Positives+negatives from our American tour

Positives:Some decent results+performances with weakened team line-ups.
Good individual shows from Misun, Samaras+a few others.
A pen shoot-out victory, the experience may come in handy.

Negatives:4 games played and only 3 goals scored, all from the spot.
Central defence still looks iffy.

 

McCourt scored as well, so it's four goals

 

Yeah defence does look iffy but as far as I know there was no settled back 4.

I'm encouraged by the lack of 3-5-2, the feature of 4-2-3-1, 4-4-2...

Also encouraged by Samaras looking great, McCourt getting a free-role and looking dangerous, Rogne and Misun look promising, and nearly everybody got a run out.

Such a shame that such a big game is the first fixture of the season. Could do with another "full-blooded" friendly against another team qualifiyng for Europe.

 

Positives; Good performances from Sammy and a few of the younger bhoys. Seems to be a bot of dig about the whole team. Midfield has looked pretty sharp as does Zaluska.

Negatives; Only socred 1 goal in open play, defence is still all over the place. These are the same 2 problems that we have had for years here at Celtic and MUST be remedied. Cervi at this moment does not look up to the job of being even back-up GK.

 

I forgot about that actually. I've seen the goal too, must be getting old.

 

Oh and it wasn't a American tour, it was a North American tour, Toronto's in Canada eh:icon_mrgreen:

 

the main positive for me was paddy looked fitter imo :icon_mrgreen:

 

samaras with confidence, mccourt looks fitter, hooiveld, minsun, ronge look good.

 

Positives - Got some games under our belt.

Negatives - Most of the goals came from the spot

 

Was good to see Samaras and McCourt looking fit and dangerous!

However! 3 penalties!?! I hate to be 'paranoid' but we shouldn't expect those decisions in the SPL!

Was good to see us win a penalty shoot out!

 

Positives are that Lenny has a clear idea of what he has to work with , even though he probably would have known but it likely just confirms his feeling on most of the players , with only Sammy and a couple of the younger players giving him food for thought..

negatives are that we don't know much about our squad that we didn't already know and that outside of scoring penalties we're a bit shot shy..

 

True but dead certs they all were, and 1 of them Samaras actually scored before the penalty call so really it should've just been the 2 pens.

 

Paddy's vision. From inside his own half, outside of the right boot too Samaras' feet.

One of the best passes I've seen in years, no joke.

 

Ditto

Big positive for me was the fight that they showed, particularly against Sporting. Everyone looked really up for it. They all look generally fitter and a lot sharper as well. Good to see McCourt back, Misun, Rogne and Hooiveld look good, as did Forrest, McGowan and Ferry. Even Loovens played alright!! Also think Lennon was justified in letting Boruc go, with Zaluska playing well.

Negative is the back four, or more pointedly, the Centre Halves. O'Dea is just not cutting it. He's making sloppy mistake after sloppy mistake. I don't think he gives everyone else around him confidence. Oh, and Fortune going off injured. Anyone know what the status is with him???

 

positives
Rogne again looked decent when used, Brown with the right players around him might actuually have a decent season this time, McCourt looked fitter, Forrest a real option to be used sparingly. Hooiveld and Loovens looked ok as did Wilson. but has to be regarded as a squad utility man. Samaras, his form could be seen as a positive or negative. who Knows? and there lies the problem with him.

negatives
Mulgrew cant defend. even my gran could have him in her pocket. its either a wild misstimed challenge or stand 10-15yrd off the man and let him pass or cross at will. should only be considered for spl games where we will dominate possesion or used in left mid. O'Dea is pish end of. Ki cant be used in a 2 man central mid. especailly if Brown is along side. gets exposed too often due to Browns positioning.

also why did Rasmussen feature so little? and the same for ledley, Maloney and Hooiveld. did they all get injured and if so. doest bode well.

any1 got anymore on fortune injury and did Loovens go off injured, seemed a srtange time to take hime off.

im kind of hopfull the reason guys like O'Dea got so much game time is so Lennon could say hes given them ample oppertunity to show their worth.

 

Positives - I was right about Fortune hes mince

Negatives - I dont think we will get half the money back for him

 

Forrest's first touch is also awesome.

 

james forrest was amazing for me,very fearless player. Another year if he keeps developing and we have a player that could be a replacement for mcgeady. He does look like he will score more than mcgeady though

 

Dont think we can let go of O'Dea no matter how bad he played as he will be used in our Euro Quota of players trained locally at the club. You need atleast 4. Its good that Mulgrew falls into that quota too

 

I'm not going to look to far in to it because it's the preseason and look at last years preseason and how well our actual season turned out.

However I think it's interesting that everyone seems to be discouraged that 3 of our 4 goals came from the spot. Remember last year before Keano got here we had nobody who had the nerves to take a penalty? In the tour Sammy stepped up confidently every time and banged each one in no problem.