Anthony Ralston

Hope not, thought he struggled against O'halloran when we played St Johnstone.
Wouldn't do his confidence any favours for him to get destroyed off Neymar.

 

Id still rather lustig in the centre and gamboa on the right. The boy looked like a rabbit in headlights vs astana imagin him looking at the we diving rat neymar with a wave of noise.

Id put him on once were up 3 for the experience.

 

Neymar would tear him a new * to be honest.

 

He'll probably tear anyone he wants a new * anyway but I agree Ralston wouldn't be my first choice. Id put Gamboa or Forrest to right-back before him or Lustig.

 

ANTHONY RALSTON looks set to mark PSG’s £198 million superstar Neymar.

SunSport understands the Celtic teenager is on standby to make a stunning Champions League debut.

Ralston, 18, has started just FOUR competitive games for the Hoops — but is viewed as a star of the future by Brendan Rodgers.

And the Scotland Under-21 right-back could find himself up against Brazilian icon Neymar in the Group B opener.

Ralston starting would mean Mikael Lustig moving into central defence next to Jozo Simunovic with Kieran Tierney at left-back.

Rodgers is short of centre-halves, with Erik Sviatchenko crocked and Dedryck Boyata still working towards full fitness.

The Celtic boss also has the option of bringing in the experience of Nir Bitton or Cristian Gamboa — but Ralston has impressed this term after he was thrown on against Astana in the Champions League play-off in Kazakhstan.

 

We put Tierney in against Fenerbache with only a few first games under his belt, baptism under fire did him good.

I have confidence that if called on Ralston will do his job. That said, he'll need help against Neymar. Brown and Lustig will need to support him, big time.

 

I said that in the match thread regarding the baptism of fire but the reality is even at that stage Ralston isn't half the player Tierney is/was and psg are a couple of levels above fener.
It just has a bad decision written all over it when he has to go up against the best winger in the world.

 

If Ralston plays I wouldn't be shocked to see it tweaked slightly to a 3-5-2

Gordon

Ralston Simunovic Lustig

Forrest............................................Tierney
Armstrong Brown Ntcham

........................Sinclair
Griffiths
​

Who knows though. At least we're quite versatile now.

 

Definitely a baptism of fire if true but Gamboa isn't the answer and whilst a bit unfair to judge him on his debut against Barca Neymar scored and had 4 assists that game. He's not really played this year other than for Costa Rica and hasnt been great for them from what I've read on here. Lustig is the best option to partner Jozo so that leaves Ralston. BR has definitely got him playing as a sitting defender to balance out KTs runs forward so think thats why he may be playing together with he will be in his natural position.

Will he be exposed by Neymar? Probably. Is it the difference between us winning or losing the game. Definitely not. The difference will be us playing as a team and sticking to our tactics. If BR thinks Ralston is our best option to do this (and any other option has similar downsides) then why not see what happens. Lets be honest with their probable front 3 we could be exposed anywhere along the back 4.

 

Swap out Ralston for McGregor and then switch him with KT, that's how I think we'll play tonight.

 

Remember we flung david marshall in against barcelona,and he was our best player over the 2 legs,also tony watt barca,liam miller against lyon.Being optimistic,but young guys can step up on the night.

 

Remember Caddis against Ronaldinho?

 

It's a tough one, do I think KT might be better partner for jozo or is it lustig?

Personally if it were a case where guys like Ajer, Ralston or Miller are starting tonight then I'm leaning on Miller with kt as a CB and I don't know why.

 

* it, Ralston-Jozo-KT-Miller

 

Ooooooooooooft

 

If he's going to prove himself as being good enough to be a first team regular, then this is the ideal opportunity.

 

Fenerbahce isn't PSG and Ralston isn't Tierney. Him starting would be madness.

 

The problem is that whoever starts it will seem like madness. Weigh up all the options; Bitton in central defence, Ajer in central defence, Gamboa at right-back, Ralston at right-back or three at the back. None of those is particularly appealing!