Interesting article in today's Guardian blog (see link above).
I'm not sure I agree. I've been watching Celtic steadily decline since last March and I'm not convinced that the poor form was simply a case of Celtic cruising to the title. If it was, I'm not convinced that they can simply take their foot off the break and step up a gear come Sunday. Right now, we have a shaky defence and a mis-firing forward line.
We have a whole bunch of "quality" (and highly paid) players simply not performing. Some never have (Virgo, Jarosik), some are hot and cold (Gravesen, Hesselink) and some are simply picking up their pay cheques (Balde, Zurawski). The best player in pre-season has been McGeady, and Brown stood out like a sore thumb on Sunday supposedly surrounded by "top quality" international players.
The signs are not good.
Not been on for a while as was on holiday in Paris for a week and redecorating the house for another 10 days which left me pretty knackered - age has caught up with me.
ReplyDeleteThink you are spot on there Bobby. Looking at Celtic on TV I was a bit bewildered by the performances at the end of last season. The displays against Milan being the exception.
I only watched a couple of pre season friendlies but the defence is shaky and forward line shot shy. Brown is a great buy but we really needed a forward too. I was unsure of Wilson but pre season he looks improved. However I think Whittaker to Rangers is a master stroke for them.
Strachan has done well but I have my doubts. I think in terms of presence on the park that Lennon will be a big miss. I don't see us having an experienced player in midfield that will replace him. Look at what Milan did with their older players.
In saying that if we can up the tempo of the play that will be an improvement. Maybe the team needs time to gel. Problem is that the European tie looks awful especially with the artificial surface.
I think we will increasingly rely on Nakamura. Mcgeady is also very important. I prefer him to Riordan who I think seems more reluctant to take on people or move the ball forward. I hope Kennedy improves in the friendlies he looked out of position too many times.
On a positive we seemed to have stopped playing Graveson. We can't play him and expect to sell him. Every display detroys a bit more of his reputation. I think Bjarnasson(?) looks like he could be a great player I'd give him a good run of games. I'm disappointed in Hartley and I would prefer Balde to Pressley. I heard Celtic were 6 to 4 on - very short odds. But I hope the bookies are right.
I think we are going to have a very slow start to the season that will mean The Huns being quite a bit ahead of us in the league before we get our act together.
ReplyDeleteI can see us being well beaten in Moscow next week, maybe 3-0, making it very difficult to recover.
If we are out of Europe so early there will be a lot of pressure on Strachan.
I'm fed up with hearing him trying to be funny with the quips to journalists and telling us how he will sort the defensive lapses out on the training ground.
I predict we will be as bad as last season and The Huns will improve under Smith (although I'm not taken in by the media bias that they show at the start of every season to them).
Hope I am wrong (and I usually am) about this but things could be better.