They’re building on the summer transfer window shambles by possibly outdoing it now.
Any sign of a player joining?
I see Adam Idah is linked tonight.
Whatever about the failure to strengthen, they’re as bad at getting rid of deadwood. A load of lads surplus to requirements but no sign of any of them being sold, loaned out or paid off. James McCarthy & all those lads.
Sky Sports Italy are reporting that Celtic pulled the plug on Lagerbielke to Lecce on a loan with buy option this evening because CCV is injured again. Haven’t seen that injury confirmed but it would be another blow.
Some of those fan media sites who have wannabe Zonal Marking statto types writing for them & who’ve paid for access to data sites that scouts/club utilise have run the data & the initial findings are in…
…Idah is below average across pretty much every metric strikers are rated against.
I’ve never been impressed by him. Don’t see what he offers at all.
The only defence of this move is his potential to improve and the low risk if it’s a loan with an option but it’s very underwhelming. I’m more of a fan of Oh than most so I’m not as pushed about another striker but I can’t believe we can’t find a left back anywhere.
I imagine O’Riley will be gone in the summer and we will have a giant hole in midfield then too.
I think as a backup striker and with Maeda also capable there he’s good enough.
But I do think most people disagree. And also I don’t think Rodgers particularly rates him. Which makes me concerned that Idah is seen as the solution to this problem.
What’s your take on Kyogo barely getting a kick of the ball against the also ran outfits in a good few games this season?
He’s scored two belters against the huns.
Is it lack of space when other sides are camped out on the edge of their box?
Is it Rodgers’ tactics?
Is it because we’re missing Jota (sold) and Hatate (injured or unavailable) to find him & we didn’t adequately replace them?
Is it his own attitude and/or deterioration in displays?
It surely can’t be as simple as…the huns played into his hands by actually trying to go toe to toe with us & other sides condense the space around the box. He hardly got a kick in the 55 minutes I watched on Saturday - he/we surely should be able to get him in the game irrespective of what these opponents at SPL level are doing.
Not to absolve Rodgers of blame (because I think the general pace of football is far too slow) but I do think the main factor is how teams defend against us and against him.
He makes all these runs in behind but in reality he got very few goals that way under (before @thedancingbaby’s time previous boss) Postecoglou. He got more goals I think from being sharp around the edge of the box and little 1-2s etc that I think have been taken away by the number of defenders there. They just don’t give him as much room.
I also think his form has dropped off. He’s missing more chances (though he has always missed a few) and maybe getting more frustrated with it. He doesn’t seem as sharp on some half chances and I think his confidence has dropped.
I do think the overall slower pace of play is a problem. Now I think we had actually suffered a bit with that in the second half of last season. CCV is a fine defender but opponents are happy to ignore him and just sit on McGregor. I could see Ross County doing this at the weekend. Two guys sort of defending the front. One on McGregor and one floating around but only really challenging Scales and leaving CCV have it. They only push up on CCV to force him into an error they’re not concerned about him playing a progressive pass.
I think Johnston is a good player but he’s been only average this year and even at his best he’s not as tidy on the ball as Juranovic. So you don’t really have any dynamic build up play anymore and that just means we funnel the ball out to the wings which is easier to defend, especially with no Jota.
The best moments have largely come from O’Riley’s movement. We had Mooy making those runs off the ball past season and now we have MOR with that movement and also with his better touch which is probably the big improvement.
But the rest of the midfield aren’t doing it. Hopefully Hatate coming back makes us more unpredictable in that area. I think Bernardo coming into some form helped recently though he was poor at the weekend. And I’d like to see McGregor playing that role more because I think he has good movement and actually not sure he’s a strong defensive screen any more. Limited teams seem to find it very easy to counter attack against us and get into our box (Scales seems particularly weak in that area).
So in short - I think teams have improved how they defend against us and against him just by crowding him. I think he has lacked confidence then but we are way too slow and predictable in our passing which places far too much responsibility on wingers creating chances - and those aren’t typical Kyogo chances anyway if they follow a slow period of possession.
Agree with most of that but I also think Kyogo did score a lot of six yard box goals. Like his movement at his best is deadly, feigning to go front & sharply darting to back post (& vice versa) for tap ins for balls flashed across. Maybe we’re not getting into those positions as much too for some of the reasons mentioned - slower/less fluent build up play, missing creative players (should have mentioned Abada here too). Hatate was always good at drifting into spaces along the side of the box & either playing low crosses in himself or linking up with a full back or winger to do it. As @flattythehurdler says, the bhoys returning from the Asian Cup will be like 4 new signings so things are looking up.
