How have this seasons players done?

Hopefully next week will see the squad complete the double treble.

But with the league over it seems a good opportunity to evaluate how the players have performed.
Obviously compared to last season, most players form has dropped off to some extent.

How Rodgers now prepared for next season will be fascinating as it looks like quite a few players want to cash in on previous success.
Additionally quite a few players have struggled with long term muscular injuries this season. Wether they are being overplayed, or overworked in training is surely something that needs looking at. Particularly as some players will be playing international games (World Cup and friendlies) right up to the CL qualifiers and the beginning of next season.

Anyhow for what it's worth, here's my opinion in how the squad has done.


Keepers
Gordon - been more consistent this year, but also now picking up injuries so will need better cover now.
De Vries - struggled to make a positive impact at Celtic.
Bain - been pretty consistent so far, but no experienced of cup finals or European footy yet. Can he replace Gordon permanently?

Defenders
Lustig - fitness and appearances has been decent this season, but he has to reduce his occasional howlers to gain the supporters trust
Gamboa - similar to De Vries, it's not happened for him at Celtic
Ralston - great start, but injury halted progress. Can he kick on and replace Lustig, if only domestically?
Boyata - never quite sure what your getting. Occasionally dominant (rangers home/away) but also just as likely to lose concentration and gift the opposition a chance
Ajer - a breakthrough season, very composed in possession, now looks a first choice CB
Simunovic - obviously BR has completely lost faith in him
Sviechenko - will take a miracle for him to re-establish himself now
Hendry - a decent start, but is he capable of becoming a first choice centre half at Celtic
Compper - complete opposite introduction to Hendry. Another player who's season was blighted by injury.
Tierney - more considered in his play now, but needs rest to prevent burning out
Miller - worryingly BR appears to prefer McGregor as back up for Tierney now

Midfielders
Brown - superb season, the season he went from good to great.
Bitton - did ok at CB when needed, but future as midfielder after introduction of Ntcham at Celtic has to be in doubt now.
Ntcham - got better as the season progressed, and now properly established
McGregor - the season he became a vital player for the club
Rogic - took time to recover from injury, but showed why BR rates him so highly.
Armstrong - injury derailed a player in peak form. Still shows glimpses of potential, but will anybody want a repeat of last summers extended contract negotiations?
Kouassi - looked superb in occasional appearances until injured.

Attackers
Forrest - his best season in regard consistency.
Roberts - similar season to Armstrong. Real pity how it's played out.
Sinclair - certainly lost confidence early in the season as defenders doubled up on him, but still capable of hurting opposition on his day.
Dembele - another player (Armstrong, Bitton, Roberts, Rogic, Griffiths, Compper, Hayes, Kouassi) who had their season interrupted by injury. Still a class act on his day.
Griffiths - more disruption. Lost some sharpness with inconsistent appearances
Edouardo - looks very promising, hopefully he will sign permanently
Hayes - Broke leg, just as he looked like he was settling in
Musonda - similar to Compper, he hasn't established himself yet. Certainly couldn't fault enthusiasm on arrival, but didn't impact as expected.

Loanees
Allan - surely no chance here now
Christie - can he replace Roberts, and establish himself at Celtic
Ciftci - whoever believed he was Celtic quality?
Benyu - will need to have progressed massively to stand a chance with us
Morgan - looks a promising signing, but will obviously take time to settle

Over to you, to

 

*.

 

Successes

Brown
Forrest
Ntcham
Ajer
Tierney
McGregor
Edouard

Disappointments

Sinclair
Armstrong


Everyone else has either been "meh" (Griff, Dembele, Rogic etc) or just not played anywhere near enough (Eboue, Roberts etc).

 

Out of that list the following should be gone or punted:
De Vries
Gamboa
Simunovic
Sviatchenko
Compper
Allen
Ciftci
Benyu

The rest

Roberts won't be back
Armstrong will be sold if he decides not to sign a new deal.
Dembele will be gone if a good offer comes in. £20M+
Musonda won't be back
Rogic? hope he signs a new deal. If not he'll be sold.
Sinclair might decide to move back down south.
Bitton. Does he have a future?

The squad needs freshened up. Too many under performers this season.

 

We've not been * but we've not been great either. 'Inconsistent' is the best word I would use to describe this season.

Look, it was always going to be hard to top the Invincible season. It's not fair on the players to demand a victory each and every single week. I guarantee if you asked every Celtic fan last season if you thought we'd go unbeaten whilst winning the treble, they'd have laughed in your face and asked for the men in white coats.

But we've had too many draws and lacklustre performances, ESPECIALLY at home. The season ticket holders for this year should have a right to be aggrieved with what they've seen this season at Parkhead. Today was the icing on the cake. Obviously delighted with to be lifting the league trophy, but I would've preferred to do so with a victory rather than our first domestic defeat at home in two and a half years.

I know BR's been chopping and changing with Europe in mind, but we didn't do that last season and (I would argue) we had better performances overall in the Champions League last season than we did this season despite making it to the Europa League.

Next season the team needs rebooted in a sense. The majority of that team were there under Deila and we need to freshen things up. The core of that team should be kept i.e. Brown, Dembele, KT, Griff, Forrest, McGregor, Rogic etc. but some others need moved on.

We also badly need improved in the defence. A new RB and a couple of CBs is imperative more than anything. If we want to improve domestically and progress in Europe further, we need a defence that can string simple passes together, defend well and not run about like headless chickens when put under pressure from ANY opposition.

Recruitment is also needing improved big time. The only signings who have actually improved the team has been Dembele, Sinclair, Ntcham and Edouard. Ajer was a Deila signing, Toure patched up what we needed for the first few months of last season, and Kouassi has shown great potential so far but everything else has been mediocre or horrendous.

How BR signed a CB in January despite being over 30 years old and ineligible to play in Europe where we BADLY needed help in that area especially against Zenit is beyond me. And the whole Musonda thing has been a riddy from start to finish. If it wasn't for that assist against Zenit I'd have written the whole thing off entirely.

 

Domestically I’d give the season a 8/10 if we win next Saturday. We’ve done well in the cups so far but seem to have stagnated in the league a little bit. The squad definitely needs some freshening up but people calling this season ‘*’ seriously need a reality check. We’re on course for back to back trebles and some people have short memories. Losing 4 out of 38 league games hardly seems to be a crisis.

Never mind the 90’s, think back to Strachan’s final season and the 8/9 months we had under Mowbray afterwards. A lot of fans seem to be turning into spoiled brats on the back of last season’s success.

If we lose next weekend then I’d stil give the season a 6/10 considering the fact we’d have done the double and skelped the animals a couple of times for good measure.