Commons injured now after having a brilliant game. Stood on the ball and seemed to damage his ankle. Hopefully itās more precautionary than anything. Celtic will finish this game with ten men having used all their subs.
1-1 after a good save from Forster from Militoās original shot.
Celtic looked sharp today and it bodes well for Wednesday night. Need to get some positive news on the Stokes and Commons injuries though.
Heavy sprain for Stokes and Commons probably ok too apparently.
Didnāt watch the end of the game lads. Did we drop off the pace or were we unlucky?
Indeed. Neil says Commonsā injury appears to be more severe - pity it would be great to get him back scoring freely from midfield. Rogne and Brown were rested and Forrest has a slight foot injury but should be fine.
Unlucky. We played the last 10/15 with ten men after Commons went off. Forster made a good save from Milito and they scored from the follow up.
Looks like both will miss Wednesday so. I think we will line out as follows:
[Soccer][gk]Forster[/gk]
[rb]Matthews[/rb] [rcb]Rogne[/rcb] [lcb]Mulgrew[/lcb] [lb]Izaguirre[/lb]
[rcm] Brown[/rcm] [cdm]Wanyama[/cdm] [lcm]Ledley[/lcm]
[rw]Forrest[/rw] [lw]Samaras[/lw]
[st]Hooper[/st][/Soccer]
How did Paddy do when he came on, Iād like to see him play in a central role Wednesday night but I donāt think Lennon has the balls to do so.
Rasmussen seems to have joined Fc Midtjylland for 250k this evening. Seemed like a reasonable natural goalscorer but his disappearing act at a succession of clubs suggests his workrate wasnāt up to much.
Anyone got the squad list we have registered for this qualifying round in Europe? Has Slab Murphy been registered. Thought he did well Saturday when he came on and put a shift in unlike Hooper and Stokes, Iād drop Stokes and Hooper and play Slab up front by himself Wednesday night.
I also think we should sign Mackay-Steven, David Templeton and Johnny Russell and sell Ki. This team lacks urgency at the minute and these three young lads are all very direct and pacey and the former two will provide good width while the latter will hopefully link up well with Slab. We should then look out for another centre back and big physical striker and Iād be happy.
New manager would be nice tooā¦Big Mick? Steve Kean?
Iām sure Murphy is registered - we donāt have that many senior players and the likes of Twardzik, McGeouch, Watt etc wouldnāt have needed to be on the A list.
He made a positive difference when he came on but thereās no way Iād start him on Wednesday.
Quotes from Lennon yesterday that basically said we will only be buying players if:
a) we qualify for CL (so that only gives us a 2 day window) or
b) we sell someone
He did say weāre looking at centre backs and centre forwards but the implication is that we have our targets identified, we just donāt have money to pursue them.
And why donāt we have money to pursue them, we have shed a lot of players off our wage bill and have posted profits for the last two financial years as far as I know. I fucking despise Lawwell, heās a fucking cunt and a crook. Lennon should also be sacked if we fail to beat these deadbeats and next bunch of deadbeats in the next round.
Murphy is a better option than Hooper or Stokes at the minute. Hooper should be told to get the finger out or fuck off and Stokes should be told to get himself together and get rid of his petted lip.
[Soccer][gk]Forster[/gk]
[rb]Matthews[/rb][rcb]Rogne[/rcb][lcb]Mulgrew[/lcb][lb]Ledley[/lb]
[rm]Forrest[/rm][rcm]Kayal[/rcm][lcm]Wanyama[/lcm][lm]Samaras[/lm]
[cam]Commons[/cam]
[st]Murphy[/st]
[/Soccer]
Iād drop Izaguirre too as heās been very poor and lazy in the last two games.
It seems weāll look to spend the money we get from selling Ki.
Option 1: Buy a couple of players to ensure Champions League progression & get the financial rewards that will cover the outlay once weāre through.
Option 2: Try to negotiate qualifying rounds with current squad and only buy if we progress.
I agree with Totti. Weāve gone for the second option and weāve therefore left ourselves open to getting knocked out. We should have a proper centre back in place already (rather than playing Wanyama there) & we should also have a target man who possesses a goal threat signed and available.
Off topic here bhoys but check out former Celt Du Weiās goal from the weekend.
We made a profit of about 100k or something last year - break-even really. The year before we made a loss.
We will unquestionably have a reduction in revenue this year from ticket sales and corporate functions etc now that Rangers are off the agenda. We pay high wages to attract players to Scotland unfortunately and need to review our entire financial strategy to leave more money available for transfer fees I think.
Getting rid of some of the deadwood should help but thatās really just helping to offset the expected reduction in revenue. Iād like to have thought that if there was someone of sufficient quality that theyād have made a meaningful difference to our chances of qualifying for the CL then weād have considered investing but it seems not. That said, Iām not sure theyāre the type of players we are looking at. I think we should be identifying a centre back whoād go straight into the team and make a big difference but as far as a striker goes - Iād say weāre looking at an option to play with Hooper or sometimes alongside him, as opposed to someone to replace him.
Thereās a fair chance weāll need to score on Wednesday. For all Murphyās industry on Saturday heās not very likely to score and we need Hooper to play.
Murphy did more on Saturday than either Stokes or Hooper did. Both Stokes and Hooper shied away from the ball all Saturday and Hooper is not interested in competing in the air and when we get the ball in wide areas where bodies are funnelled back and it is obvious that the ball is going to be hung up he doesnāt bother moving into the penalty area as he doesnāt want to compete. Stokes is little better in this regard but at least heāll make a few token challenges in the air. Unless we start moving the ball a lot quicker Hooper is a passenger. Iām not going to mince my words on what I thought of him Saturday, he was a disgrace and Lennon is setting out a bad example if he starts him again Wednesday night. Murphy is a limited footballer but I think he is willing to do things for the benefit of the team rather than himself. Hooper is only interested in playing one way and heās not willing to make sacrifices and do some of the dirty work which is necessary given how poorly our build up play has been - itās every bit as bad now as it was under Strachan.
Stale and bland football with players singing off different hymn sheets.
[quote=āIl Bomber Destro, post: 670956ā]
Murphy did more on Saturday than either Stokes or Hooper did. Both Stokes and Hooper shied away from the ball all Saturday and Hooper is not interested in competing in the air and when we get the ball in wide areas where bodies are funnelled back and it is obvious that the ball is going to be hung up he doesnāt bother moving into the penalty area as he doesnāt want to compete. Stokes is little better in this regard but at least heāll make a few token challenges in the air. Unless we start moving the ball a lot quicker Hooper is a passenger. Iām not going to mince my words on what I thought of him Saturday, he was a disgrace and Lennon is setting out a bad example if he starts him again Wednesday night. Murphy is a limited footballer but I think he is willing to do things for the benefit of the team rather than himself. Hooper is only interested in playing one way and heās not willing to make sacrifices and do some of the dirty work which is necessary given how poorly our build up play has been - itās every bit as bad now as it was under Strachan.
Stale and bland football with players singing off different hymn sheets.[/quote]
Iām not disputing how poor Stokes and Hooper were just what the reaction should be. Murphy put in a decent shift but thatās all heās capable of. Heās not in the box enough and his touch isnāt good enough to create chances. As frustrating as Hooper was he remains our most likely goal thread, alongside Commons maybe, so we donāt really have an option to not start him IMO.
We do need to work on the passing from midfield too. Some of the chips forward to either striker in recent games have been ridiculous and pure lazy.
Celtic
Zaluska,
Matthews, Wilson, Mulgrew, Izaguirre,
McGeouch, Kayal, Ledley, Commons,
Murphy, Stokes.
I expect Daryl Murphy to pose Real Madrid some problems. The game is live on ITV4 in the UK - not sure if Setanta or someone is picking it up in Ireland.
What time is kick-off?