I wish our squad looked like this

Don't get me wrong, I'm fairly happy with the squad, but I got thinking about some of Strachan's bhoys that got away, then I thought to myself, "How good would the squad be if some of those bhoys were still here?"

So I took our current squad, and replaced IMO the worst players with the best from Strachan's time. I think this would be a very formidable squad, comparable with O'Neill's.

GKs
Boruc, Forster
-Boruc would obviously be number 1. His form did become quite patchy towards the end there, so with Forster deputising I think we'd be stronger in this position than most clubs in the UK.

Defenders
Matthews, Rogne, Mulgrew, Izaguirre, McManus, Hinkel, and the current youngsters.

-Hinkel in for Lustig. Might be a bit unfair seeing as Lustig hasn't properly proved himself yet and there's still time for that. Wilson had to go obviously. We haven't had any stand out CBs in Strachan's time, so it was between Caldwell and McManus. I went for McManus. Imagine McManus and Mulgrew pairing up in defense, can you think of a more celtic-daft partnership?

Midfield
Brown, Commons, Ledley, McGeady, Nakamura, Wanyama, Kayal, Forrest, and the current youngsters

-McGeady was obviously gonna make the list. We did depend on him a bit much, but with Commons, Naka, and Forrest in I don't think we'd have that problem anymore. In order to fit Naka and McGeady in I had to ditch Ki and McCourt. It was a difficult choice, and there's others who I could have included too - Robson in for Brown maybe?

Attackers

Hooper, Stokes, Samaras, McDonald, Bangura, JVOH, and the youngsters
-Dropped Rasmussen and Murphy. Bangura might come good yet. McDonald would be useful for when Hooper is off-form. JVOH is getting on a bit now but he'd still be useful back-up.


I couldn't think of anyone to include from Mowbray's year who left. N'guemo looked decent at times, but we have Victor and Beram now. Keano was just on loan. Fox didn't do too well during his time here but he looked the part for Scotland the other night, would make a decent back up IMO.

So there you have it, if we didn't let some of these guys go we'd have a really tidy squad. Imagine this:

Boruc
Matthews McManus Mulgrew Izzy
Forrest Kayal Wanyama Commons
Hooper McDonald
subs: Forster, Rogne, Hinkel, McGeady, Ledley, Naka, Stokes
rest of squad: Brown, Samaras, Bangura, JVOH, the youngsters


That would be a UEFA cup winning squad, IMO.

 

Only 3 strachan era players in the first team? I'm not sure this current team would be capable of beating man united, benfica x2, ac milan and villareal. would love to be proved wrong ofcourse! *Ah wait after reading it again, I see what you are getting at. I still mcgeady and naka would be in the team though.

 

McGeady and Naka on the bench is utterly absurd.

Good idea for a thread though

Boruc
Matthews Mulgrew Caldwell Izzy
Kayal Wanyama Naka
Mcgeady Hooper Samaras

Boom.

 

No way would McGeady be on the bench! And Naka would play ahead of McDonald or Hooper.

 

Boruc
Matthews Caldwell Mulgrew Izzy
McGeady Kayal Ledley Naka
Hooper JVOH

Some team that would be

 

Gary Hand-up!? You high?

Would love Naka back though, one of my all time favourite players.

 

I rate Stokes more than McDonald

 

Glad I'm not the only one to feel this way. Personally, I'd have the team line-up like so:

Boruc

Matthews, Rogne, Mulgrew, Izaguirre

Wanyama

McGeady, Kayal, Ledley

Nakamura

Hooper

I honestly never really rated Strachan or his team. I did not find it a particularly inspiring time, but then my pivotal, real shaping days of becoming a Celtic fan were during the O'Neill days, so it was a hard act to follow.

Neil Lennon's Bhoys are blooming nicely, though.

ETA: I'd love to have McManus as back-up, and big Jan as a 2nd option, though!
​

 

Great idea for a thread. The thing about Strachan's team, which I think isn't the same as this one, is that he had a few players with world class ability. McGeady and Naka in particular could change a game like that and I'm not sure we have players of the same quality now.

A team of mine would go something like this:

----------------------Boruc
----Hinkel------Caldwell----Mulgrew-----Izzy
-----------Kayal------Wanyama---Ledley
------Naka------------------------McGeady
------------------Hooper------------------

With JVoH as a replacement up front if things got tough, of course. Now a team like that could have a real shot at doing well in Europe.

 

*, I know this is offtopic, but this post just reminded me of my dreams tonight. I dreamt about Shunsuke Nakamura, he was wearing that green and black away shirt when he knocked on my door.

 

I think I'd play mcmanus beside charlie to be honest. not because I think he's necessarily a better option but I think, particularly against the stronger sides in Europe, they'd compliment each other ridiculously well.

mcmanus throwing his face at an AC Milan skelper giving muldini the opportunity to tidy it up and get it out of defence.

it could be a thing of beauty.............

 

nobody should be allowed to use * and talk about Naka in the same post :icon_mrgreen:

 

untill stokes does it in the champions league then he is nowhere near as good as skippy

 

Boruc
Mathews caldwell mulgrew izzy

Wanyama

Ledley crosas

Nakamura mcgeady

Hooper

Kayal for crosas or wanyama, would love to see if crosas could get his game together in that team.



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parts in bold, really? i like the guy cause he is celtic daft but we have got better players to pick from than him

 

he'd work well in a different team, his passing range is phenomenal and if you have someone in the destroyer role he would work very well off of that

 

I get what you are saying but i still feel we have better players to pick from than him, like kayal

 

in complete agreement, I was just thinking that in this mash up scenario I'd be really interested to see what a centre three of ledley, wanyama and crosas could be like.

turn crosas into more of a playmaker due to the other two doing the less flashy work and you could be on to something

 

Only player who would be a guaranteed a start in this team from Strachan's team would be Boruc for me.

 

I would have skippy ahead of stokes aswell..Barry Robson as back up for Ledley too..both great engines and fine celtic players..
It pains me to agree with Caldwell in there although he wouldn't of got a sniff in MoNs teams