Time to pair Lustig and VVD in central defence

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This afternoon’s friendly against Tottenham Hotspur gives Ronny Deila a dilemma.  Last weekend he played a second string against St Pauli, but with things going so wrong in Warsaw on Wednesday, the pressure is on to pull a game plan together which will work at Murrayfield.

Our other concern is that the squad, without Ambrose, Brown and Forrest, is already looking threadbare.  We simply can’t afford an injury to afflict Commons, Griffiths, Stokes, Johansen, van Dijk, Matthews, Lustig or Izaguirre.

The suggestion was put to me this week that we should play Lustig with van Dijk in central defence on Wednesday.  Lustig can play there, but would Ronny trust them on such an important occasion without a warm-up game?

If I was taking a risk with first-team players this afternoon it would be to pair these two.  If we’re going to get the required result on Wednesday the most important area of the team to get right is the defence.

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  1. he glorious balance sheet

     

    15:06 on

     

    2 August, 2014

     

    Why do we moan about being disadvantaged when drawn in European qualifiers against Scandinavian and eastern European teams already into their league campaign when we postpone the start of our league campaign to travel the globe to play stupid friendlies?

     

     

    We can`t have it both ways.

     

     

    And I imagine that PL would have a fit if you suggested summer football.

     

    Another comical aspect of the friendlies is that five gets you ten that somewhere down the line someone will moan about the number of games we have to play.

  2. saint stivs

     

    70m is in a CL qualifying year, around 50m without ,he still manges his bonus due to the renummeration committee allowing him to earn this through meeting targets which dont seem to include football success

  3. jude2005 is Neil Lennon \o/ on

    B B

     

     

    I often watch wee Oscar throwing snow balls at Paddy’s window with a big lump in my throat!!

  4. dessybhoy

     

    15:15 on

     

    2 August, 2014

     

    saint stivs

     

    70m is in a CL qualifying year, around 50m without ,he still manges his bonus due to the renummeration committee allowing him to earn this through meeting targets which dont seem to include football success

     

     

    At the risk of sounding personal, I think PL to be a bit of a tube.

     

    However, I believe that in the past, he has deferred his bonus payments.

  5. Just Another Tim on

    This just proves we have no-one in our youth system capable of playing at this level.

  6. Delaneys Dunky on

    Jude

     

     

    She is a lady of good taste.

     

    I only buy it when it is bookie money paying. :))

  7. Hard to tell on my low-res feed, but it looked like Ambrose got sucked in towards the player with the ball, rather than marking the player on his left at the third goal.

     

     

    It also looks like no one has had a word with him about dribbling the ball out of defence.

  8. Herron did well for our goal, then tried to go forward again and left a huge gap on our right side which Spurs exploited for their 3rd.

     

     

    O’Connell and Henderson look good for us, Efe saving us from even worse embarrassment.

     

     

    Pukki is hugely disappointing, just cannot retain possession. We have so many strikers and not one of them is good enough at holding the ball up.

  9. Sadly some are not kids anymore just fringe players that are not going to be Celtic first team players.

     

     

    No point in getting rid of high earners but keeping lads that are not contributing but still receiving a wage.

  10. thomthethim for Oscar OK on

    Haven’t read back, but I’m sure the blog appreciates the efforts of our kids, who are being given a football lesson from a good team, laced with class players.

     

     

    The level to which we aspire.

     

     

    This is the kind of experience which will serve them well, as we try to fast track them to the first team.

     

     

    The sadness is that two years, at least have been wasted, due to the reluctance of Neil Lennon to engage with their development.

  11. quonno

     

    im sure he did defer a bonus,so we have an outstanding IOU which may need to be paid,my main gripe is he is the CEO o fCeltic a football club, his bonus if any should be linked to growth and football success, are we being successful in either of these areas?

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