Dundee v Celtic Chat

I think Mick, Caldwell and JFK are all very decent players but for some reason they are poor as pairings or a unit right now. Hope that will resolve itself over the next month. Mick and Gary both play better for Scotland than Celtic which suggests its the tactical set up that the problem. I am still tempted to blame the full backs but the central defence has problems too.

 

Thought the centre halves had an absolute minger tonight. The number of hopeful high balls that were not dealt with that should be bread and butter for decent pros was embarrassing. We had no creativity from midfield except for Brown. Boruc was shakey. Naylor did ok for me, wasn't amazing at defending but got forward a couple of times. Once again the service to the strikers was * poor. We were constantly knocking balls over the top for McDonald to chase but he is not quick enough for us to rely upon that, we should be hitting the byeline more and getting VoH into the match instead of using him to hold the ball up to feet and knocking it back for the midfielders to have a pop.

 

I thought i would come on to post my opinions and views which may take a while.

Firstly, what the * was that? Dundee will feel very hard done by, they hit the post twice, Boruc pulled off several good saves and they scored yet they lose when we had about half the amount of chances they had. Starting with Boruc, why is everyone slating him, does everyone have incredibly short memory capacity? Boruc is easily the best keeper we have had since Pat Bonner and has won us alot of points over the season and again showed today he is a world-class shot stopper. Although, he does look vunerable at crosses which can be improved on but his reflexes and shot-stopping are truely magnificent.

The much dreaded defence, Caldwell is not a right-back and isnt even fit enough to be in a Celtic squad of 16. He is truely dreadful, can't header, flat-footed, and 1% of his long diagonal passes actually come off, far from celtic class. Again i think McManus was our best defender(surprise, surprise) and if it wasnt for him i would seriously fear for the team. The guy is a leader and him and Boruc are the two players at the moment saving the team. JFK needs to get a run of games to get back into the swing of things and if he gets injured get O'dea in he is defiently capabale. Although in saying this I would gladly have Balde partering McManus in defence. Naylor was very average tonight, not much too say about him atall.



Brown is totally wasted on the wing, should be in the middle with his creativity and driving from midfield. Donati was invisible. Why was Sno playing? Strachan played a defensive midfielder versus Dundee, Why? Sno is there to break up attacks and get the ball moving which I thought he done well tonight and was never going to shine whatever he done with the role he is told to do, should be used in a 5 man midfield in Europe not against Dundee! Riordan, get the man up-front!



Skippy was our best player. Always chasing the aimless and hopeless balls getting punted over the top for him, but his header reminded me a bit of Larsson, but obviously not even close to Larssons abillity. Problem with Hesselink is the service being given to him, he needs the service to score the goals and we are not getting to the byline and getting it into the danger area which Hesselink thrives on. Instead, he is being used as a target-man to bring other midfielders into play which is not working too well.

I feel rather depressed now, performance must be ALOT better if we are to get anything out of the Milan game.

 

Caldwell and JFK are definately better than Bobo

 

I wasn't able to see the game.
Does anyone has a video summary of it?
Thanks!

 

strachs wont play bobo as his distribution is poor..... problem for me is i believe he's our best stopper.

must admit i prefer my team to have a strong defence. our current sides defence is frail at best.

this mentality of we'll score more than you is very very naive and most coaches left that mentality back in the 60's/70's. because ultimateley losing goals cost you games.

i truly believe we are sitting ducks for teams who wont sit off us.
the huns will love playing us and shakter proved what a team from champs league will do to us, and they're probably the 2nd or third best side in our group.

all in all can i have the wim jansen philosophy on football returned please.
LOCK THE GATES. and yer in wi a shout.
go oot wi yer door unlocked and ye'll take a rapeing.

ffs its so apparent we are losing grip on our supremacy its no true.
last night dundee looked like the spl side.
and once again jvoh escapes dogs abuse for his performance cos he scores a tap in.
can we sign a striker who will beat a couple of players and hit it 30 yards into the net....jvoh. not a true celtic striker. no graft, no flair, no speed, no class.

 

I agree with all of that except that I think Caldwell is a good player who gets pelters just for a couple of mistakes he has made. Last nights line up had 3 players playing out of position (Gary, Brown and Deeks). I dont like the attempt to keep playing the same core men when its square pegs in round holes. Maybe O'Brien should have been given a game on the right last night. He is not so tricky as McGeady but has more end product and is is similar in style to Naka.

 

Bobo is the man.

Even playing with his stookie and an eye patch he's head and shoulders above the other 2.

Oh and another small point. He normally wins headers.
Lesson for McManus, Caldwell, O'Dea and JVOH..?

 

In a word YES

Add O dea to the better than bobo list as well

 

Keltoi, totally agree with the players out of position. Riordans main asset is finishing and he is being played wing, hes shown in the very few chances he has had he is a very classy finisher and always gets into the right areas. I don't see the logic in playing Riordan wing, also i dont see the logic in playing the wingers on their wrong foot, fair enough if its to help the over-lapping full-backs who hit the by-line but Naylor and Wilson aren't capable of that. Both of them have never hit the byline like Agathe did You need classy fullbacks for this too work, not an average championship full-back and a right-back not even getting in a squad of 20+ Scottish players. Even worse, its Alexander and Hutton ahead of him, says it all

Sorry if i drifted a bit of topic, its something i needed to get off my chest for a while

 

am i the only person that though donati played good picked up every ball in midfield and was very effiecient in his passes tried to spread the play

 

Yeah I thought he used the ball well but he could have got more involved.

 

Donati was good in patches , faded in and out of the game.