What team would we like to see tomorrow Bhoys?
I’d go with:
-------------------Hart
Ralston------CCV-----Starfelt-----Juranovic
------Hatate-----McGregor-----Rogic
Abada-----------Maeda-------------Mikey
I’d be keeping our injury returnees in reserve and hope to get them a few minutes.
Should have some good attacking options on the bench with Jota, Forrest, Giakoumakis and potentially Kyogo there.
I don’t think Kyogo or Jota are going to be in the squad for a couple of weeks. Kyogo isn’t getting called up to the Japan squad because of injury by the way. Ange said Jota was a couple of weeks away I think.
Probably go with that team but wouldn’t be surprised to see Bitton start instead of Hatate. We played a friendly against St Mirren last week and reports were that Ideguchi played better than Hatate in the 45 minutes they were on (but obviously that’s just a friendly).
If Jota is back in full training then there’s no harm in having him on the bench to give him 10 minutes near the end if we are in a good position in the game.
I think the concern is that Kyogo is injured and will miss the next few weeks and Maeda is called up in his place and misses some of the same games and we end up with betirher available.
Is Kyogo badly injured? I’d expect him back tbf.
He was in London with Turnbull during the week. Probably to see a specialist which might not be a good sign. But not sure what the actual story is.
I didn’t think it looked too bad. I think you can generally tell by the way they pull up. I’d say it’s because of hamstring niggles Celtic are taking precautions. By the Rangers games he’d nearly be 6 weeks since his injury.
Technically its matchday but Rangers fan Bobby Madden will ref the upcoming Celtic-Rangers game.
There’s been talk of Maeda playing on the left as well before, he could slot in there and GG through the middle.
Great to see the options for places back along with the new lads everyone is waiting to see
Can’t see Bain playing too much but I suspect this is more so to count as one of our homegrown players for Europe and keeps extra slots for outfield players
I’d consider GG similar to Kyogo/Jota/Jullien in that he’s just back from a long layoff so his reintroduction will probably be gradual and it will be a sub appearance or two before he starts a game.
FFS
Yeah makes sense and hopefully we can develop Oluwayemi over the next couple of years.
Ralston or Juranovic Bhoys.
Ralston for me, it kind of reminds me of the conundrum Brazil had back around 10 years ago when they had Dani Alves and Maicon at RB. Both were at their peak then and Maicon won their jersey, Alves had the better career but Maicon at his peak for around 2/3 seasons reached a level Alves didn’t. I think it was telling that Inter moved Zanetti, one of their greatest ever players over to LB to get Maicon in the team.
Ralston is similar to Maicon in that regard, he’s the more physical player, bigger, stronger, faster, better aerially and a better defender. Likes to bomb down on the overlap and better and getting in behind teams and stretching them.
Juranovic is more technical, smaller. Good crosser, comfortable on the ball, good engine and solid all round player but has a few question marks defensively I feel.
0 voters
Ralston has earned his right back chance, Juaranovic is more than capable at left back and offers much more than Taylor ever will. How Taylor is getting a look in ahead of anyone is starting to really grate
I’m not a fan of Taylor at all but I do think he was good last night. Great pass to Abada for the pen and got in good positions.
I think Scales has generally been better at left back in his limited chances though than Taylor has been.
That pass for the second goal from Taylor is why he’s in the team. In fairness he might be least likely or the full backs to actually pull it off but he consistently gets into good central positions which is exactly what all the full backs are asked to do. McGregor fired a lovely pass into him but you could see the extra space he had from understanding his role. If Forrest dropped in there they’d have marked him.
On the poll itself it’s tough. As I said before the game I think Juranovic taking set pieces probably worked in his favour. He gave a shout out to Ralston after the game. I think Ralston is the better defender and has generally played really well. But Juranovic is very quick and that’s something Ange values.
Oh I also meant to say I thought Starfelt played really well last night but his defensive headers seem to be quite poor, doesn’t really seem to get them clear from danger.