I thought this was a very good performance today. It was a good open game and Falkirk played some nice stuff. It was notable that Celtic speeded up and became more skillful and confident when Maloney came on for Jan. Maloney won't score the goals that McDonald or Venegoor of Hesselink will, but he does bring a different dimension and I think a more attractive style of football.
Loovens had a good debut, as did Maloney (if it counts as a debut). Brown is also beginning to look hungry again. Maybe he realises that his place is not guaranteed with Robson and now Crosas waiting to replace him.
It has been a while since there has been a standing ovation at Celtic Park for a single piece of skill, but Naka's nutmeg of the left-back followed by turning the poor guy inside out deserved the reception it got. I'm sure it will feature on You Tube and will be worth seeing again.
There was a load of good footballers in the Celtic team today (McGeady, Maloney, Nakamura, Crosas) and they seemed to enjoy turning on the style just as much as I enjoyed watching it.
Here's hoping I'm just as happy next weekend.
Naka's skill is now on
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Very pleased to see Maloney back at Celtic Park. A bit bewildered by some of the embittered fans I was talking to on Friday who tried to argue that he wouldn't improve the team/he's a money grebber we shouldn't have him back etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteIt's plain to see he's far superior to those in the current squad with the exception of Naka (when he can be arsed) and McGeady (when 2 or 3 defenders aren't marking him out of the game). So why cut off your nose ?
Having more technically gifted players in the team has a cumulative effect because now the opposition have to do more than stick two guys on McGeady or try not to give Nake a free-kick to nullify us (Sean is not bad with a free-kick either).
Another argument was that he is undeed a good player but not worth £2.5m. Leaving aside £9m for Hutton and Gordon, we have another case of fans being suckered by tabloid spin.
Daily Record headline "CELTS PAY £2.5m FOR MALONEY" - dig a bit deeper and you'll find the quote "the champions [must sicken them to say that] COULD end up shelling out AS MUCH AS £2.5m with add-ons".
Either Lawwell or someone at the Record has a crystal ball and is able to assure us that Maloney's performances will trigger payment of all additional clauses in the agreement. After this it's the lottery numbers.
Or else it's just the usual spin.
Nearly had to turn the radio off today (BBC) as every five minutes the commentator had to refer back to Celtic's controversial opening goal that "may have went in off McManus's arm or shoulder". The commentator's angle seemed to be that even if the ball came off Mick's shoulder it was such a close call that he should really have chalked it off anyway. [See Pressley not being sent off at ICT for not committing a foul Dec '07 for precedent of loyal media twisted logic].
Describing the second goal he also remarked "and the linesman failed to raise his flag". There was nothing debatable enough about that goal to warrant much comment from anyone else so maybe it just stuck in his throat. Also a number of references were made to the "fact" that the free-kick from which McManus scored was a dodgy award.
With the huns getting a goal wrongly disallowed today [swoon!] there was much hand wringing and gnashing of teeth by Fat DJ, Wishart & co about the standard of refeeing and the need for video evidence followed by a deluge of paranoid hun callers complaining about the conspiracy of the unseen fenian hand.
It's hilarious really - Celtic get the benefit of a couple of debatable decisions [all decisions against us swept under the carpet] and suddenly there is a refereeing crisis with a summit being arranged at Hampden Park to address these distressing developments and the media going into meltdown.
I say - video evidence? Bring it on.
Video evidence would have shown that the Nakamura free-kick against St. Mirren back in Feb WAS a free-kick. Well if the media can keep raking it up 6 months later so can I.
Think how many decisions in favour of the Huns would have to be reversed. Maybe this is why DJ, Pishart and Ned Flanders were against the idea on Radio Snide.
Interestingly one caller to Snide pointed out that the free-kick that led to the huns goal today was of the highly debatable variety. Quite sensibly Wishart & co dismissed this as a valid concern pointing out that Aberdeen still had the opportunity to defend the free-kick. You know, the same argument they used to defuse all the fuss about Celtic's corner at Motherwell last season...ahem anyway...
I will make my own crystal ball prediction - it's all well and good getting one or possibly two decisions your way in Auhust but I will bet you my taxi fare home that if the league is a close thing in April/May, Rangers will benefit from at least one Davis-McCurry special.
To hell with it... make it my taxi fare and kebab money.
I know I'm on a high but Naka could become the greatest ever Celt in the next 2 years
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