Tomoki Iwata

It is good to see him getting more game time, and Cal getting rested more. It's what needs to happen in every position, we have good players waiting in the wings, let's start usithem properly.

 

Nah, McGregor has been underwhelming all season. The competition for his place is showing up well recently, so he deserves a start over him.

I would love to see how we perform for a few games with McGregor on the bench. I'll go out on a limb and say we wouldn't miss him too much based on this season's form. We didn't even miss him last year when O'Riley stepped in.

 

Think that's being a bit harsh, O'Riley did well dropping into the deeper role when McGregor was injured but some of the game were a bit of a grind and the balance was off.

That said, I want Iwata to get more game time and have been banging his drum pretty much since he arrived, although we got him cheap it's not like he's some young project we've taken a punt on that could go either way, he was 25 and off the back of a POTY season in the j-league, he's easily as proven as kyogo. hatate and maeda when the arrived here.

Especially with Hatate injured now, he obviously brings a good amount of energy to the midfield.

------Iwata-----
O'Riley---McGregor

Or what I was calling for in europe this season before it started, in games we had to be a bit more defensive.

---Iwata----McGregor
------O'Riley/Hatate-------

 

We did though. He was missing half of our CL games and we struggled in a couple of domestic games without him.

 

i dont get the knicker wetting about the suggestion to playing Iwata in the Cal Mac role.

Yes we could put McGregor on the left of the two in front of Iwata, but we could also rest McGregor at times.

You can see playing in Europe then the weekend is difficult, so we need to manage game time better. McGregor is the one player that springs to mind about how bad we have managed that.

I think MOR wouldnt have been as instrumential as he was yesterday if he had got 90 mins chasing shadows in Madrid.

 

If Iwata and CalMac were in the same midfield, they could quite easily swap positions throughout the game. Iwata has shown he's capable at getting forward as well as defending. If CalMac is in the holding role, but getting heavily marked, move him forward and drop Iwata back to drag the opposition around.

 

He's shown in his brief appearances he's clearly a competent player who knows what he's doing but not enough to say we should be benching McGregor for him. Would like to see his minutes on the pitch increase over the course of the season though.

 

For me it’s not about trying to bench McGregor it is more we play a ridiculous amount of football in a season. Especially around this time of year through to the winter break.

We have 11 fixtures in 39 days.

Motherwell (H)
Lazio (A)
St Johnstone (A)
Hibs (H)
Killie (A)
Feyenoord (H)
Hearts (H)
Livi (H)
Dundee (A)
Rangers (H)
St Mirren (A)

Iwata could easily start 4 of those league fixtures to give McGregor a break and have him as fresh as possible for the game with them.

Away to Lazio I would play the two of them definitely.

It’s the same with Holm, Bernardo and Turnbull they can all play minutes to keep us fresh and give O’Riley a couple of games off too.

 

This is why I quite like 5 subs now.

There is zero reason for McGregor to run into the ground domestically now, in CM we are supposed to have enough options that allow us better rotation as a season progresses.

 

Considering both Turnbull and Holm have recently been tried in midfield with McGregor and O'Reilly I don't understand why iwata hasn't had the chance from the start to play beside them. I think we'd maybe see McGregor unleashed a bit more in the forward area's.

 

Imagine scoring your first goal then barely get any minutes since. How must that feel? Every time he has played he's shown more than enough to warrant a start. He must of scanned Rodgers kid or something, really strange man-management from Rodgers tbh.

 

Was he injured? To not even not be 9n the bench if fit, is strange. Wrong even.

 

From what I've seen I think he at least deserves a chance to play more, but I'm not a football manager and I don't see him everyday in training etc.

 

Think he must be. Wasn't on the bench for Motherwell or Lazio.

 

Don’t get why he isn’t getting an opportunity. Come here having won POTY in Japan as a holding midfielder, it’s a position we badly need to fix, he has done well in the time he has played, but can’t get a sniff. Strange one.

 

Refuse to believe he's not a better CDM than McGregor. At least he has strength, mobility and can tackle.

 

Bcoz for some reason our managers can't see past Mcgregor as a CDM and seem t have completely forgot it's not even his natural position.
Could understand the argument more when he was dictating play, especially as we were a team with 80% possession most weeks and having him as a deep lying playmaker rather than an actual cdm was beneficial. But now he just passes it 5 yards either side. Any * can do that role so 1 who can actually bring the qualities of a CDM with it would be good.

 

He is either injured or away in January. If he does leave I think it would be a shame as I think he has something to offer our midfield that our other players don’t. We have too many tidy on the ball decent all round, one paced players in there just now.

 

Is he still alive?

He really should be getting more game time

 

Cal doesn't need "benched", he needs rested.

He's not a * kid anymore and we're running him into the ground with Europe, internationals and domestic games.

His performances have now been affected and if Rodgers had any sense he'd concoct a "niggle" to let him sit one out. Iwata has shown more than enough to merit a start.