Celtic V Yokohama FM Wednesday 19th July Celtic TV 11AM

The logical thing to do is put O'Riley further back- he would be a better holding midfielder than Hatate.

 

As long as we act on weaknesses I see no issue with a result like that in pre season.

I expect a lot of movement to come in and go out before September

 

I thought Hatate was outstanding to be honest, suited it down to the ground. Maybe it's just that we need another 10 to potentially replace O'Riley.

 

Watching united vs Lyon now to see if their defence is half as bad

 

O'Riley has the work rate and height that make him a good candidate for a holding midfielder in most games. Hatate is mobile and creative- he'd be wasted on just holding position. We'll see what conclusion Brendan draws from this weird game.

 

It showed that we are shopping in the correct market. Better than us, so keep taking there best players.

 

Exactly. If the champions of Japan can put 6 past the champions of Scotland, then the scouting focus on the J-League is justified.

 

I wouldn't say they are better than us when we get fully up to speed but they are far better and slicker than the likes of Hearts, Hibs, Aberdeen etc would certainly be food for thought in our league though.

 

They'd certainly challenge in our league imo. We need to continue picking standouts in that league. It'll pay dividends.

 

Pre season friendlies tend to be tedious and a waste of time to watch but that was quite entertaining, couldn’t care less about individual performances in these games and wanted a new GK and Leftback months ago

 

A manager who has watched us all season and taken preseason training so far should already have an idea how weak we are in defence. if he's only realising where our strengths and weaknesses are in preseason then we are in bother. Are we only now going to go out scout for players to strengthen our defence. People taking solace in the now Brendan knows we need to strengthen in defence should be worried

 

Surely the scout department already knew how weak we was so was scouting those positions? Bring back Johnston, CCV and imagine Tierney does come? That's us absoloutely rock solid. *pending our August injury crisis

 

While I agree with you, there are still things we can learn from that. Early days but you can see the tactical changes Rodgers will be looking to implement. He obviously will favour a 4-2-3-1 and doesn't look like he'll be inverting full backs, at least not as a pillar of his style. Played Kyogo as a kind of 10/CF hybrid second half too.

Anyway, that's got nothing to do with panicking, but I think the changes in style confirm for us that we need a new 10 and LB, if we didn't know that already. On top of the other positions we need to improve on.

 

Definitely. They are a good side and I felt it was going to be a high scoring game. Good talent coming through over there and the likes of Chelsea and Man Utd starting to turn their heads that way.

 

Well I would hope so. Really it would be nice to have one or two starters in for preseason. Especially in defence it would be good if our back 4 could build up and understanding of each other

 

Got to remember Rodgers isn't playing inverted full backs. Maybe he blamed the defensive weakness on that do wanted to see how we faired first. Plenty time. I'd like a mad tall * tbh.

 

Pish.

 

It is true that friendlies are just that, an ultimately meaningless friendly match but I still find it sad the amount of our supporters who just seem to now meekly accept heavy 4/5/6 goal defeats. Celtic football club should not be conceding 6 goals against ANYONE, friendly or not. It's all about standards. Yes, it's a friendly but does that mean it's ok to play badly, to make individual mistakes, to defend like a pub team? Can you imagine a manager such as Stein, Ferguson or Shankly shrugging their shoulders at a result like that? The result today will have no impact on our domestic campaign but what it does highlight is the clear fact(and it is a fact) that whenever we play a non-Scottish team we struggle defensively and almost never keep a clean-sheet whether it be a friendly or a European tie. Celtic have had more 4/5 goal losses in Europe in the last 5-10 years than we have had in our entire European campaigns up until then. There are several reasons for this, some we can't do much about, such as the obvious step-up in quality from the Scottish league to Champions league but others we can, such as stopping the seemingly never-ending supply of individual mistakes and also adjusting our tactics to take into account the step-up in quality(we are insanely open in our play at times against better teams). So while there is no need to panic the fact remains that we still have lots of work to do with little sign at present that anything significant is going to change.

 

I don't think anyone is panicking, but major questions do need to be asked.

It was obvious last season that we have defensive frailties, and much as I love big Joe I think his time is up.

It's probable that the signings made to date where already in the pipeline before BR came back.

However all I want to hear about now is links to defenders and a new keeper.

Other links, such as Tete, might be more exciting, but I don't see it as a priority. We've got the money, so get the back 5 sorted.