Captain Tav will be disappointed with that pass🤣
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Three J league lads and a couple of loans I predict.
Because rangers are dreadful.
The J League that we got Kyogo, Hatate and Maeda from? I don’t think that’s the problem.
Don’t be this silly.
Rodgers has come good in the last couple of months. He’s made an absolute mug out of Bald Phil & has had him on strings. I think he’s finally had all of his best players fit at the same time (CCV, Hatate, McGregor etc) &, while he’d previously been ruthless (harsh?) on the likes of Lagerbielke, he seemed to make up his mind on others too.
He settled on the 16 or so players he could rely on - the starting lineup from Saturday plus Iwata, Idah, Bernardo & a couple of others. We haven’t seen much, if anything, of Yang, Holm, Oh, Welsh & these bhoys.
It’s rehashing old talk but the drop in standard from the first choice players down to the reserves is fairly big & the recruitment last summer was appalling. Fair play to James Forrest for coming in & helping us get over the line when 3 or 4 wide players were signed (Palma & Tilio too) & just don’t seem to have it. Maybe harsh on Palma there but he needs to up it.
It goes without saying that Celtic need to back Rodgers with recruitment now. He’s got the league done with last year’s team less Starfelt & Jota essentially & with those key players mentioned above having missed chunks of the season.
The huns have imploded a bit but Celtic & Rodgers came alive when it mattered. You can say we should be winning the league & that’s true, but it became touch & go in January/February & Rodgers led with confidence while his rival was floundering & losing the plot. The huns are spending as much as Celtic on player wages & transfers these days so they’re in theory stronger than at any time in the last 10-15 years.
I keep thinking they’ll surely turn us over soon on the law of averages - Rodgers’ record in derbies is 13 wins, 3 draws & 1 defeat - but equally we’ve beaten them narrowly in several recent games despite being 2 or 3 goals the better side in several of them.
I think we’ve had O’Riley McGregor and Hatate together for 6 or 7 games. That was definitely a big part of it. It’s not long since we were relying on Turnbull and Johnston to try and win us games - and it was actually progressive to move them on in January instead of keeping them as cover because they were both making appearances.
The signings last summer weren’t good enough. Hopefully Kuhn is a step in the right direction. I think Holm and Tilio can improve but wouldn’t be relying on them for next season. Holm seemed to lose Rodgers’ trust after his red card.
Palma and Nawrocki are interesting ones. Palma had some good spells but he needs to improve his decision making a lot to be relied on. I would say Nawrocki is our third best defender at the moment but if one assumes Scales and Welsh are sticking around then I’d nearly prefer we moved him on because I would prefer a better partner for CCV and I don’t think that’s going to be he.
But yeah Rodgers deserves a lot of credit for the run in. He’s given the team a bit of swagger and belief at the right time. His record against the Huns is exceptional and one point from twelve flattered them probably.
What do you reckon on Idah? Got some important goals and changed a few games positively. But that was a poor performance on Saturday.
I think Nawrocki has something to work on even if he’s a bit raw/reckless at this moment.hell improve with a run in team
Kuhn ,a bit like Palma, is lively but has a shocking end product.
Idah has been poor in last few appearances and looks a tad lazy but he does offer something different and has great feet and movement in confined spaces in the box which Celtic need when teams just defend. Not sure hes worth the fee for an impact sub though
Lagerbielke wasn’t great but seems to have been the sacrificial lamb for boardroom politics and Rodgers grabbing back some control.
What’s the story Bosun lawel? I think a physical presence is needed in cm for Celtic .is he at that level ?
All in all Rangers have improved this season and have had their own injuries at bad times . Celtic haven’t improved much and are relying on same players by and large.they need to freshen things up a bit with proven quality (where possible !) They are the standard bearers , not Rangers . I do think for wherever they want to go the can’t have both Johnson and Taylor on the flanks , one maybe , but need more quality
Lawal looked completely out of his depth 18 months ago but he was only a kid in fairness. I would have thought midfield would be the last place he’d thrive but he seems to have been really good there, albeit at a much lower level. He’s an interesting prospect because of his build anyway. A completely different midfielder to anything Celtic (or Ireland) have currently.
The Huns improved a bit but I’m not sure they’re better than they were before Beale when Van Bronckhorst had them.
The loss of Jota and Starfelt from the starting team with no new player really making any impact was a big drop off and Rodgers has done well to keep the standard high. But there certainly needs to be a much better transfer window this summer.
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The huns are getting restless with Clement. Remarkable given how poor they were post Beale.
They absolutely hate lundstrom, who doesn’t appear to my untutored eye to have been a bad servant to them in general. Not sure what kind of money he’s on though.
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Idah looks like he should be better than he is.