Wingers! - A different style of play!

Was just looking over previous Celtic teams and their style of play.

One thing I have been missing from the Lennon era and maybe a few before him is natural wing play? I mean one quick pacey one on one side and another skillful more pin point crosser on the other!

If you look at our current midfield, we have to many players that just want to play in the middle and because of this certain players are playing on top of each other.

As fans, what would you prefer to see? excellent wing play where in the SPL we play a 442 attacking formation crossing the ball in from the end of the box and in europe a more 532 style of play with someone like brown using that third midfield position switching from defensive to offensive mid as the play dictates? With counter attacking full backs and a stong defensive line and with the likes of Ledly and Kayal/Ki dictacting the passing and tempo of the game!

Two matches that where perfect examples of this was the away to Stuttgart and Ajax, Sigh! Those days seem long gone now

It has been a while since we substituded this style of play for the more attractive through the middle fancy passing, which does not seem to be working.

Personally I miss the natural wide players we used to have, tommo, agathe, nakamura etc etc.

Opinion gents! and ladies

 

Forrest?

 

I see forrest as a kind of Shaun Wright Phillips kind of player... not a natural winger or maybe he is but being played as someone who comes in off the wing. No matter what way you look at it lennon likes to funnel the midfield towards the centre of the strike force he does not use the wings to their full advantage, which is unsurprising considering he is a central mid himself.

 

The difference is Thommo, Petta, Agathe, Naka, McGeady etc all had a target man like Sutton, Hartson and JVoH! We dont have a player like them now which is a reason why we dont see Forrest hitting the by line and whipping a ball in, as Stokes and Hooper are not going to attack and dominate a centre half in the air

Personally i love my wingers hitting the line and whipping a ball in for a target man to attack

 

Pretty much this.

 

He actually does put at lot of top quality crosses in but Stokes and Hooper don't even attempt to attack them .

 

Two wingers and two strikers is a losing format.

 

I see James like that aswel. Think you are right though we don't have natural width. I guess if we went 3412 or similar we could deploy cha and izzy as wing backs and that would certainly give us the width.


Well that's how i play them in fifa

 

Nail on the head

 

I used to think that but I disagree now.

 

If we had a fully fit team and a new composed/organised/leader of a centre half, then i would like to se a 3 5 2 formation using Wingbacks.....if the 5 can hold there discipline then the back 3 should never get over exposed, we gaurantee to own the midfield and have a forward 2 that get plenty of support.....sounds kinda too simple !!! ??

 

I've loved the 3-5-2 since MON's days in charge. I think if you have three dominating cb's its a great formation especially in the SPL but I don't know if we have the players to do it effectively.

 

The problem with 3-5-2 is that we will often come up against a 4-5-1 which will often leave 2 centre backs to spare, when we are attacking.

 

u need to have a flexability to switch though, to many times we look very 1 dimensional 2 wingers also what caused us to get pumped at caley last season

 

It works for Man U.

What would you play at home to the likes of Dunfermline? 4-6-0?

 

Yeah, with greatly talented players who can track back as well as attack. McCourt, Forrest or Commons would not do the same job.

No, I wouldn't play that formation v Dunfermline. Would be a little silly, don't you think?

 

Today, modern wingers must play to the opposite side of their natural foot. A left-handed will play on right and a right-handed will play on left. They do not like overflow on their sides and they prefer let this to fullbacks. A winger should go inside the ground in order to shoot to the goal and score

 

Exactly

 

I wish Lennon would stop playing three centre mids, I think we should always play two wingers.

 

Its time to give Paddy his often talked about "run in the team". He couldn't be any worse than what we've seen so far....