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.
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?
Samaras and Izaguirre are also injured, joining Matthews and Wanyama who were withdrawn in Turin due to hamstring strains.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.
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.
Unfortunately the old weaknesses in Forsterās 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 didnāt 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. Weāre not playing very fluently regularly at the moment - the odd good performance but many that are stale.
I see Neil Lennon wasnāt best pleased with the display on Saturday. Questioned the commitment and said a number of players were playing as if theyāve been tapped up and didnāt want to be here any more. Not sure who he was referencing but I wouldnāt mind if any player fucked off to be honest (other than Wanyama). Heās injured and wasnāt playing on Saturday so the criticism didnāt apply to him but I think heās the only player that would be very difficult to replace with anything like the same quality given budget constraints etc.
I didnāt see the match at the weekend, and obviously thereās a bit of emotional hyperbole in your reaction there but Iād consider the following as ādifficult to replace within our budgetā:
Wanyama
Matthews
Ledley
Hooper (not that heās 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 donāt score many - Watt and Stokes are the only other two who might threaten to get 20 in an SPL season).
Brown
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).
Samaras (but heās 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 heās not overly bothered).
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.
Iād be largely indifferent to Commons, Kayal, Rogne, Ambrose, Lassad, Miku, Mulgrew, Gershon and McCourt leaving. And Iād 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 heās another player who can look great some days and awful other times.