Liel Abada

Just feels to me like there are so many in here desperate to put the boot in and see him leave the club.

Abada is an exciting young Celtic winger who was a massive part of our success under Ange. He's just coming back from injury and instead of supporting him and hoping he can help us win the league, so many in here just want to pile in on him.

 

Seeing a lot of 'his end product is decent' sort of comments, let's not be silly and airbrush out how insanely lethal the guy has been when on his game. For a good 14-16 months he was a phenomenal finisher and assister. Don't anyone let their current feelings on him make you forget that.

 

You even watch Celtic games?

 

He was good at being in the right place at the right time, and capable of producing some good finishes. He was never absolutely lethal.

And again, that was a long time ago now. For 12-16 months he’s been mince. 5 goals in a calendar year for a Celtic winger is grim.

 

Neither of you have refreshed your memories by watching the video. Actually that's not surprising, you're two of the most stubborn * on here when it comes to doubling down on opinions

 

We can debate him as player..

But, he looks as if his heart isn't in now and that's massive.

 

No arguments there. I'd been holding out hope he could start getting his * together but last night was * horrendous. 100% finished here.

 

You spelt Maeda wrong

 

How do you explain the drop in form of Kyogo, Maeda and Johnston then? Or the fact BR has frozen out Iwata? All these players including Abada share 2 common traits: they are poor with the ball at their feet and they rely heavily on their pace. At the same time, O'Riley who's terrific on the ball is playing the best football of his career.

Football is a team game. Fit matters. You can't possibly play a possession-heavy style with 3 pressing forwards in Maeda-Kyogo-Abada. They were excellent under Ange. Unfortunately, they are a poor fit in our current system. Give BR a couple of crafty wingers (we had Paddy Roberts during his first stint) and a legit target man (Dembele/Edouard) and we'd be cruising right now. Easier said than done, obviously.

 

Yes.

Almost every week for the best part of 40 years.

That makes no relevance to the fact that you're spouting complete and utter *.

 

I don’t need to watch the video. He had a knack for scoring goals and popping up in good areas.

That’s been gone for a long time now.

 

Appreciate some of your points but iwata has been injured, not frozen out. Last comments he made about him were positive. Also, as a highly paid, “big name” manager, I would expect him to be able to adapt his tactics to suit the players at his disposal. That’s just not happening. And while a lot of the blame sits with the board, I still don’t think he’s off the hook. We look toothless and fragile with numerous players regressing. That’s on him. If it’s not his job to get the best out of his squad then what is his job?

 

You were playing down his end product though, the video proves you wrong.

 

Agreed that BR is not off the hook. I'd go even further and say he's partly responsible for the poor recruitment in the transfer market. That said, I don't expect him to change who he is. Just like I wouldn't hire Mourinho at Man City to play tiki-taka, we shouldn't have hired BR to manage our current squad.

Regarding Iwata, he wasn't playing earlier in the season either when he was healthy. It's not like he lost his place because of the injury.

 

Don't want to cone across as being a pure blind fanboy as I know he is finished here, but the bit in bold isn't true either. He's produced plenty against a low block for us.

He's struggled to deal with a loss in form (understandable at his age), then with injuries, then all the political stuff. But even all that stuff aside, if it was purely down to the system we play he would still struggle.

Think it's unfair to write him off with all those things going on, I reckon he just needs to find a club and manager that suits him and just start afresh.

 

I said he was never absolutely lethal - which he wasn’t.

And the days where he was a fairly regular goalscorer are long gone. His end product the last season and a half has been non-existent.