2016/17 Pre-Season Discussion Thread

Said it for ages, but any criticism towards Griffiths here is seen as Hunish!

I don't know, I just don't see why people think he is so special, he rarely delivers at higher levels, his finishing in general is terrible he is just lucky we create a lot of chances in this * poor SPL, in games where we struggle he rarely provides any spark that a true good player would, poor mans Inzaghi tbh, should be an impact sub at best, should not be leading the line for us especially if we get into CL.

 

It's harder to score goals for Celtic than people make out though, people always act as if we create much more chances than anyone but we don't really.

We play against much more defensive tactics than anyone else in the SPL so our strikers are more closely marked and have less time and space to operate in so their movement, touch, finishing etc all have to be better than other players.

Adam Rooney is a very average player who i we played him as much as we did Griffiths last season probably wouldnt have scored 10/15 goals nowhere near 40 for sure as he has less pace, less quality and would be much more easy to mark also incapable of scoring from distance or creating his own goals like Griffiths.

 

Griffiths is 26 in August, when Hooper was with us he was 22/23/24/25 when he was scoring against Spartak Moscow x 2, Udinese, Rennes, Braga, Helsingborg and Helsinki. 7 goals in 19 games for Hooper in Europe and amongst them you had 6 games against Barca, Juventus, Benfica and Atletico Madrid. A calibre of opposition Griffiths hasn't came close to playing against. So if you took those 6 games away the rest of the opposition he came up against were more of the level Griffiths has played against and that gives you 7 goals in 13 games in Europe. That's a goal in less than every two games in Europe for a Celtic striker which is a very good record.

Then when you compare with Griffiths who's got 4 goals in 20 games in Europe including one against part time Icelandic opposition. In games against Salzburg, Ajax, Inter, KR Reykjavik, Legia, Molde and Quarabag he failed to get a goal against any, he was given ample opportunity in each game to do so and failed in all of them, he can't cut the mustard at that level as a Celtic striker and we need to find someone who can. A 1 goal in 5 game ratio isn't good enough for a Celtic striker in Europe. I'm not being unfair I'm just pointing out facts.

 

He played out wide against Legia and Reykjavik though, has been a sub in quite a few games and he also scored a perfectly good goal against Astra away that was disallowed as the Ref said he fouled the defender when he never touched him. Not too bad a record.

 

Exactly. It's harsh, but if we want to do anything in Europe again then relying on Griffiths is not the answer.

You're argument is true to an extent, a lot of players don't have the mentality to play here or cope with the pressure on Celtic strikers to score every week. However, I still believe on average we create more chances than the rest of the Scottish clubs in their matches per week, meaning our strikers have more chances to score goals than the rest.

Look at Scott McDonald, was averaging 15 goals a season at Motherwell before he joined us, he then joins us and doubles that tally scoring 31 because we were creating more chances in front of goal than Motherwell were. That's what happens when you play for us imo, you always get more chances to score as a striker due to the much better level of player they are playing around every week to open up the opposition more hence creating more scoring chances.

 

Also goes the other way though, like Stokes joined us and didnt score more than he did at Hibs or Falkrik, scored about the same. K.Miller scored less for us than for Hibs or the Huns, Killen couldnt score in a barrel of fannies for us despite scoring something like 15 goals in 20 odd games for Hibs, Niall McGinn went from scoring barely any with us to about 15 a season at Aberdeen.

A player like Adam Rooney is probably similar to Killen or that Lithuanian the huns signed Velikos or something who played for Hearts who were good goalscorers for wee SPL teams but would struggle to score a goal for the likes of Celtic.

 

I remember the goal against Astra away and you're spot on there it was wrongly disallowed which was why I didn't include Astra as a team he hadn't scored against in Europe.

However, he has had many big chances against Ajax home and away, Salzburg at home, Molde home and away, Inter at home in which he has fluffed. A semi decent striker at that level who can handle the pressure at least takes a few of those chances. We shouldn't risk relying on him again in Europe this coming season.

 

I agree with you anyway, hes a level below Hooper and it would be good to have a Hooper type player again but Griffiths has done a great job for his price as did Stokes and McDonald who were also not Hooper level.

Those types of player are always needed at Celtic even in the best of times like if Martin O'Neill had a Griffiths when he was manager instead of Fernandez, Beattie, Maloney as 4th choice we'd have been better off even then or in 2004/05 when we had Camara.

Canny really take them for granted.

 

Yeah, bottom line anyway is that I just don't think we should be trusting Griffiths as our number one striker for years to come and I don't think Brendan will either. Every manager likes to bring in his own players and I think he'll bring in a striker who he trusts and wants.

 

But you are comparing him to gary hooper and a team that was much better than our team has been under ronny deila.

And remember that was griffiths first 'full' season playing week in week out he only had a half season when he first joined and was shunned by deila for months when he first came, so it was his first crack at a season being the number 1 choice and he netted 40 goals... Who knows what can happen next season, but all i see is a guy gettin better and better.

 

Agree totally, I get the impression however that Griffiths thinks he should be Celtics number one striker and I don't think he'll be happy with a place on the bench for the BIG matches. Like you said, we need another player of the Hooper calibre variety again or better this coming season. Hopefully Brendan and the scouts have something up their sleeve, cough Soriano cough :icon_mrgreen:.

 

As I have said in the thread already though, that doesn't excuse the many big chances he had against Ajax home and away, Salzburg at home, Molde home and away, Malmo away and Inter at home in which he has missed glaring opportunities to get us goals from. There is no other excuse for that other than he hasn't got it at that level, the same way Stokes didn't have it at that level although I do rate Griffiths higher than Stokes.

Let's not also forget his very stupid knee in the balls he dished out to a player in the game against Malmo away in which had any official seen it would have seen him red carded and us down to 10 men in our most important game of the season in a game worth about a £20M fortune to us. I don't forget things like this easily. Same goes for Browns stamp on a Karagandy player in our home 2nd leg play off tie. Some players just can't be trusted at times when games aren't going our way.

 

Rogic and Brendan getting on well

Contract in the bag

 

Wheres Commons? maybe had to order in special XXXXL training gear for him and its not arrived yet.

 

Big Ajer getting his first training session as well

 

Is that Darnell Fisher?

 

aye noticed that myself

 

aye

 

So from what I gather from today...

Commons and Boyata were there today but didn't take part in training with what you would presume them being injured. Just noticed there Simunovic was at Lennoxtown as well today but didn't train because of injury.

I also didn't see Gordon or Bailly in the pics but guessing they were.

Other notable absentees.....

Johansen - Extra time off due to International duties, back for Slovenia

Bitton - Extra time off due to International duties, back for Slovenia

Scepovic - Wants away?

Lustig - At the Euros

Mulgrew - Currently out of contract but think he'll have been given extra time off due to International duty and he'll be travelling to Slovenia to prove himself worthy of a new contract

Emilio Izaguirre - Extra time off due to International football, back for Slovenia

GMS - Presumably injured?

Everyone else accounted for.