Trending
Celtic News Now
Celtic Quick News on News Now
Celtic Quick News
You are at:»»Wings, engine room, set plays, getting over the line

Wings, engine room, set plays, getting over the line

250
By on CQN BLOG & Comments

Daizen Maeda has not started a game since scoring in the first minute at Ibrox five weeks ago.  His return to action for the last 20 minutes against Hearts last week is surely not enough to see him through 90 minutes tomorrow.

Ahead of that Ibrox game I suggested Callum McGregor’s natural fitness would be enough to make him a starter.  This confidence was misplaced, even Callum needs time to reach peak fitness, the same is true of Daizen.  How to use the player is Brendan Rodgers’ first big decision.

James Forrest’s autumn bloom has been enough to see Celtic into the Scottish Cup Final and maintain a three-point lead at the top of the table.  He played almost all of last week’s win over Hearts, the first time this has happened since November, and he got over an hour at Dundee a week earlier.  Neither James nor Daizen are in a great place to start, though.

My feeling is we will get a combined 90 minutes out of these two, it would be too much of a risk to start two players who are short of full match practice.  Daizen correctly gets the plaudits for spooking Record Loser James Tavernier, but James tormented the defender for years before Daizen, so whoever starts will fill the role well.

Nicolas Kuhn will start on the right.  Brendan likes to freshen up both wings; Luis Palma is only trusted on the left and James is better on the right than Daizen.  That being the case, we can expect Daizen to start on the left, replaced by James around at 65 minutes.  Nicolas will be hooked 10 minutes later, James will move right to allow Luis to fill in on the left.

The engine room is what most worries Newco.  They were schooled by Callum McGregor earlier in the season and are keen to smother his play.  How effective this is will depend on movement around Callum.  In particular, Liam Scales.

Newco allow Liam time on the ball (unlike Cameron).  He needs to make those short 20 yard runs into space, with and without the ball, which will give Celtic options when progressing play.

We seem to have missed Reo Hatate all season, from his bizarre absence at the start of the campaign, to his two lengthy injuries since.  A week ago, he was back at his dynamic best.  If Reo brings the same energy tomorrow, it will be a long afternoon for the visitors.

Newco are the away team and I expect they will use this status as permission to play counterattacking football, which they did successfully in Lisbon against Benfica.  Contain McGregor, press from halfway and break quickly down the wings.  It will be a lung-busting afternoon for all four Celtic defenders, but they are each pacy.

Set-piece plays will be important to Newco.  Inside the box, we can expect theatrics (again), but they will be keen to pick up a freekick pretty much anywhere in the Celtic half, which would give them an opportunity to load the box.  Great play in general can be undone by set plays.  This is Newco’s best bet, expect to see them wait for contact from behind and drop like a sack of spuds.

Only two of Newco’s likely starting 11 have won at Celtic Park before, once with and once without fans.  Those two, Tavernier and Barisic, are expected to be abetted in defence by Soutar and Davies.

No one has confidence in this defence, and we should expect them to do little more with the ball than get rid of it as soon as they receive.  Poor Barisic will still be suffering Abadaicitis every time he hears the Celtic Park crowd roar.  Kuhnicitis is a similar condition and the only known cure is to leave Glasgow.

Two of their number: Cantwell and Silva, strike me as poorly disciplined players who are provoked into lashing out when faced with a talent deficit.  We need to let them play their game and not be distracted from our own.  Both are likely to be carded.

There are lots of reasons to be encouraged ahead of this game.  Celtic are a team who know how to get a league race over the line, we are at home and have no need to be anxious for the win.  Crowd sentiment is notoriously fickle everywhere and Newco will hope to get nerves jangling in the opening 20 minutes.  Our support last week was a real inspiration, same again from all, please

Enjoy your day.

Click Here for Comments >
Share.

About Author

250 Comments
  1. Pages:
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
  9. 7

  3. setting free the bears for Res. 12 & Oscar Knox on

    Interesting stat from Tom English :-

     

     

     

    “This time last season, Celtic were eight points ahead with three to play. The season before it was tighter than usual but it was still six points.

     

    Before that, Rangers took a 20-point lead into this round of fixtures in 2020-21. And in the seasons previously, Celtic’s advantage at the top with three left was nine, 10, 20, nine, 11, 27, 12 and 21 points.”

  4. BelmontBrian on

    Evening all.

     

     

    SFTB

     

    Your surprised about not being questioned by the Celtic turnstile staff about being over 65 , yer having a laugh. :)

     

     

    Frank, the Manager from the Shipbank didn’t ask me for my ID, devistated.

     

     

    ‘Mon the Freisdorfer’

     

     

    :)

  7. Bhoyjoebelfast on

    BADA BING

     

    Graham Bonney sang ‘Hey Supergirl’ ,

     

    BRRB

     

    Graham Bonnet was indeed a member of Wizard.

     

    Graham Bonney starred on ITV show with Ayshea Brough around 69/70.

  8. BelmontBrian on

    A wee trio of tunes that have been mentioned earlier on the blog.

     

     

    Early rise ‘ra ‘morra.

     

     

    MAGUA, I’ll be in touch, a chara.

     

     

    Philippe Clement, you took the bait, banger.

     

     

    Madness – House of Fun

     

    https://youtu.be/GJ2X9SANsME?si=LKqJ6zABy4dn_EFq

     

     

    Fun Boy Three – It Ain’t What You Do It’s The Way That You Do It

     

    https://youtu.be/0_kjctTbMHA?si=VtubAGoSs8Yirarl

     

     

    Fun Fun Fun- The Beach Boys

     

    https://youtu.be/dDHErN3dOkc?si=Yi2g9Q2OXxiytoVd

     

     

    Nite y’all

     

     

    Stay classy

     

     

    Tell your friends, they’ll like it.

     

     

    It’s good to be a Tim

     

     

    HH

     

     

    Brian

  9. ziggydoc1 on

    MELVIN UDALL on 10TH MAY 2024 7:49 PM

     

    The Cure Trio…

     

    ____

     

    I always liked the Cure but somehow never bought many of their albums, at the time. After many recent fruitless years of trying to find really good new music, I switched back to the Cure 13 studio albums with a ton of songs. Absolute magic. What a song this is:

     

    https://youtu.be/gxc16tzqXqo?si=FgB-jDm2sK2_HkNG

  12. Melvin Udall on

    ZIGGYDOC1 on 10TH MAY 2024 8:39 PM

     

    —————

     

    Cheers for that ZD. Will give that a listen. 😃👍

  13. bigrailroadblues on

    Good evening all from the Victoria Bar. You are an absolute shower. So there now.

  14. ziggydoc1 on

    BHOYJOEBELFAST on 10TH MAY 2024 8:37 PM

     

    BADA BING

     

     

    Graham Bonney sang ‘Hey Supergirl’ ,

     

     

    BRRB

     

     

    Graham Bonnet was indeed a member of Wizard.

     

     

    Graham Bonney starred on ITV show with Ayshea Brough around 69/70.

     

    ____

     

    Loved Ayesha. Aside from being a fine looking girl, her show Lift Off, had some great acts. She went with Roy Wood (after big Jimmy dumped her😉).

  16. clunks on

    Rod Stewart would flying to Antwerp this morning to rehearse for the opening show of his European tour

     

     

    Then flying to Glasgow tomorrow morning for the lunchtime Old Firm clash, then back to Antwerp to go on stage tomorrow night!

     

     

    It’s no easy

     

     

    The lengths this bhoy will go to not to have his seat empty….

  18. Bhoyjoebelfast on

    NOTTACLUE1 8:41

     

    Thank you much.Memories of Belfast- Glasgow boat docking at 7am,then breakfast in national cafe,Gallowgate,Morrisons under the bridge then, to Benny’s bar,Gorbals X then Celtic Park.

     

    ●ZIGGYDOC1 ‘lift Off’, couldn’t remember the shows title. thanks for that.

     

    CQN CSC.

  19. Tom McLaughlin on

    Well at least we know the Airdrie bams won’t be darkening our doors next season.

  20. David66 on

    Brian Graham of PTFC it’s the wee man’s communion tomorrow, go on son….

     

     

    HH

     

     

    D. :)

  22. An Tearmann on

    Clunks

     

    Yeh the lengths he’ll go to see ol frim,in his named seat and his reb singin in No7,had big Ped cringin as he never heard such a polite reb song

     

     

    Aye your famous now yi got a name check from 419,418s big bro! :-))

     

     

    HH

  23. lets all do the huddle on

    Jeez. Imagine having to queue to get into a football stadium with a crowd approaching 60,000.

     

    —

     

     

    behave.

     

     

    you know thats not what i said.

     

     

    there was a system.

     

     

    they changed the system.

     

     

    and as a result made things worse for the paying customers.

     

     

    not difficult to understand

  24. TheOriginalSadiesBhoy on

    I don’t know if any of you guys watched Leverkusen v Roma last night. I’ve just watched it tonight. The English commentator points out that Bayer have gone 49 games unbeaten and points out that Slough and a couple of other English lower league teams have done something similar BUT then points out that Celtic went 65 games without defeat around the time of WW 1. He then repeated that stat at the end of the game. During the first game in Rome he mentioned how Frimpong had played for Celtic on a couple of occasions. I’ll have to find out who he is.

  29. G Fearon on

    TheOriginalSadiesBhoy on 10th May 2024 10:08 pm

     

     

    Was it not something like a backhanded compliment, “Celtic have gone 65 games but that was back in the 30’s and before European football” and pretty much dismissed it.

  30. leftclicktic on

    Well done to partick thistle for beating that airdrie shower.

     

    We have enough currants in our league without the thought of them coming up.

  31. dessybhoy on

    Tosb

     

    Paul Dempsey Irish sports commentator covers football and boxing think he is a tic fan.

  33. clunks on

    Has 418 evolved to a 419??

     

     

    its like watching the elemental soup (mostly shite) evovle into a better elemental soup (mostly still full of shite)

     

     

    I bet its how God looked down on earth billions of years ago

     

     

    lol

  34. ziggydoc1 on

    LEFTCLICKTIC on 10TH MAY 2024 10:24 PM

     

    Well done to partick thistle for beating that airdrie shower.

     

     

    We have enough currants in our league without the thought of them coming up.

     

    ____

     

    Would like to see Partick come up. Up against Raith next, who must be favourites (plastic pitch, I think). I think if it’s Ross County, they’ll stay up. If it’s St J, I think they’re going down.

  35. matty mcghee on

    CLUNKS on 

     

    Has 418 evolved to a 419??

     

     its like watching the elemental soup (mostly shite) evovle into a better elemental soup (mostly still full of shite)

     

     I bet its how God looked down on earth billions of years ago

     

     lol

     

    ..…

     

    At least he didn’t tell lies, and who is God, have you ever seen him?

     

     

    Hi, remember yon time you banned me…well I`m back.

     

    You take care.

  38. clunks on

    MATTY MCGHEE

     

     

    Can’t imagine why I banned you….

     

     

    Did you evolve or devolve to get back on?

  40. clunks on

    Did you enjoy cucking on the internet whilst 418/419 etc etc blazed a trail of nonsense

     

     

    So glad you are back and not hiding behind the curtains making strange noises….

  1. Pages:
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
  9. 7