The Celtic team - Two Problems, Two Solutions

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Comfortable three points today, but a lacklustre performance.

Big bonus is, Hooper is back: already confident & scoring. Thank *.

Fraser Forster also looking sharp, made a couple of impressive saves today.

We have two main issues as far as I can see: luckily both of them have straightforward solutions.


Issue One : Maj

We've always known he hasn't got great pace, but we trust that his central partner or the full back will cover for him. However he's still got to be sharp in his decision-making to make up for his lack of out-&-out leg speed. This is not the case at the moment. And when the covering fullback is bombing up the park as often as Cha is, we have a problem.

Solution? We have a player who is an increasingly impressive option at CB - Charlie Mulgrew. But he's being played in his weaker LB posiiton to cover for the injured Emilio. But Cha is looking good at RB, and in Mark Wilson we have a player who has done well for us for extended periods at LB.

Mulgrew and Kelvin W in the centre, Cha at RB, Mark W at LB.


Issue Two : "The Big Issue"

James Forrest is being played out of position on the left, to accommodate Scott Brown on the right.
Ledley and Commons are both on the bench, because Forrest is being played on the left, to accommodate Scott Brown on the right.
Scott Brown is on the right - and is *. Even his apologists could surely see that today.

That's three considerable minuses - all of which can be sorted by one change.

Drop Scott Brown. Then Forrest slots into his natural position on the right. And the naturally left-sided Ledley slots in on the left - or Kris Commons, in games when Ledley is playing centrally.

This really isn't rocket science. How can Lenny not see it?

Can The Clown.
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Kelvin Wilson was as bad as Majstorovic today lol. What a state we're in at the back.

 

a disagree about forrest being played out of position if you look at most of his best performance they have been on the left because he has two options open to him he can ever beat the full back or cut inside which when he plays on the right he doesn't do he just runs the wing but brown needs to get himself together because so far this season he has been *

 

True enough

 

Just drop brown for few games and examine what happens

 

Brown WONT be dropped - He's Lennons lovechild just like Caldwell was Strachan's both could do NO WRONG.

 

i think forrest is good down either side.

 

Exactly.

He's mediocre at the best of times, and at the moment he is absolutely crap. And the team is suffering.

Drop him, and observe the diference.

 

I think playing Mathews on the left would be better as Wilson cannot play left back effectively.

 

Totally agree. Only thing is I don't rate Ledley on the left.

Our team should be

Forster

M.Wilson K.Wilson Mulgrew Izzy

Forrest Kayal Ki/Ledley Commons

Stokes Hooper

Won't happen though. Brown will get a new deal and won't be dropped.

 

At the moment I suspect our Gaffer to be our biggest problem.

 

Have to disagree there. I thought he looked OK - nothing spectacular, but he has a bit of pace and his decision making is decent.

I agree with hands points above, apart from I would drop Ki for a game or two, as he looks like his early season confidence has vanished. I know Commons has been very poor, but I'd much rather have Ledley and Kayal in the middle; Ledley's continuity was sorely lacking today.

The biggest problem for me, as I mentioned in the match thread, is our tendency to drop deep everytime we lose possession. All St Mirren did today was play the ball to a player with his back to goal and run onto the wall pass back to him. The whole midfield drops back and only 1 of us comes out to press at a time, allowing their midfield to bypass the pressure far too easily.

Also the full-backs are so panicky about letting a ball through the inside channel, that they pull in really narrow to support the CBs, and our RM/LM's don't cover the space on the flanks ie we are defending too narrow and too deep.

Any half-decent team would have ripped us to shreds today and this for me is a lack of proper defensive drilling in training. The most basic aspects of football relate to team shape, and we are nowhere near the basics just now!

 

would you be comfortable playing next to the majician?

no blame on wilson.

agree 100% on brown. play him in the middle or dont play him at all. Thats both commons and forrest being shuffled to make way for him.

 

This is a good point.

I think we'd get much further with the Barca "full-court-press" tactics - don't give them an out ball, and win possession back ASAP.

If we'd done that against ICT last season... well, that's in the past now, innit...

 

agree with this, it is hard going having to do the work of 2 cb's on your own.

 

It's as if Lenny feels he owes brown for his performances in getting Lenny the job.he was as poor as I seen him today.he was standing off and letting them easily pass the ball between there full back and wingers

 

Spot on Mulgrew offers very little on the Left.

 

Surely Matthews can cover at left back if Mulgrew goes to centre half?

 

Most of the points mentioned are true but one thing that is really fustrating is we seem to be pushed back deeper and deeper into our own half by teams. St Mirren passed right through us so often I lost count. We need to be in the opponents faces when theystart to build attacks in order to break them up.

We are giving the opposition to much space in the midfield area of the pitch. I hope Lenny see this.