I am happy about the changes but why has mcmanus not been dropped, hes been shocking

Lets face it none of Strachans preferred back four (which I assume to be Hinkel, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor) fill u with any great confidence.

The fact the four of these guys have so may threads discussing their meriting of a place tells u everything.

Our defence generally is the weak area of the team by a mile and will be found out again in the Champions League.

 

sounds good but then you watch them playing and see thats a million miles from reallity

 

* off !!! lol your joking aren't you, macmanus isn't worth 2.5 mil

 

McManus would fetch 2.5m easy i think, especially from England.

 

like him or not celtic would be looking for over 3 mill i think ,based on him been captain ,and now scotland regular .

 

I have seen him play some nice passes though. Remember that pin point long ball pass to Scott Brown in the San Siro in last years group game?
If Brown had been composed enough to score then I think we would have won the game.

 

Btw, would anyone here prefer Balde in the squad over McManus?
Especially considering Balde's passing!

 

I would, Balde frightens the life out of the opposition strikers, his biggest problem is when he tries to be Maldini, and forgets the no-nonsense side.

 

I watched that 1-0 game against Barca in the Uefa Cup last night. Bobo was * immense, he made about 30 sliding tackles and got them all. Yet you had that feeling if one went wrong it would be an immediate sending off. He was/is good but still a bit of a liability to me.

 

If you think McManus and Caldwell are worth £2.5m each you're living in a green tinted fantasy land.

 

Stephen McManus, captain of Celtic (a regular Champions League knockout stages club) - also a regular international, and international captain at that?

With that CV, if he went for less that 2.5 million, I would eat not only my hat, but also "Mr Happy's Hat."

 

However.

I said after Lenny went that, while Mick's attitude is good, and he is decent captain material, I would prefer to see him replaced by a better football player - which giving him the captaincy would prevent. That has turned out to be what happened.

For my money, we have a large pool of quality midfielders.

But the only current 1st-team defender I would keep would be Gary Caldwell - and that because he constantly has to cover for other folk's mistakes, so deserves a chance to prove himself in a quality defence.

But we do have some good prospects. Darren O'Dea is certainly one, and I'd love to see Mr Caddis given a run as an attacking right back. John Kennedy is currently earning rave reviews at Norwich, and he's not out of the equation either...

 

Our team is a team moulded out of years of playing together. The problem is that people here want to drop a player who has played consistantly well over 3 years due to 5-10 poor performances.

Sure, Mick hasn't played well since the start of the season, but how much has it cost us? Mr Boruc and Wilson were more the problem against Rangers and Caldwell should have given away a penalty against Dundee Utd.

I think our defence gets unwarrented criticism. We play football, we will concede goals. Our defence still conceded less goals than the much vaunted one of the Huns. I don't think it is our weakest area.

For me the weakest area is the midfield, especially the central pairing but also our righthand side. Naka, devasting as he can be can also disappear in games, leaving too much focus going down the left. The inability of the midfield to keep the ball puts pressure on the defence.

Every player has dips in form, and for those of you that think Mick wouldn't go for 2.5m, we just bought an untested championship defender for that price, i think the captain of Celtic and Scotland, with years of CL experience would for a little more.

 

i think when u consider some of the prices in england for players in the championship alone, i think we would get a lot more for mcmanus than 2.5mill,...anton ferdinand moved for 8million, and has never played in europe or international football....thats just 1 example!...i think we could get around 5mill from an english club, altho i dont think hes worth it!