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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WHAT IS THE STARS
Perfect fit for wanna be sevconians:))
WHATISTHESTARS
It’s a scary read. I’d be checking my insurance policies,and if I saw any mention of Close Bros,changing that.
BMCUWP
Dignity !!!
Anyway we shouldnt be laughing at Rangers…. not now that managerless Celtic are in the middle of a crisis with want away players feigning injury
Batty Boris for Manager
WHATISTHESTARS
Well at least Boris will give the NHS £350m a week to treat our players!!!
KINGLUBO
2 lunchtime choons for you –
https://youtu.be/u7ZC-kv8THk
https://youtu.be/ZSh11ZzvKOw
CAN BLUE MEN SING THE WHITES ?
https://youtu.be/Gw-TVrR8wZc
Is nobody else prepared to give Brendan till the end of the season to see if he can turn things around?
No, just me then?
Close Bros will have done their homework on this and it might be in their interests for sevco to go into financial meltdown. If as stated they have Edmiston House and especially the Albion car park as security. Why?
Well that area must be one of the few places in Britain where one of the big supermarkets, in this case Asda, don’t have at least a Lidl or an Aldi within farting distance of their front door.
The nearest Lidl is in Govan next to the Suffering General and the nearest Aldi is in Cardonald, in proximity to Morrison’s.
THE EXILED TIM on 8TH FEBRUARY 2018 10:45 AM
My wife is not trained in criminal psychology as yours is but she always maintains that serial killers start on animals.
Greenpinata – thanks also for the reply
I have an ex-school mate who devotes a lot of his time to run the Friends of Springburn Park which organises events in the park for the local community. It must be even more repulsive for people like him to find that this has happened in the place that they support so well.
So hard to trace people like this but i hope that the police can get them.
SOUTHOFTUNIS
Thanks for that, Elmore and Etta, phenominal. There’s tons of virtually undiscovered stuff out there and it’s brilliant when you discover it for sure.
I’m not tunnel visioned, I love all music with the exception of Folk, Modern Jazz and Rap I suppose , but music to me is all about feeling. There is a terrific concert in Baloise, Switzerland with Eric Clapton, the guys is the band are fantastic, so so much feeling.
But there you go.
Look forward to your next choon, sure it will be great.
Ciao
KINGLuBO
Batty Boris –
” We Italians can now safely go on weekend breaks to the country formerly known as Great Britain . . No more being subjected to finger pointing accompanied by those humiliating words -Silvio Berlusconi -they wouldn’t dare -how could they with the likes of Boris Johnson , Liam Fox and David Davis in their closet ?”
La Repubblica 12 /1 /2018
HJ
And she would be correct.
HH
new article posted.
KINGLUBO
That’s in Basel every year KL, The Baloise Sessions, lots of good musicians at it:)) It’s a kinda dinner jazz club type vibe, the Mrs got me Herbie Hancock tickets a few years back for my birthday, big treat for me as it’s quite pricey. Oct/Nov is no bad in Basel for music and Autumn Fair thingy.
https://www.baloisesession.ch/en
Bobby Murdoch’s Winklepecker You knowing Willie Millar,were did you stay back in the day.