Anthony Stokes

i put stokes and hooper back in, as in our best spell in jan and feb,

 

Samaras has arguablly being our best player against rangers this season.. has won everything in the air, has ripped davie weir a new * everytime.

there was no reason to drop samaras on sunday, but i do think stokes should ave been brought on at least at the start of extra time.

 

For me while Samaras has done well against the huns and as such I can see why he started Sunday Stokes and Hooper our are best starting partnership up front. Some of the combination play we have seen from them together has been outstanding and they both are much more prolific goalscorers then Samaras. So for me it is Stokes and Hooper up front from the start against Inverness.

 

i am going of stokes, very quick here, why the * is he telling all to the * sun a paper that would hang us in 2 minutes, first he says he is telling his da to * out of his business, and his da says it wasn't him that told the sun paper anything, then he admits it to the sun. that they the sun are telling the * truth, sine die the * if its true, we don't * need toys out the pram
http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/spl/3485423/Stokes.html

 

maybe he has an attitude problem, he has plenty to say for himself,

 

Stokes should have started instead of Samaras, and even though he didnt, should 100% have been brought on for him at half time. Samaras done nothing decent all game. He cant even pass a short ball, he just put no power whatever in his passing and lost the possesion constantly. He was greedy, and trying to show off instead of create chances. Also if you watch his last 3-4 games he has a bad habit of taking the ball outside the oppositions box, turning and running back with it or giving it away. Anyone saying he was a threat or problem to Rangers needs to watch again.

How many has he scored this season? Compared to the top scorer and assister in the club... its an easy choice for me, Stokes every time.

 

You can't blame one player.. What did Commons and Hooper contribute.. A cross for Brooney's header , a ball played low into the box that Papac nearly O.G'd and a straightforwad pass or two was about all I can remember from the the pair of them combined..

Sammy put a peach of a cross onto the penalty spot in the first half and there wasn't a single Celtic player gambling on it..
For whatever reasons our forward play broke down almost as soon as it began..

Since the 2-0 Ibrox game Stokes has hit 9 goals and I don't think he's featured in any of the recent huns games so that has to be the most dissapointing thing.. We have the squad to compete in all domestic competitions so any failure to compete has to be down to not getting the best out of the players..

I just hope Stokes and Lenny don't have any issues between them..

 

can see this heading into a skippy stlye want away, and him saying im the top goal scorer here gee me more money or i am off *.

 

Getting sick of people banging on about he should have started just because he has scored the most goals this season first of all we do not pick the teams our opinion do not matter when it comes to this .

Lennon is the manager it is his job to pick a team based on winning the game he has gone with Sammy in the past and it has worked so going with Sammy again was the correct choice .

Football today is a squad game just look at Man utd in the champions league the other week dropped Berbatov the striker who has scored the most goals and played Chicharito because the manager felt he was correct for that game it was the same with Lennon picking Sammy ahead of Stokes.

Fergie went with Chicharito based on him running in behind the defence his pace and movement .

Lennon went with Sammy as he is a out ball some one that can hold the ball up bring other players into the game he also drags defenders with him leaving space for more players to support.

 

Calm down, Stokes said today that he is commited to Celtic and would spend the rest of his carreer he is possible. No need for that attitude when you read a story coming from a newspaper ffs wait untill you know the facts.

 

Lenny should have played our top goalscorer Anthony Stokes against Rangers, it was a tactical blunder IMO. The Hooper / Samaras pairing had been wearing thin and was not producing goals, so what good was it ? Plus it didn't work in the Scottish Cup Replay against Rangers as they had got wise to it.Lenny should have used the element of surprise on Rangers by playing Stokes, and kept Sammy back for the last half hour to be unleashed against them.Why has Lenny broke up our most prolific striking partnership in the first place, should be the most pertinent question levelled at him ? It is also not fair that whenever Stokes does play he is always the first to be subbed by Lenny, so it must be terribly frustrating for him. I just hope there are no issues between the pair, because if there is, it is not good man management.

 

I wanted Sammy to start.. I feel it keeps the huns defence deep , the midfielder furthur back and isolates their striker so the majority of chances they get are half chances for one guy , rather than good link-up play.. Maybe Izzaguire not being so dominant this time around meant the huns could involve their wide players more in our half.. I don't know if the huns got wise to it or if our own familiarity led to complacency.. It's proved to be succesfull in the past so maybe players were happy to be bit-part players rather than forcing the issue.. In that Scottish cup replay Sammy hit the post late on and in the 1st game he was given off-side when at least a yard on and with just the keeper to beat so I think there was reason to go with it again.. He nearly always works the keeper at some point in an OF game except for Sunday..
Im not keen on keeping players back for later in the game.. I think Strachan kept Sammy back (And Mcgeady) for later in the game in what was a 0-0 home draw with the huns at the end of Strachans last season and it looked an obvious blunder.. If you value a player as being the better option then you have to go with him from the start , it just leaves the question of are we paying too much respect to the huns because we have a seperate way of attacking them than we do with the Stokes/Hooper partnership for the majority of SPL games.. Maybe Lenny is guilty of playing what he thinks are percentages , not thinking it weakens us... Hard to say..

 

what is it that, i need to wait on the "facts", the facts are, he never got picked and he threw out the toys, not only that, he then still slipped it in he was not happy, not getting on the pitch, and i think he would have been told as to why he was not getting picked before the kick off, he gets paid to take orders simple, i have seen all the moves before it leads to getting out of contracts, there is good money to be made dodging about club to club. as you say he wants to stay well he could start by keeping Celtic business in house, it don't help me none, reading and giving the sun paper, a sniff of anything about Celtic. and i am sure that must be in his contract hope this is clear enough

 

Facts are, his dad threw out the toys, not him, he denied wanting to leave and said his dad was wrong to say that, he wants to stay at Celtic for life and he has done nothing wrong. Simple.

 

loved the bit in the paper today at the end "The Scottish sun didnt lie" smell that ??

 

no matter what his DA done, he should have kept his gub shut, to the papers, its Celtic business that he ain't getting picked, these same *, the reporters are going to be hanging about like a bad smell, digging up Shiite about a feud, anything at all, and i say if stokes wants it to happen, he and his DA will work the oracle

 

Sometimes you have to put pressure on in an overt or subtle way to get your message across to the powers that may be to make your intentions crystal clear on the matter.We have ten games to win the league, ten wins will guarantee the league flag flies over Paradise. Stokes and Hooper are goal machines, seperately and even more so together.I would not be at all surprised to see Anthony Stokes start in all ten of those games now.

 

Really hope he does. Him and Hooper are the partnership to fire us to the league title. Most definately.