Celtic-Paris Saint Germain, Barcelona-Juventus and Roma-Atletico Madrid are probably the pick of Tuesday night’s ties. Meanwhile TV3 are showing Manchester United-Basel live.
Brown and Simunovic both signed new Celtic deals today. Boyata, Sviatchenko and Dembélé remain unavailable for selection and Celtic have a huge problem at centre back with the first two absent.
They’ve gone with a back three at times in the SPFL as right back Lustig and left back Tierney can join Simunovic centrally. But they’re hardly going to play with a back three and go man for man against PSG’s front 3 of whatever combination of Neymar, Cavani, Mbappe and Di Maria.
Going with a back 4 means playing a converted midfielder (Bitton) or young 4th choice centre back (Ajer) in the middle alongside Simunovic or else shifting either Lustig or Tierney inside and playing a youngster right back (Ralston) or left back (Miller) or even chucking utility midfield man McGregor to left back.
We really needed to sign a centre back once yer man from South Africa failed his medical towards the end of August.
None of the defensive options are particularly appealing. If we had just a lack of quality we could throw numbers at the problem and play 5 back there but we don’t have enough defenders to try that.
We’re not going to be passive according to Brendan, pal. He referenced the 7-0 away to Barca in matchday 1 last season when we went 5 at the back. We came roaring back in matchday 2 at home to Manchester City and had a good go in every game after that tentative/nervous opening day rout. I’d say we’ll give a good account of ourselves tomorrow - I think we should be able to command a decent share of possession and will have an attack minded approach / set up. Whether that leads to a good result is another matter.
I’d go with a 4-3-3 / 4-5-1. I don’t think it’s a case of Ntcham or Armstrong - I think both will play and we need Armstrong’s running power and penetration. A great stage for him to show why he deserves to be at Burnley next season. Young Ralston can have a go at quietening Neymar.
Talk seems to be that Ralston will be paying alright. I’d probably go with your selection but I’d be equally content to have McGregor instead of Armstrong.
That was a qualifier game as you mentioned and not a tournament proper encounter. Celtic TV aren’t allowed to show actual Champions League games live. You’ll get live audio of Paul Cuddihy and Tom Boyd shouting inanities on Celtic TV though.
