Celtic v Rangers, Sunday - 12.30pm, Sky Sports Football 🍀

[Cicero_Dandi]

@Rocko

Rogic hasn’t played well in months unfortunately.

He’s not going to play regularly when he’s left sitting on the bench. Christie was rotten today so Rogic should be due a run of games.

@Rocko

Wasn’t even a regular in Brendan’s first season really

He was a regular under Rodgers and has the ability to change games, the results this season and the performances post Cluj have been good on the whole but Lennon has managed the fringe players very, very poorly. A meritocracy does not exist.

@Rocko

The formation change was worth a go and did at least help Frimpong. Ntcham deserved a chance to contribute and his quick feet are always useful in these games.

Didn’t work though and that is what managers live and die by.

@Rocko

Griffiths looks done but was a very tight offside call on him and it was worth a go.

Agreed.

At least it will be a wake up call for the board to get the cheque book out.

[ChairmanDan]

@Cicero_Dandi

Agreed.

At least it will be a wake up call for the board to get the cheque book out.

Any young local lads that could be called up from the famed Glasgow Celtic youth academy or is it a cheque book job?

[the_man_himself]

They’ve a rake of Irish young lads there who they are ruining the careers of

[Cicero_Dandi]

3 academy graduates started today.

[balbec]

@the_man_himself

He just won 10 games in a row and came first in a tough-ish Europa League group

Failed Bolton manager.

[dodgy_keeper]

Gerrard might finally win a league title now.

[Sidney]

Gerrard came into that job at a good time

Rangers had been at a low ebb for years and the hunger in their support is tangible, it’s reminiscent of Celtic’s hunger in the Tommy Burns era

Gerrard is a great figure to rally that, like Souness was in the 80s

In a league such as Scotland which struggles to attract good international players, his profile alone is a huge deal and a significant carrot in attracting players

But what I have been particularly impressed with is how cohesively Rangers are playing, they are very reminiscent of the Walter Smith teams of the 1990s, a very solid back four, the players all work very hard, and they move the ball quickly and with purpose, they are excellent on the counter

This is all basic enough stuff and I don’t think Gerrard is a tactical genius or anything

Maybe like Zidane at Madrid he’s just the right man in the right place at the right time, conditions are favourable for him and solid organisation and his profile are working well for Rangers

But it’s going well for him in Europe too so he must have something about him

I think all that easy domestic success has made Celtic as a club somewhat complacent and their players didn’t look quite as committed as Rangers did today

Yet they were still a lot more committed than in this fixture last year when they were abject under Brendan Rodgers

Bringing back Allan McGregor and Steve Davis was a very clever move by Gerrard

These guys are Rangers to the core and you can see their influence on the rest of the team in terms of the commitment the players are showing

Gerrard’s brief was to stop 10 in a row

If he could stop nine he’d be a hero forever at Ibrox

[Lazarus]

Celtic losing today to that slippery scouse hun has ruined the festive peroid for me

[Rocko]

@Bandage

Going to a back three with Bitton wasn’t the right call imnvho. It was another defensive player when we needed to score. It had some benefits in freeing up Frimpong but it seems a bit off that you end up using all three subs when chasing the game and none of them is Rogic.

Appreciate the v in that humility.

Yeah I get the rationale but I’m fairly indifferent with it. It was a formation we had used recently so at least it was different for them but familiar to us. And ultimately I don’t know who else I’d have taken off. I thought Edouard, McGregor and Brown needed to stay on and the rest of the “front 6” were all withdrawn.

We were definitely outdone by their system again which is disappointing. Christie, Brown and McGregor should be dominating against their midfield trio. But I think they got much more help from Aribo and a bit from Kent compared to Johnston and Forrest. Christie should be shining against Davis but he didn’t like the attention at all.

So I think they were more effective but an awful lot of it comes down to good players playing poorly. The concern is that it’s happened twice in a row against them and the fluency we had during November has fallen away in December.

[Cicero_Dandi]

Forrest’s stats aren’t bad but bar his real golden patch last season his form has been iffy and he needs to be doing more.

I don’t know what’s going on with Shved but when you see the likes of Morgan and Sinclair getting game time ahead of him then it doesn’t bode well for Lennon. He’s had about 60/70 minutes on the pitch this season and already scored a cracker in that time, since then he has been frozen out.

[Rocko]

Why doesn’t it bode well for Lennon? He hit one nice strike alright. Nowhere near enough to judge him by. We had the players to win today. Forrest hasn’t been that bad that it’s been a real problem and some of it seemed to be down to moving left, though today disproved that.

In retrospect Ntcham should probably have started today but the performance from those selected was far more troubling than the selection itself.

[Cicero_Dandi]

The problem is we played how many games in December and guys like Shved, Bayo and Rogic barely got a look in. You and I both know well that Shved is worth a go far more than Sinclair and Morgan.

How many games has Rogic been on the bench for in that past month? How many minutes has he got? If he’s fit enough for the bench then he’s fit enough to play. There’s not really much pressure on a lot of regulars now because Lennon is refusing to give other players a go, we have had plenty of opportunities for that this month.

I don’t think we have played particularly well in December:

• a last minute win against Hamilton, poor performance
• really poor performance against the huns, lucky win
• didn’t see the Hibs game, 2 goal win
• played very well against bottom placed Hearts and should have won by more than the 2
• 1 goal win against Aberdeen, didn’t see the game
• very abject display against, St Mirren, failed to kill the game on and won by 1 goal
• another poor performance against the huns today

There’s been minimum rotation in those games. I don’t understand how Rogic has not been given a few starts in that time, don’t try and excuse it.

[Rocko]

Bayo has been injured. Yet again unfortunately.

Shved we haven’t seen enough of to know if he’d make a difference. Hopefully he does. No idea why he’s not involved.

Rogic has had a few chances. He started a couple of games and then got another knock and has been more or less on the bench since. Ntcham has been the one from the midfield subs to get a chance. I hope Rogic can rediscover his form but I’m not going to automatically assume he would play well because he’s on a prolonged spell of poor form and that’s been the case a few times in his career.

I agree that performances have been poor. Similar to last season when we scraped through the December fixtures and then got found out in the derby. A couple of new arrivals in January made a big difference last year and hopefully we have the same again plus Elyounoussi back.

[Cicero_Dandi]

Rogic has been on the bench for the majority of games in December. He’s either fit or not. Ntcham has had to bide his time to get a look in.

The thing I liked about Rodger’s time was it was meritocracy, players got their opportunities and if they took them they stayed in but he could handle having a number of midfielders and a number of strikers about and it drove the competition for places and it drove the players to improve. I don’t see that with Lennon now. He has his core players and everyone else has to wait for them to get an injury.

I’d love to see the ratio of starts to being named on the bench the likes of Ntcham, Rogic and Bayo have this season. The former two are proven players, they have had a few niggles this season but both should be playing a lot more football.

There is a staleness to that XI now.

[Rocko]

I would like to see more of Ntcham in general though he hasn’t played much less than last season I’d guess. He’s a good versatile player though and should be regularly involved. He and Rogic have both lost out to Christie who has probably been Celtic’s second best player over the last 12 months after Edouard. Still, I agree he could be accommodated a little more frequently.

Rogic will probably get a start in the cup. He really needs to shine in that game because he’s third choice #10 at the moment and deservedly so.

I don’t buy into Bayo at all yet. He’s very injury prone and I don’t think he suits our style very well. I hope he comes good but we need a better replacement for Edouard.

[Cicero_Dandi]

All I know about Bayo is I have not seen enough of him to make a proper judgement.

The bottom line is that he should have been given more opportunities that he has had.

[Big_Dan_Campbell]

Lemon is a fud

[Rocko]

Do you think all players you haven’t seen enough of should be playing more?

[Bandage]

I think we should get big Benkovic back to replace Ajer.

We need a striker to compete with and deputise for Edouard.

We could do with another midfielder too.

I’d also be thinking of giving yer man Greg Taylor a run of games at left back.

[Rocko]

Benkovic was a bit injury prone but he’d be a significant upgrade on Ajer.

Agreed on the striker and on Taylor.