It is a little more than two months since there was angst over accusations of soiling sheets, and I remember the question, “Would you rather have lost the cup final and won on the 29th?” Progress in football is not linear. Even for the imperious (that’s us), it has regular defeats and disappointments.
We cannot cope in West Lothian, taking a solitary point from two visits, and lose concentration against Cluj and Copenhagen, but eliminate Rennes and Lazio, both flying high in top five leagues. Step back and you see the big picture, a year on from Neil Lennon parachuting in as caretaker manager, Celtic are playing their best football in three years. There is confidence in the future and hope of even better to come.
As a consequence of Tom Rogic’s late equaliser and the utterly hilarious disintegration of the ‘Let’s go’ manager at Ibrox, we can relax and enjoy the procession to that most remarkable of records: nine-in-a-row. Whatever money Dave King has left to invest in Newco, he could do worse than to put it on Celtic to win the title. His meagre winnings will be welcome when it comes to paying Sports Direct, among others.
Now it is all about St Mirren, our next biggest game of the season and a chance to go 16 points clear. Bring it on.
265 Comments- Pages:
- «
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- »
MARADOMINIC on 5TH MARCH 2020 1:29 PM
FF; J Frim; CJ; NB ;JH ; CalMac; Christie;Rogic; Griff; Bayo OE up front on Saturday. St Mirren will just pack 18 Yard box.
============================================================================
Wee Frimpy to the line .Hard low crosses.
A la the assist for big Tam`s goal last night .
Scottish defences seem to be set up primarily to stop the aerial threat .
@ TIMALOY29 on 5TH MARCH 2020 12:57 PM
Agreed. I understand that players need to train well and I can understand someone being given an opportunity to start if they put the work in on the training ground. However, there are certain players who are not playing well in games and continue to merit a start. Broony looks like he is injured/unfit/knackered and his form has suffered in all of the games he has played in lately.
He will undoubtedly start at Ibrox, so I really hope Neil rests him this weekend. It makes no sense for him to play.
We are living in great Celtic f.c times . But great as this period is we have flaws . Every team has . Last night for me showed up a few of ours . I posted before the game yesterday my thought my concerns . I feel we are unsteady in our wing back area ,I feel some thought needs put into those positions . We did buy a couple of left backs ,could we have bought better ? , I feel we could have , and bought bigger . Centre half is another position that cause worry with me ,we have 2 huge guys who are easily pushed around ,I would like to see both of them toughen up a bit , any time we come up against a robust forward it causes us problem, we have seen it on many occasions this season . They are not bad players but soft .many reading this will remember mark rieper , paul elliot , big billy mick McCarthy. None of those were easy rolled , one more thing well done to Neil Lennon, a good few of us were under whelmed when he was appointed ,me being one .how wrong was i .BUT I would like him to order his scouts to find game ready players ,the money we waste is crazy .
Yip complete waste of money buying Shved. Kouassi and Bayo. hopefully not same with 2 we signed this january
To see others suffer does one good..
Friedrich Nietzsche
😁
CELTIC40ME on 5TH MARCH 2020 12:42 PM
TIMALOY29 on 5TH MARCH 2020 12:12 PM
Frimpong is an exciting player, he definitely made a difference last night, and there are a few reasons for it but we’ve scored more goals this season when he’s not started than when he has.
It might be coincidental but our upturn in goalscoring coincided with him being out injured. We don’t need him in the team to score more goals
______
That’s not true really. I’ve had a look at the numbers from the domestic games.
Since he’s arrived (excluding last night) he has played 16 domestic games where we have scored 50 goals.
(For clarity, I have excluded the game he came off the bench against Hamilton as he played only 3 minutes)
He’s missed 14 games and we have scored 33 goals in those games. (I’ve included that Hamilton game in this group).
That’s 3.13 goals per game with Frimpong and 2.36 without.
If you want to add the four domestic games played this season before Frimpong arrives that changes to
3.13 with 2.78 without
Either way, the team has scored more goals with him in the team.
He was brought on last night when the team was getting beat. It was only the second time he’s featured domestically and we’ve failed to win (the other was the 29th)
All PL signings not the manager. A few million to appease fans in January windows
They’re hoping that mild flu going about and Neil Doncaster will stop us winning 9iar on sevco mentalist..
😂
John 1314. Worse case scenario, games played behind closed doors. All the Leagues in Europe will be played to a conclusion.
MARADOMINIC on 5TH MARCH 2020 1:21 PM
ps . I wish we had signed Hagi. He looks a really good player. We spent £6M on two players not good enough to get into the team.. Would rather spend $6M on one plyer who would be a first choice
—–
Who would Hagi dislodge? Better than Christie, Rogic, Ntcham, Moi or McGregor? Nae chance. I suspect, if still standing, they’ll spend £6m of their season ticket money on him just like Kent. I suspect he’ll end up a serial loser too…
CORKCELT on 5TH MARCH 2020 2:03 PM
John 1314. Worse case scenario, games played behind closed doors. All the Leagues in Europe will be played to a conclusion.
—
Which, for a Sevco side needing match day revenue to keep the lights on, is the absolute worse nightmare for them…
Celtic go 13 points clear in the blink of an eye
I blame the fire alarm
MARADOMINIC on 5TH MARCH 2020 1:21 PM
ps . I wish we had signed Hagi. He looks a really good player. We spent £6M on two players not good enough to get into the team.. Would rather spend $6M on one plyer who would be a first choice
=====
Haven;t seen enough to form an opinion and have heard wildly varying reports on the player.
Seems to be ability there alright but good enough for us?
If he is lets not forget he is only on loan at Sevco and they have no money. £4m on the table for Genk and put that mob in their place.
HH
£2m plus Kouassi :)
HH
WE have 77 pts won with 9 games to go. Last year finished with 87, year before that 82.
We could conceivably finish with 104. Probably won’t but any season you are in the high nineties is a great season.
We can be too demanding of our team. Other teams are entitled to have their game plans & stymie us just like we set out to stymie Barca or Lazio.
Enjoy these days, Great time to be a Tim.
THE HANDS CANT HIT WHAT THE EYES CANT SEE on 5TH MARCH 2020 1:42 PM
@ TIMALOY29 on 5TH MARCH 2020 12:57 PM
Agreed. I understand that players need to train well and I can understand someone being given an opportunity to start if they put the work in on the training ground. However, there are certain players who are not playing well in games and continue to merit a start. Broony looks like he is injured/unfit/knackered and his form has suffered in all of the games he has played in lately.
He will undoubtedly start at Ibrox, so I really hope Neil rests him this weekend. It makes no sense for him to play.
______
Agreed. I’m hopeful Neil will go with Rogic, McGregor & Christie as a three against St Mirren.
We started with those three at home against Kilmarnock. We overwhelmed them.
i thought the reason Rogic was not jumping for joy was, i think his shot came off a livi player.
BIG WAVY on 5TH MARCH 2020 2:04 PM
Who would Hagi dislodge? Better than Christie, Rogic, Ntcham, Moi or McGregor? Nae chance. I suspect, if still standing, they’ll spend £6m of their season ticket money on him just like Kent. I suspect he’ll end up a serial loser too…
____
He generally plays as a 10 or the right.
So its more Christie, Ntcham, Forrest, Rogic…Shved & Arzani?
Maybe he makes more of an impact than Arzani & Shved. Wouldn’t be hard. Can’t see Neil Lennon looking past James Forrest. Who is having his best season.
Timaloy29
We ain’t spending £6m on a punt.
@ TIMALOY29 on 5TH MARCH 2020 2:17 PM
One thing to look out for when playing that formation is how dominant our left side becomes. It happened last night as well. Moi plays off the left, both Christie and McGregor are left footed and so find themselves keeping the ball on their left foot and moving towards that side of the pitch. Eddy likes to drop deep, primarily to the left. Add Rogic into the equation and one side of the pitch becomes very congested.
I think that it is also part of the reason that Forrest drifts out of games. There is a lot less support on the right and he can’t play 1-2s etc. Look how effective Forrest became last night when moved to the left wing. There he could link up with McGregor, Rogic, Eddy etc and he got a lot more joy out of the full back than Taylor.
On account of the above, I would be inclined to include Ntcham in our line up as he is our only right footed attacking midfielder.
Does anyone know whether Ntcham is close to being recalled this weekend ?
Don’t want to sound like a stuck-record on the Scott Brown front. But St Mirren at home is very much a game he could be spared / rested.
Flight to Belfast cancelled due to Flybe,a real shame for the staff,followed by ridiculous profiteering by Easyjet. I checked flights yesterday, in case Flybe went bust,outward flight was £54,now £147…..shameful.
THURSDAY 5TH MAY 1981
The Welfare sent for me today to inform me of my father being taken ill to hospital. Tried to get me to crawl for a special visit with my family. I was distressed about my father’s illness but relieved that he has been released from hospital. No matter what, I must continue.
I had a threatening toothache today which worried me, but it is gone now.
I’ve read Atkins’ statement in the Commons, Mar dheá! (Atkins pledged that the British government would not budge an inch on its intransigent position.) It does not annoy me because my mind was prepared for such things and I know I can expect more of such, right to the bitter end.
I came across some verse in Kipling’s short stories; the extracts of verses before the stories are quite good. The one that I thought very good went like this:
The earth gave up her dead that tide,
Into our camp he came,
And said his say, and went his way,
And left our hearts aflame.
Keep tally on the gun butt score,
The vengeance we must take,
When God shall bring full reckoning,
For our dead comrade’s sake.
‘I hope not,’ said I to myself. But that hope was not even a hope, but a mere figure of speech. I have hope, indeed. All men must have hope and never lose heart. But my hope lies in the ultimate victory for my poor people. Is there any hope greater than that?
I’m saying prayers — crawler! (and a last minute one, some would say). But I believe in God, and I’ll be presumptuous and say he and I are getting on well this weather.
I can ignore the presence of food staring me straight in the face all the time. But I have this desire for brown wholemeal bread, butter, Dutch cheese and honey. Ha!! It is not damaging me, because, I think, ‘Well, human food can never keep a man alive forever,’ and I console myself with the fact that I’ll get a great feed up above (if I’m worthy).
But then I’m struck by this awful thought that they don’t eat food up there. But if there’s something better than brown wholemeal bread, cheese and honey, etcetera, then it can’t be bad.
The March winds are getting angry tonight, which reminds me that I’m twenty-seven on Monday. I must go, the road is just beginning, and tomorrow is another day. I am now 62 kgs and, in general, mentally and physically, I feel very good.
TIMALOY29 on 5TH MARCH 2020 1:51 PM
I was looking at games in the premiership since his breakthrough – games he started vs games he didn’t. We have scored more without him, just. 35 goals in 12 games vs 27 in 9
Including the cups in Scotland against premiership opposition (he started once in Europe so there’s no fair comparison to be drawn) we do indeed score more, just. 41 goals in 14 games vs 28 goals in 10 games.
Our goalscoring record in the Europa League is better without him but he’s only started once
The differences are so small to be insignificant. We don’t score any more goals with him starting than when he doesn’t.
HAMILTONTIM on 5TH MARCH 2020 2:49 PM
Thanks for the post.
TIMALOY29
Having said all that, the way the club is run now, and with the amount of performance data that the coaching staff now have access to, I think that they’ll make their decisions on far more detailed information than what we’re talking about.
The Scottish Cup semi-final between Hearts and Hibernian will be at Hampden Park and will be shown live on BBC One Scotland on Saturday, 11 April.
kick off at 12:15
Celtic and Aberdeen will be the following day at 15:00.
The winners will meet in the final on 9 May – two weeks before the Scottish Premiership season ends – to allow Hampden to be readied for the Euro 2020 finals.
The huns desperate for the season to be called null and void because of coronavirus.
Hamilton Tim
Thank you for posting.
HH
@ RON67 on 5TH MARCH 2020 3:05 PM
Wouldn’t surprise me if these games are played behind closed doors.
From Follow Follow:
“A team bonding dinner in China Buffet King is a must. Mind and lick the plates clean lads.”
“Too late, our team picked it up in Dubai.”
“They cannae pick up a loose ball..nevermind the corona virus !”
“Rest of the season behind closed doors suits me fine.”
season about to be a huge anti climax – games across Europe postponed , matches played behind closed doors. Its all about prevention – expect to see MAJOR disruption in the next few weeks.
BEST case scenario – Games concluded behind closed doors
Worse case scenario – Season null and void due to safety concerns
do you trust SFA/SPFL?
HamiltonTim,
Thanks fella. Great stuff.
Stebhoy
It will be behind closed doors as worse case scenario. The Italians are already starting to do that….
Maybe Gerrard is trying to lull Celtic in to complacency?
You said many weeks ago Paul that Hamilton were a good side and that they would win games and you have been proven right. I’m pleased for their manager “Chipper” Rice who played for ten clubs and has been in a coaching capacity with 8 clubs. Gerard has the aura but the hard graft is missing.
The faces of the 21 victims murdered by the IRA in Birmingham 1974.
May they rest in Peace.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/apr/05/birmingham-pub-bombings-the-victim
Requiescat in Pace .