josh thompson

the boy is not celtic quality at the moment but a think u have to give hime time and hopefull he will be celtic quality and we have to remember he is only a young lad

 

hes only 18/19 far to early to be judging the guy,needs to be making mistakes to learn from them and i thought he dealt wae big KK no bad yesterday

 

Lack of pace- just means you need to read the game better. If he improves the latter he stands a chance!

 

First of all people should remind themselves that for Josh to step up from 9 Stockport County appearances to become a Celtic 1st team regular is no small feat. Secondly his age should tell people that he still has a lot to learn about the game.

Having said this apart from the occasional slip up, Josh Thompson has performed NO worse than any of our other first team defenders. In fact the impression I get is that he actually has been far more pragmatic (if in doubt kick it to safety) than other players.

Some posters have argued that he wont get any better/faster. As far as his speed goes, I would agree he's not going to get much quicker, but with some decent coaching I'm sure we will see at least a slight improvement on this. But probably more important than this is what footballing experience will do for him. He will only get smarter the more games he plays and keep learning about what needs to be done in difficult situations.

I know its a tough comparison to make, but if you look at John Terry he is not the fastest player in the world BUT he has got a very good pragmatic head on him. You don't need to be rapid to be a great defender...

I am very impressed with what I have seen of Josh Thompson and I think he will have a very successful career.

 

Hes no where near good enough to play for Celtic right now, neither is O dea, there partnership is a joke, when I think of the might of Balde and Mjallby not so long ago and now we have to resort to this, Let Josh go out on loan next season, maybe he will improve a bit then

 

I said no because if your good you don't need pace but I have noticed he's quite slow and he's still only young so not sure if he's got what it takes to be a top player. But he's doing a decent job just now and the lad deserves credit.

 

it's not only the lack of pace but also a severe lack of ability. he's only in the team because there is no-one else, surely lennon will get him to * as soon as someone is fit enough to take his place.

 

There is no doubt that he has a lack of pace just now but he has only just turned 19 and he can work on that! Does anyone remember when McGeady was alot slower than he is now? I remember reading how they worked on McGeady's pace at training and he got faster so don't see why they can't they do the same with Thomson! I actually like Thomson, think he has good compsure on the ball and always looks to play it to a team mate whether its on the deck or even when it's a header, something that Caldwell and McManus couldn't ever do!

 

McManus was decent in the air and Caldwell was a good enough passer of the ball in my opinion.

 

there are plenty of top centre backs who more than make up for a lack of pace with tackling ability strength in the air and most importantly the ability to read the game.so i voted no,wether its with us remains to be seen.we could have a long term partnership in thompson and rogne if they are allowed to develop properly

 

He's still learning the game and hopefully big Mjallby shows him a thing or 2 about defending

 

Im meaning in terms of knock downs to team mates, McManus couldn't keep his headers in the park let alone find a team mate!

 

Couldn't agree more. The ability to read a game is far more important for a CB than any sheer pace is concerned. If you can read a game and position yourself accordingly, and if you are quick between the ears then you don't need to be the fastest bloke on ther paddock.

I don't think anyone feels that either Rogne or Thompson are ready to command regular 1st team action at the moment. They need to continue developing and to be nurtured properly. They have time on their side.