Liam Scales

Forgot all about kobi.

Actually fairly shocking how much we've wasted in that position in the space of 12 months. Even 6 months was it?

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Kobayashi's been at Celtic a while as came in 2 Christmas's ago I think but yeh we've double downed on buying but not playing CBs. Gives McCarthy someone to talk to I guess

 

There was 2 minutes to play. Aberdeen were going long and we couldn’t defend it. He was trying to add more height and go 5 at the back to see out the last 2 minutes. As I said though, the problem was that Aberdeen scored before he even had a chance to get into position. Bringing on Ralston wouldn’t have helped out the centre half’s who couldn’t cope with long balls.

When I seen Nawrocki coming on, the first thing I thought was it would help with aerial balls into the box. That’s where the threat was coming from.

 

Just trying to work out the timing between him then the other two - literally 6 months or so we wasted money, time etc in 3 CBs and not one has made an impact at all.

That's a massive concern.
If it wasn't for the fact the recruitment team has already symbolically been punted, you'd want them punted

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Aye he's been completely bombed out which would be fair enough if he was so so far below standard of the others like kobiyashi is but when 1 of ur regular starting cbs is a league of Ireland player who looks very much like a league of Ireland player it's bizarre that others havnt been given any opportunities.

I think there will be a massive overhaul there over the summer, said the other day I think it's interesting that Scales hasn't been given a new deal yet and he may be added to list of exits.

Welsh will no doubt survive for same reason he did last summer and the January before. Ie he ticks a box and fills a qouta.
Wouldnt be suprised if all but him and CCV are away in the summer.

 

I think what's worse is we had Jenz on a loan to buy, who while not to the level of Starfelt was levels above Scales, but he got sent packing to make way for Yuki.

 

That was such a ridiculous decision. Another one that Welsh survived over due to being homegrown.

Think his option to buy for us was around £3m. He had played v huns and real Madrid and at no point did I feel he looked out of place.
Excuse was made that he moved on bcoz he wanted game time and that he had played less once Starfelt was back fully fit. CCV was at some point knowingly carrying an injury and Starfelt wanted away in the summer, feel if that had been explained to him he'd likely have stayed at waited it out but similar to Giakoumakis it's another one where it looks like Ange was only thinking of the next 5 months bcoz he knew he wouldn't need to worry about the following seasons squad

 

You definitely would

 

That wouldn't surprise me either. Feels a bit hard on Scales but 2 of the remaining 3 won't play for us again this season and Nawrocki is arguably better than Scales, but the opposite is true too, so either way not much of an improvement. You can argue Nawrocki is young enough to improve but if he's not good enough to get in front of Scales in his current form, and only just got in front of Welsh, then not sure that's enough.

 

Don't think Forrest was injured, Premier stated it was purely tactical..

 

It was done with so little time left. Found it bizarre, I pretty much only watch Celtic, is it something that other managers do under similar circumstances? Saw him coming on and me and my brother started laughing at it and saying how will they know who's to mark who. Almost guaranteed we were letting them come at us.

Even if it's not as bizarre as I think it didn't help.

 

He definitely pulled up 5/10 mins before. Was off the park holding his hamstring I think and then took a while to come back on. But I'm just assuming it was enforced. He did have some decent involvement after that.

If it wasn't because Forrest was injured I find it stranger still.

 

I think Rodgers probably now knows Scales isn't good enough so little point in stockpiling average players. He does always take about our squad being too big and wanting quality over quantity. I also think he likes Scales as a person, always talks very highly of him so mite want to allow him chance to move on and be a 1st team player elsewhere and help his career out. Like I say I think it's really telling that with 5 weeks to go he's not been given a new deal as yet and there maybe something in it.

I think ur right on Nawrocki but as you say the fact he's not deemed good enough to get in ahead of Scales when his form had completely fell of a cliff is telling and think rightly or wrongly Rodgers has already made his mind up on him too.

Plenty of folk where against it at the time but I think we really missed a trick with McKenna in January. He's a better cb than every cb we have bar CCV, was also available for very little money and is a homegrown player.

 

Yeah it's something iv seen done before and in theory you can understand the logic of it. There putting high balls into the box so bring on an extra centre back to deal with it for last couple of minutes.

However the problem was by taking off am attacker it then freed up 1 of their defenders whintgey could then throw up the other end and of course he's the * that scores

 

Aberdeen had two strikers on the park at that point. So us having an extra centre half is no different to almost every game we play, where the opposition have one striker and we have two centre halfs. So if the argument is that don’t know who they would be marking, was that not the same at kick off when we had one more centre half than they did striker?

Managers bringing on an extra defender to try and see a game over the line has been a common substitution for as long as I can remember. Not every game, but it does happen regularly.

We will never really know what the shape was meant to be though, as we conceded seconds later and then our game plan changed to try and win the game again. Which we nearly did after carving out a great opportunity for Idah.

 

Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t remember Ange getting this much scrutiny after the Scottish Cup semi in his first season. A game we lost to a hun team who had been run into the ground only days before, and then scored late against us and looked fitter and stronger in extra time.

 

Difference is Ange was turning round a struggling squad and setup, building on what he had, targeting and bringing in quality signings and instilling an exciting football philosophy in months that was starting to pay off.

It's not really comparable.

 

That was well into the season when we had a settled team. It also doesn’t take away the fact the huns had also played in Europe a few days before yet still looked fresher than we did. I’m not getting torn into Ange here. I just find it odd that Rodgers seems to be getting more scrutiny for a game we went on to win. Results like the one against the huns, and plenty other cup upsets tell us that these games are notoriously difficult to get through. I just think there are folk hellbent on picking faults rather than just being glad we got over the line.

 

Sure that's the way you see it. Fair enough.

Just not everyone's opinion. Rodgers tenure so far has been disappointing for a lot of us. Maybe expectations where too high.

Ange's tenure was the opposite, we had no idea what we were getting, and he greatly exceeded expectations by most people's measure.

For me, when Ange came in a successful season was winning the League. When Rodgers came in a successful season was retaining a Treble and/or doing well in the CL/Europe.

I just don't think it's a comparable situation, to elaborate on my answer to your original question.

 

When you start a must win CL game away to Lazio with Yang, Forrest, Scales and Taylor all playing, I think doing well in Europe was always a tough ask. The board saw to that last summer. If we do the double, do you think this season has been a failure?