One week tomorrow we are in Europa League action at home to Zenit St Petersburg , the Russians first competitive game since going into winter shutdown on 11 December.
Zenit have played five friendlies in the last three weeks, conformably beating Danish, Czech and Chinese opposition, all of who were also on a winter break, before drawing 0-0 with Slovan Bratislava on Sunday. The Slovaks are two weeks away from returning to competitive action.
Zenit manager, Roberto Mancini, did very little squad rotation during his five warm-up games, clearly with an eye on getting his starting 11 ready to face Celtic. He also stuck to a narrow 4-2-2-1-1 system in each game.
Zenit use this formation semi-regularly, but its repetition in each of the friendly games suggest Mancini sees winning control of the middle of the park against Celtic as a priority. This will present Celtic with problems and opportunities. We are unlikely to control as much of the ball as you would expect at home in Europe, but our strength in the wings presents Brendan Rodgers with a clear strategy.
I don’t believe in reading too much into the results of friendly games, but I hope Celtic scouts took in the Slovan game. Zenit scored 15 goals in their three proceeding games, so how Slovan stopped their attack will be of interest.
Mancini and his players are now back in Russia having left their summer training bases. They play our old pals Maribor in St Petersburg on Saturday in their final preparation before the game in Glasgow. Brendan will be occupied with thoughts of two hugely important cup games in the coming week, but if he gets through the Partick Thistle test on Saturday, he may be glad of the competitive experience. This is a time Game Face, not friendlies.
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its intrigued me for years, ive always thought that ian st john was a tim, does sot know or any of the older tims.hh.
Glad he didnt get to Celtic
Albert Kidd
Gene
Tidy wee player I’m too young to remember him, but he’d a Bobby Charlton
combover as well.
Bada Bing,
Frank McDougall was a big Celtic man. He would have loved to have played for the Bhoys!
HH
TET
See my earlier post.
ETIMS have struggled for years to keep up, but surely to GHOD they lowered the bar
with the latest.
BIG PACKY,
I couldn’t say for sure but I have always thought that Ian St John had a preference for the deid team.
TET
When I started reading it I thought it was a parody and expected a punchline :(
The Exiled Tim
Have to agree with you re Etims. Shocking piece!
Wont be venturing back there in a hurry.
Think it was BSP who led me to it so I’ll put down to a Bourne Conspiracy.
Chic Charnley.
PS. Ian St John never a tim.
PARKHEADCUMSALFORD, ah well poor man.hh
TeT
Just had a look at Etims, I don’t normally read after the endless false transfer rumour’s. I’ve lost count of the number of times he’s said John McGinn is a done deal.
Anyway, what a load of cobblers he’s written today. To summarise, Celtic players all want pie and chips for lunch, they’ve chucked it, the supporters are out of order, Brendan is off to Chelsea and he needs challenged about it, and then says we CAN win the Europa League. An absolute embarrassing pile of nonsense, a complete absence of any facts and nothing but innuendo fuelled by last weekends defeat and his own petted wee lip.
Glad to see I am not the only one re the E Tims piece, always looked them as they didn’t take themselfs to seriously, but dearie me, that was so out of order today, the hun media couldn’t have done a better job had they tried.
Top players will train all day long, the harder they train the better thay become, the better life standard they get, it’s really no rocket science and our Brendan will know who are the keepers, time it will take to build the team, will he see it through, I am hopeful.
I prob won’t right enough, I am not willing to stress masel out with the game any more if the huns take center stage again, this is the chance to fix scottish football, either it gets sorted or I’m gone.
HH
Paul Sturrock Paul Hegarty
EXCATHEDRA44, at least i can put that one to bed.hh.
!!BADA BING!! forgot about hegarty never thought of sturrock as a tim you learn something everyday.hh.
Leave Etims to itself. This is CQN.
Many thanks to Torontony,WHITEDOGHUNCH,Gary67,JEEZITHOUGHT BLINKERWASPANTS and JMcCormack for Lisbon information.well appreciated by me and I hope the 7 ladies ,who won’t include daughter no.2 ,’as Celtic are playing Zenit on Thursday’.
Paul Sturrock…….never a tim.
Seems Zenit beat Red Star 1:0 with a 23rd minute Yerokhin goal.
Ian St John
My Dad took me to see Motherwell beating Flamengo 9-2.1960 (?) Ian St John scored 6.That was a good Motherwell team.Humped the Deady Bears 5-2 in a Cup replay at Ibrox.
what about the hardmen, the tough tacklers lets make it the whole british isles and ireland.lets go dave mckay norman hunter the guy from chelsea cant remember his name bertie auld could tackle johnny giles paul mcgrath .hh.
Chopper Harris, thug of thugs. Kicked Eddie Gray out of the FA Final replay.
PARKHEADCUMSALFORD, thats the guy good description.hh.
BIG PACKY on 7TH FEBRUARY 2018 5:57 PM
me
FAVOURITE UNCLE, i heard you could tackle.hh.
Sturrock was a guess….
BREAKING NEWS.
A MAN WHO TOOK AIRLINE TOO COURT FOR LOST LUGGAGE.
HAS LOST HIS CASE
No idea if Paul Sturrock is or was a Tim and don’t much care…. BUT….
What a player and one I prayed would join us (along with David Narey)
He was a skelf of a man but so brave and a tremendous talent….played in a Celtic way.
Quite properly Jim Maclean wasn’t that keen on his players joining any other rival club.
Paul was built for Celtic.
HH
Hardest player I saw was defender for Juniors team Duntocher Hibs in late 50’s early 60’s. His name was Reilly, and I think his brother was a winger for them at same time. Pat Crerand player for them as well.
!!BADA BING!! on 7TH FEBRUARY 2018 8:18 PM
Sturrock was a guess….
——————————————
His Autobiography had foreword by the Cardigan OBE perhaps due to previous association at D.Utd ?
Media reporting that Sevco have secured a funding deal with Close Bros.
Their office is two doors down from Lenders of Last Resort.
Funding based on future income.
Looks like Phil was spot on with this one.
The twitter sphere getting excited about Sevco securing an overdraft.
Two things – imagine a £3 million overdraft facility causing such interest. It wouldn’t even buy a half of Morelos.
Second – if this cold shouldering thing is imminent how come this crowd are getting involved?
I’ve no doubt Sevco are skint but what’s happened to the stadium issues that were going to get the place shut down? What about the admin?
I’m not saying I don’t believe those stories but they’ve died a death. If Ibrox is still a h&s hazard why is no one talking about it anymore?
I’ve no doubt there’ll be some onerous conditions placed on this o/d facility and I suspect that as shareholders in the company Close Brothers might want to position themselves as chief creditors or something but I also smell bull
BIG PACKY on 7TH FEBRUARY 2018 6:46 PM
!!BADA BING!!,,apologies remember him now, didnt know he was a tim.hh.
*played against his uncle over here, top Tim who left us as a result of alz.
wtf is going on on bbc 4 telly at the moment – what is she wearing-why can’t we go back to the open university video glory days?
Getting ready to face up to the long journey home from Melbourne. Had a great visit from the professional perspective and met many dedicated people.
Meeting Melbourne Mick was a great pleasure and is a special memory which I shall take home with me. It was great to sit and reminisce yet so far from both our original homes.
I recommend meeting up with Mick to anyone who comes down this way. Remember to bring your Guinness vouchers and sit down for a wonderful and wide ranging chat about Celtic. Great craic and a chance to meet a huge Celtic Mhan.
THIRDS63 on 7TH FEBRUARY 2018 8:21 PM
No idea if Paul Sturrock is or was a Tim and don’t much care…. BUT….
===========================================================
Perhaps you misunderstood my comment re Sturrock. I made no comment as to his ability
I don’t much care either,my response was input to a question started by Big Packy at 5.57 which was : Tims who probably would have liked to play for us ( Celtic ).
Thereafter various names emerged,one of which submitted was Sturrock,hence my comment he was not a Tim.
Thom – do you know about finance companies etc? I haven’t a clue. If you do would you have any idea if this is about putting ducks in a row in some wider get out of debt without paying it back scheme or is it simple desperation? Would bomber need to be asking to see ‘ra deeds’ again and if so will he find them in a safe at close brothers until they get their cash back (stop laughing)
Or do they just want to stop phil max saying ‘without a credit line from a bank’ in all of his articles???
Tims who would’ve loved to play for us? Easy. Me, my family, most of my mates.