Anthony Stokes

You get a grip a did say av watched him in videos but you forgot to metion that bit, my point was that he,s not the answer becaus he,s not big enough!!!!

He,s * 5ft9 a would prefer someone bigger who can win the ball in the air and score goals.... i am not basing my judgement on 15 minutes :icon_mrgreen:

 

Stokes should defo start every week

 

This. He's played 15 mins and actually done quite well.
Watching YouTube videos means sweet * all.

 

Don't know why Samaras is starting up front before Stokes anyway. Stokes is a far better striker than Samaras

 

He,s not EXACTLY A TARGET man what we need imo considering stokes has been dropped for samaras.... because samaras offers something stokes DOESNT height.... PEOPLE NEED TO OPEN THERE EYES ON HERE

 

Your right but he doesnt win more in the air than him, samaras gives the boys at the back the option to go long... we cant go long with stokes up there because he simply wont win headers or hold the ball up..

 

If he doesnt start the cup final I can see him leaving in the summer, he doesnt deserve to be on the bench at all, especially since his goals won the the semi final, bit unfair, lennon clearly doesnt like him as much as the others

 

Samaras isn't starting up front.

He's being played wide on the left, as a midfielder-*-left-wing, like he has been nearly all season.

He was once again close to MOTM for us today, as he was last time.

We're playing a 5-man midfield to accommodate Brown. Hooper is up front.

 

I was going to start a thread about asking what it is between stokes and lennon???? if hooper or samaras had scored 3 goals one week and then two goals the next week would any of the two been binned to the bench, if I were in his shoes, I would be asking for a transfer, he is wasting his time, doesn't matter what he does, it will not be good enough, and for the substitution of hooper today and leaving that samaras on the park is shocking, has he got some hold on lennon ha ha maybe blackmail

 

We won - Right decision

 

Don't know what game you were watching but 'that Samaras' done a fecking brilliant job on his tod up front for us in the second half. We won again and folk still find stuff to complain about, I like Stokes but if he spends the rest of the season on the bench or out of the squad and we go on to win the league then I won't be bothered one bit because that means the manager has got it right.

 

Exactly I don't think Lennon has anything against Stokes, he's just unlucky that our team have been fantastic and he's drawn the short straw.

To be successful we need a deep squad. To be able to call upon the likes of Ki, Commons and Stokes is great, it shows how strong our team is.

 

You keep saying we are playing a 5 man midfield with Brown in an advanced role but I haven't seen this at all. It's just the usual 4-4-2 with only one out and out winger that Lennon always plays. Samaras and Hooper are up front and Ledley is on the left theoretically but obviously players move about in a game situation. Samaras has a tendency to drift wide when he is up front but has been out right as much as left, whilst Forrest has stayed fixed to the right-wing in most cases. Ledley is way further to the left than Brown is to the right whilst the captain tends to be in the same areas as Wanyama when we lose the ball. Also Sammy isnt tracking back down the left and instead pressures the centre-backs, in other words playing as a striker. The only reason Brown is having greater freedom is because he is playing with the defensively minded Wanyama while Ledley and Mulgrew make up quite a conservative left-wing.

Obviously this changes during the game because Lennon tinkers quite regularly, meaning Forrest switches left sometimes with Ledley coming inside and Brown going wide. Sometimes we go to more of a diamond with Forrest coming centrally with Brown and Ledley as narrow wide players. In all these situations however we have two forwards. Occasionally you are right though we do drop Sammy wide left and Ledley comes inside but this is a rarity in Lennon's tinkerings. Just look at the positioning in games and its obvious by how high Samaras is up the park and the fact he runs centrally beyond Hooper that we tend to have two up top.

The point of this then is that Brown hasn't taken Stokes's position at all as we are still playing the same formation. Instead Samaras has taken his space up top and Ledley has moved up the pitch from left-back where he was playing before.

 

I'll be gutted if Stokes leaves Celtic any time soon. He is a player who has been a handful in the past and seems to have matured and accepted that he is part of a bigger project than himself. Thing is though, there comes a time when you gotta look out for number one. And when you are your side's joint top scorer and you are being over looked for key games, well....... :S

 

its just celtic have that strong of a team at the moment tbh samaras getting played ahead of stokes sammy holds the ball up the best can run down the wing and is good in the air best out of any one so if your playing him and stokes it means someone like kayal brown ect will have to drop it you just have to accept sometimes its just the way it goes celtic have a very strong team at the moment

 

Never judge a player by youtube videos. That's why a never mentioned it as it aint worth mentioning. He's not big enough? Look at guys like Tim Cahill, the amount of headers he wins ect. Or one even closer to home in Henrik Larsson, he was about 5'10 and look the headers he scored.

 

A work with about 100 polish people and av asked them how good he is....

Henrik larsson was out standing in the air but wasnt a target man, he was clever at getting away from his markers and had an amazing leap for someone of his size, same goes with cahill.


Brozek wasnt the target man a was hoping for and if he scores more than 5 goals between now and the end of the season i will personally send you £50 quid in the post


Am not basing my judgment on 15 or 20 minutes, av seen him, and dont tell me you cant judge a player in videos because you clearly can, jinky johnstone was voted the greatest ever celtic player and half of us were not even born when he played, THAT TELLS ME HE GOT VOTES FROM PEOPLE WHO HAVE WATCHED FOOTAGE as well as the ones who were lucky enough to see him in the flesh

 

Did his wife not give birth recently?

maybe he is not getting rest at home and i think Lenny is a family man and will be considerate of such an event in the home

As long as Tony is happy/ comfortable with the current situation then lets not make more of it than there may be...

i for one hope that it is something simple like this... maybe new dads on here have some insight on this

as long as he knows the fans are right behind him i am sure all will be ok

 

Look I want Stokesy up with Hooper in every game like the rest of you, but I think some people are being a bit harsh on both Lenny and Sammy.
Stokes is undoubtedly the better striker, but Samaras is doing well atm and we are still winning games.

If we go on a losing streak or have a few 0-0 draws, then fair enough we can all say to Lenny "swap Sammy for Stokes NOW!" but until then, if it ain't broke...

 

Forrest has been quiet the last few games, I think that even Commons should be getting more game time but thats not the issue at hand. I think that Lennon is worried about Stokes overall contribution and workrate and has, indeed, touched on this in the past - saying that he wants more from him. I dont think he was inferring that he wanted more goals from the lad, no one can question this so far, its his workrate i believe he was hinting at. Its the ICT's away that you need a bit of grit and steel. Hearts away was another one where we needed the sleeves rolled up. Not sure if Stokes was the one for that but is a great sub to bring on later on. Regading saturdays home game, I think Lennon just realsied that he could in no way drop anyone from the team that started againt Hearts. The team was utterly immense I thought on the Wednesday, and breaking up that momentum isnt good management in my opinion. In normal circumsatnces however, I think Stokes should be an absolute stick on first pick against the likes of ICT at home.