1 up front

I would agree with you about O'Connell, even though I haven't particularly liked what I've seen of him when he has played. It's not been much granted.

 

I've liked him when he's next to a senior player. He has also shown that he's quite happy to do the basics of defending. More than what we can say for Ambrose.

I wanted to keep Ambrose as a back up but he can get to * now as far as I'm concerned. He'll never get back to the level he was pre-Juve. 2 and a half years later he's went downhill rather than improve any.

Punt.

 

I said at the start of the season I would happily see Ambrose leave, as I felt we had better cover with Mulgrew anyway, and I stand by that. He is too error prone.

 

“Sometimes you get difficult games when it won’t go in and we just have to get the same performance and create the same amount of chances against Ross County and we will have a very good chance of winning.

“We know we can score goals, so it is just to get that momentum going again.

“Leigh can be a handful and we have also had the discussion about playing with two strikers or with one behind a striker with Kris Commons. Stefan Scepovic can also score goals and lately he has had an assist for Leigh, a very good assist.

“Also he has three times gone in on the goalkeeper and had a 40-yard shot on goal in the 20 minutes after he came on.

“Those two players are very close to getting a start. This is a good situation.

“We are sitting here talking about players becoming sharper, getting in form. It is going the right way.”

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/...celtic-star-leigh-griffiths-desperate-4870326

 

I feel a bit sorry for Ambrose on this front! No doubt that he had a shocker but he was actually moving towards intercepting the ball when it took a deflection off of Bitton so he has had a swipe at it with his bad (I think?) foot. Split second reaction and should do better but there was an element of bad luck to it and as Devlin has said there was poor play from the whole team involved.

 

Do any of the top teams in Europe play with two up top?

 

That's what I've been crying out for! If we have Johansen with a 3 in midfield then he'll have the room to move forward.

 

Juventus play a 3-1-4-2 formation. I am not a fan but i would play it now instead of our current set up as it would give us an extra man up top and certainly in defence. Bitton could play the pirlo role.

.......................Gordon.........

....Ambrose........VVD........Mulgrew...........

.......................Bitton....................

Lustig.......Brown.......Stefan.......Izzy

..... ......Gudetti.........Stokes.........

 

I'd have Lustig, Denayer and Virgil at centre-half with Matthews on the right. Sometimes playing three at the back is more defensive though, unless one of the centre-halves is free to move forward.

 

I've always fancied seeing us play the 3-3-1-3 that Chile used under Bielsa.

 

Well at times this season both our central defenders have being bombing forward so an extra man would be handy.

As i said i am not the biggest fan of this formation although i do believe that it would suit us better than how we are currently lining up.

 

4-2-3-1 is still our main formation, I'm assuming he's was talking about having the option to switch to a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-2-1 at certain times

 

We are not playing a true 4-2-3-1 though. 2 teams can line up with the same formation and 1 team can play it right and another can make a balls of it.

The midfield bank of 2 are strictly holding players this is not the case with us. This is why we are being cut open because nobody is protecting our attacking full backs

The bank of 3 should interchange, we rarley do.

the wide men in the bank of 3 should be like inside forwards, ours are more like wingers. This contributes to the isolation of our striker.

Stefan is not good enough to play the 10 role at the highest level, although his work rate and high pressing deserves credit

 

Nah, he should be clearing it. The thing is, he could have got away with it, had he got tighter to Ciftci and not let him turn and shoot, but he failed to do this as well.

 

I think the midfield has got better with Bitton playing there. If Matthews didnt have such a shocker against Zagreb we would have won. And Stokes is definitely playing the inside forward role well, our problem has been on the right. I think Forrest could grow into that role, but we'll see.

And Stefan has been brilliant this season!

 

I let it go about Izaguirre being out of position because I wasn't 100% certain, but having watched it back, there is no way he could be blamed. We were on the attack, and Izaguirre is going forward to support Johansen. Izaguirre can't really anticipate Johansen is going to play a shocking pass. I would have wanted Emilio going to support him in all honesty, but Johansen's pass left him hung out to dry.

 

I agree Bitton is quality and i would like to see him be a bit more disciplined and play with a Wanyama clone.

I agree about Stokes for the most part but it has to be noted that he does tend to drift too wide at times forcing Izzy inside. He gets a pass though because he is still learning his role

 

I'll need to watch it again mate.

Still think our defending is sub par in general.

 

All true but I just have to try and defend Sergeant Efe.