Celtic 2012/2013 season discussion thread

[quote=ā€œBandage, post: 743253, member: 9ā€]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUiXVIYY4yY

Heā€™s looked somewhat rusty since his return from injury but a wonderful save from Forster to preserve our lead late on today.[/quote]

His positioning was very poor in the first place.

Neil Lennon has confirmed that Mulgrew will be available for Turin. I imagine Rogne will be omitted and it will be a case of whether Ambrose or Mulgrew partners Kelvin Wilson. One or the other of them will probably play in midfield.

Iā€™d like to see the following team for Wednesday:

Forster; Matthews, Wilson, Mulgrew, Izaguirre; Wanyama, Ledley; Forrest, Commons, Samaras; Stokes.

Ambrose and Hooper should not be starting and Lennon would make himself very petty and ignorant if he chooses to start them in midweek.

The Scottish Cup semi-final draw will take place tomorrow lunchtime. Celtic will face either Dundee United, Hibs or Falkirk at Hampden.

Draw -
Hibernian v Falkirk
Dundee United v Celtic

[quote=ā€œIl Bomber Destro, post: 743492, member: 1052ā€]Iā€™d like to see the following team for Wednesday:

Forster; Matthews, Wilson, Mulgrew, Izaguirre; Wanyama, Ledley; Forrest, Commons, Samaras; Stokes.

Ambrose and Hooper should not be starting and Lennon would make himself very petty and ignorant if he chooses to start them in midweek.[/quote]
Would you not have Hooper in instead of Stokes Totti?

Team for this afternoonā€™s clash in Dingwall.

Forster, Ambrose, Wilson, Gershon, McGeouch, Kayal, Ledley, Mulgrew, Hooper, Miku, Stokes.

Subs: Zaluska, Lassad, Commons, Rogic, McCourt, Rogne, Watt.

Samaras and Izaguirre are also injured, joining Matthews and Wanyama who were withdrawn in Turin due to hamstring strains. Brown and Lustig remain out too.

But Hooper has only scored once in his last nine games, why is he playing?

Ambrose in dreadful form, being unprofessional and he also starts. What on earth is Lennon at?

http://www.coolsport.tv/stream16.html

That pitch is dreadful.

My stream died just as Mulgrew seemed to score directly from a corner.

That was amusing. Keeper was awful.

Miku has a one on one saved by the keeper after a nice exchange with Stokes.

Hooper doubles the lead with a chip that the keeper flails at under his crossbar. A nightmare for him.

Kayal heavily involved so far in winning and distributing the ball.

2-2 now. What has happened Bando?

They started to commit more men forward and built a bit of pressure. Their centre back scored a superb volley after a freekick was cleared and returned into the box - it was partly cleared again and he thumped it into the top corner from 20 yards. The second goal was a bad concession - Mulgrew was beaten too easily on our left and Wilson got a flick header on the cross which diverted it to the back post area where their striker shrugged McGeouch off it and knocked it in. Stokes was put in by Miku for a one on one right on half time and he clipped the outside of the post - should have scored.

Injury time winner for Ross County. :eek:

Unfortunately the old weaknesses in Forsterā€™s game have returned since his injury. A hoof over the top and their substitute striker was able to run on and take his first touch around 6 yards from the goal-line to flip it up and head it past Forster. No idea why he was rooted to his goal-line but we had a warning around 15 minutes before that when he should have been out to claim a punt forward and the same player poked it narrowly wide.

Really shite second half from Celtic. Lennon persisted with 3 advanced players when we needed to shore up the midfield. The 3-4-1-2 didnā€™t work at all.

Saw none of that today but it was a shocking result and seemed like a brutal second half performance in particular from the consensus around the web. Weā€™re not playing very fluently regularly at the moment - the odd good performance but many that are stale.

I see Neil Lennon wasnā€™t best pleased with the display on Saturday. Questioned the commitment and said a number of players were playing as if theyā€™ve been tapped up and didnā€™t want to be here any more. Not sure who he was referencing but I wouldnā€™t mind if any player fucked off to be honest (other than Wanyama). Heā€™s injured and wasnā€™t playing on Saturday so the criticism didnā€™t apply to him but I think heā€™s the only player that would be very difficult to replace with anything like the same quality given budget constraints etc.

I didnā€™t see the match at the weekend, and obviously thereā€™s a bit of emotional hyperbole in your reaction there but Iā€™d consider the following as ā€œdifficult to replace within our budgetā€:

  1. Wanyama
  2. Matthews
  3. Ledley
  4. Hooper (not that heā€™s exempt from criticism but if he does leave, which looks likely, it might cost us a bit to get another goalscorer in. We have a good few forwards who donā€™t score many - Watt and Stokes are the only other two who might threaten to get 20 in an SPL season).
  5. Brown
  6. Forster (but he needs to learn how to come off his line. When was the last time he left his box I wonder? Every other goalkeeper usually ends up leaving their box at least once per game. Forster never ever strays beyond the penalty spot except when kicking it out of his hands).
  7. Samaras (but heā€™s either overused or often not very interested. A super big game player for us in the past couple of seasons but he really knows how to look uninterested in a game where heā€™s not overly bothered).
  8. Lustig has perhaps been our most consistent player this season apart from Wanyama.

Beyond that I think Wilson, Izaguirre, Watt, Forrest, Rogic and probably McGeouch are worth keeping as the best players in their positions, or players with lots of potential.

Iā€™d be largely indifferent to Commons, Kayal, Rogne, Ambrose, Lassad, Miku, Mulgrew, Gershon and McCourt leaving. And Iā€™d only be looking for any sort of money for Kayal, Commons and Mulgrew. Stokes probably deserves a bit of time to get regular games after his injury but heā€™s another player who can look great some days and awful other times.