We have developed a genuine player

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Liam Scales is often judged against his central defensive partner, the impeccable Cameron Carter-Vickers.  It is only when Cameron is out and we see Liam as the senior partner in defence that we get to appreciate the gap between him and those aspiring to replace him.

After around a year as first choice at Shamrock Rovers, Liam arrived in Glasgow three years ago and played a handful of games in his first season, before going on loan to Aberdeen.

Jim Goodwin took him there but was sacked after their historic Scottish Cup defeat at Darvel.  That game was live on TV and we got to see Liam play right side of a back three; it is no wonder Goodwin didn’t make the cut.  Barry Robson got the Aberdeen gig and came close to securing Liam on loan for another season, before an injury crisis at Celtic stopped the move going through.

The pivot which took place in Liam’s career late August 2023 was incredible.  Liam was called into the team after Kilmarnock dumped us out of the League Cup for a home game against St Johnstone.  Celtic were poor, St Johnstone took a point back to Perth with them, and Liam was repeatedly caught out by the ball over the top.  One occasion late in the game almost produced a breakthrough for Saints.

We went to Ibrox the following weekend with some predicting a thrashing.  With a weakened side, Celtic lost 3-0 there a few months earlier.  It was not just Liam who would pivot that day, the whole of Scottish football did, but Liam was an absolute rock in defence.

He is never going to be Cameron Carter-Vickers, but when you see him alongside others, you know that Brendan will need to bring in an exceptional player to replace him.  A month after scoring his first Champions League goal, he scored his first international goal for Ireland in a win in Finland last night.

We have developed a genuine player; credit to all involved.

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  1. Didn’t Scotland win the Kirin Cup back in 2006, in Japan?

     

    I do believe we did.

     

    Those were the days my friends I thought they would never end…

     

    They did

  2. Hot smoked

     

     

    Probably over thinking it a bit but it’s an interesting parallel. Not sure what ‘perfect’

     

    And achievable looks like in the real world.

     

     

    Anyway hope the golf and health are good and it seemed you had a pretty fine skyline in your part of the world on Thursday night from what I am hearing.

  3. Scotland squad in Croatia has only one Celtic player, Anthony Ralston, who also starts. Wee bit added interest is that the game is being played at the Stadion Maksimir, home of Dynamo Zagreb and the venue for our CL match somewhere down the line. In that sense it will be interesting to see how Scotland cope with the pitch, the crowd, and of course with Croatia. Coverage seems to have been relegated to Utube, the result of the deal our hapless SFA made with Viaplay some time back. Tough game for the Scots given that we have only beaten Gibraltar in recent times, but you never know maybe Steve Clarke will show us how to get a result over there.

  4. Prestonpans bhoys on

    Celtic MAC

     

     

    Our holding defensive mids are McLean/Gilmour, what could possibly go wrong 🙄

  5. prestonpansbhoys

     

     

    But wait wasn’t Gilmour the missing link against Germany back in the Euros?

     

    Speaking of links, thanks for the Scotland-Croatia one…

  6. Tom McLaughlin on

    GENE

     

     

    Tony has had a good game, but when the cross comes in from the right, he runs towards 2 Scotland defenders, leaving the Croat with a lot of space inside the box. Nothing to do with Doak.

  7. Unlucky in the end. A big improvement over last “performances”.

     

    Chances need to be taken and too many offside situations.

  8. Tom McLaughlin on

    I have noticed a number of posters regularly complaining about having to repeatedly login to CQN.

     

     

    If you are accepting a stored password as opposed to typing the userid and password, this is possibly what is causing you to be logged out so quickly and so regularly.

  9. I didn’t watch the Scotland game but the stadium looked terrible. The fans (were there any there?) must have been miles away. Someone said we’ll be playing there, which I’d be happy with (certainly wouldn’t be any fan intimidation).

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