make rounded and complete assessments of players and their worth
&
2) There is a wealth of information that can be gained from watching a game and even more from analysing what was happening during it and comparing that with other comparable matches.
In short, we don’t have as much information as Neil Lennon but we do have a lot of information.
Not one of us knew until Paul’s article that James Forrest was playing with an injury; at least no-one posted this information as knowledge. All we knew was that James was not hitting the heights, or, if you were one of the volatile judgementals, he was playing sh***. That new information creates cognitive dissonance that needs to be resolved- so instead of being angry at James Forrest for not being as good as usual, we merely transfer that anger to the mnager for playing him like that.
I believe there was a real target for Paul’s barb about believing you know better than the manager. It applies to those who, without evidence, describe a coach as a cone gatherer or boss’s snitch. It applies to those who reach for their “pet” explanations- “Player X is lazy”. “Player Y was disinterested (sic) and wants away” or “Player Z has lost it”. These are explanations which do not explain anything they merely explain it away by placing it in a convenient box that was prepared earlier.
It never takes into account the fact that player X ran further than most in the team, that Players V and U also want away but they played better than player Y, or that Player Z had a good game 2 matches ago and will have another one in 3 matches time.
So, please, keep making the reasoned critiques and analysis of our team and have the humility to acknowledge what you do not know and take that into account too but never settle for an argument of the tyoe “He’s Sh*** and I can see that with my own eyes!” because that will never convince anyone else whose eyes saw things differently.
As for bleating about “you cannot say anything bad about Celtic on here”- spare us the violins. The place is full of such comments, many many many times more than there are of positive comments. All you have to complain about is the tendency of some of us not to take this criticism as gospel and who provide inconvenient facts to counter it. You may bleat about censorhip, which isn’t happening, but it is being disagreed with and being countered that you find difficult.
SAINT STIVS on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 4:00 PM
ONENIGHTINLISBON on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 3:56 PM
You boys happy we won last night or not ?
No. Performance was shocking against a poor team.
imagine paying money to come listen to the journeyman failed tactician who has never won anything or played at a descent level ever, so there,
Neil Lennon confirmed for 2020 International Coaches’ Convention
http://www.celticfc.net/news/17538
saint stivs
You saying Neil’s not in the craft?
whatever happened to the player z money
One consolation from last night, I got premier sports for £1
LAMBERT14 on 25TH SEPTEMBER 2020 3:46 PM
‘The game last night was crying out for Rogic.’
###
On his game yes.
But if those who did play were on their game he wouldn’t have been needed.
Who knows if he’s on his game? I certainly don’t and I doubt you do either.
SAINT STIVS & SFTB – HH
Seems to be when comments stray from reasoned critiques or amateur opinions to extreme personal attacks (football, religion or politics) that it moves to another dimension entirely. Opinions being like…etc
As I’d said, we all have some posters we like, loathe and just skip past (knowing what we’re likely to get).
LANDOFNOD CSC
OneNightinLisbon,
You say you are a Celtic fan, yet you are not happy we won an away European Qualifier.
That is the height of nonsense.
I could understand if you said you were happy with the win but not the performance, but you didn’t.
Reality was performance was OK not brilliant but OK, we dominated game, don’t think they had a shot on target for entire game.
They were incredibly lucky twice when Frimpong cut through & pulled the ball across the face of goal but the ball luckily deflected to their Keeper.
With a we bit of Luck we could have won that game 3 or 4 nil.
Like many I was anxious & frustrated throughout the game & can’t say I enjoyed it but I am more than happy we won the game, I’m thrilled we won it.
BACK TO BASICS – GLASS HALF FULL @ 2:48 PM,
Yet surely this is the point, pre- 1975 we were the best team in Scotland.
Post 2000 we were the best team in Scotland, not so much in the intervening years. It is not news to anyone that this wasn’t a great Celtic era.
Yet there were many great European occasions, often we were the nearly men, or cheated (Rapid Vienna), yet there was some real competition and real cut and thrust in Europe. We seen some incredible displays… win, lose or draw… sure, most times we went out in the early rounds but most often to good teams, to write that of as a generation of non-events is plain wrong.
The point being only the top sides played in Europe in those days, Champions or Cup winners and only the cream of those played European football after Christmas. In 1976 we played in the UEFA cup quarter final and 1980 we beat Real Madrid at home in the European Cup quarter final.
The European competitions have changed beyond recognition. We have been the best team in Scotland by a country mile since Rangers died but again it has been a case of one off cameos…
Spartak Moscow, Barcelona, Ajax, Man City, Lazio
Baring in mind, Spartak Moscow and Barcelona were beaten by teams assembled to deal with the threat from the old Rangers.
This is supposedly a great era for Celtic Football Club, yet our European performances have dropped from beating Barcelona at Celtic Park to getting beat at home in important games by Cluj, Copenhagen and Ferencvaros.
Hail Hail