Champions League - Matchday 3

1

My only concern is Celtic’s trip to Manchester on Tuesday but, unfortunately, Celtic have been struck by a few key injuries ahead of the game.

We knew Hesselink was out with a groin injury picked up against Hamilton before the international break but Samaras returned from playing with Greece with a knee injury and is having a cartilage operation in Dublin tomorrow and will be out for 3-4 weeks. Andy Hinkel will also be missing with a thigh strain and Gary Caldwell went off today with an ankle injury, while Marc Crosas appeared to pull his hamstring in injury time.

Caldwell required stitches to his ankle so I’d be hopeful he can be patched up to play, especially considering the suspect performance by Glenn Loovens in the centre when Caldwell went off.

I like Marc Crosas and he’s played the last four league games in the holding midfield role. He can pick out a positive forward pass and doesn’t merely sit there playing it backwards and sideways. Villarreal away probably came a bit early for him to be pitched in but I think this run of league games was setting him up nicely for his full Champions League debut so it’s disappointing that he’s likely to miss out.

Our lack of alternative fit striking options make it inevitable that McDonald will get the nod upfront and I expect we’ll go with a lone striker in some kind of 4-4-1-1, 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1. Naka was very poor in Villarreal but I presume he was rested today with Tuesday in mind and we need him in the side to pass and retain the ball.

I suppose we’re looking at something like:
Boruc,
Wilson, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor,
McGeady, Brown, Hartley, Nakamura, Maloney,
McDonald.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Robson came in for Maloney. We look pretty short in attacking options without Jan and Sammy and will miss their physique and aerial ability too. It’s a pretty tall order in truth.

What way are Manchester United likely to line up? Scholes is out as far as I know and I think Carrick’s injured too.

2

[quote=“Bandage”]My only concern is Celtic’s trip to Manchester on Tuesday but, unfortunately, Celtic have been struck by a few key injuries ahead of the game.

We knew Hesselink was out with a groin injury picked up against Hamilton before the international break but Samaras returned from playing with Greece with a knee injury and is having a cartilage operation in Dublin tomorrow and will be out for 3-4 weeks. Andy Hinkel will also be missing with a thigh strain and Gary Caldwell went off today with an ankle injury, while Marc Crosas appeared to pull his hamstring in injury time.

Caldwell required stitches to his ankle so I’d be hopeful he can be patched up to play, especially considering the suspect performance by Glenn Loovens in the centre when Caldwell went off.

I like Marc Crosas and he’s played the last four league games in the holding midfield role. He can pick out a positive forward pass and doesn’t merely sit there playing it backwards and sideways. Villarreal away probably came a bit early for him to be pitched in but I think this run of league games was setting him up nicely for his full Champions League debut so it’s disappointing that he’s likely to miss out.

Our lack of alternative fit striking options make it inevitable that McDonald will get the nod upfront and I expect we’ll go with a lone striker in some kind of 4-4-1-1, 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1. Naka was very poor in Villarreal but I presume he was rested today with Tuesday in mind and we need him in the side to pass and retain the ball.

I suppose we’re looking at something like:
Boruc,
Wilson, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor,
McGeady, Brown, Hartley, Nakamura, Maloney,
McDonald.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Robson came in for Maloney. We look pretty short in attacking options without Jan and Sammy and will miss their physique and aerial ability too. It’s a pretty tall order in truth.

What way are Manchester United likely to line up? Scholes is out as far as I know and I think Carrick’s injured too.[/quote]

First thing that strikes me about that team is how fucking small they all are. Look at that for a tiny midfield. Think Robson’s physicality is required and I’d probably expect to see him involved. Hartley has fallen out of favour a bit in recent times but I’d expect him to start too as you say.

3

Evra went off injured yesterday so I dont know if he will make it. The Team I would pick on Tuesday would be the following:

Van Der Sar
Neville
Rio
Vidic
Evra( O’Shea if Evra out)
Park
Fletcher
Anderson
Ronaldo
Rooney
Berbatov

I would expect a win on Tuesday night the way the team are playing. Rooney yesterday ran the show and was a real threat up front. If he influences the game like this then I cant see how Celtic would cope. Ferdinand and Vidic should be able to deal with McDonald easily enough so thats why I think the score will be Manchester United 4 Celtic 0.

4

Losing either Samaras or JVOH would be a big blow. Losing both of them is a huge loss for us. With Samaras up front on his own we had the threat that he could get in behind any defence with his pace which meant they couldn’t hold a high line. Now with McDonald he has little pace and doesn’t pose the aerial threat that either JVOH or Samaras would. Makes it harder to see how we will create much from the flanks. Think Crosas should start and in the past Strachan has rarely rested players so it could be at the expense of Nakamura who has been well below par.
This is team I think Strachan will go for:
Boruc
Wilson Caldwell McManus Naylor
McGeady Robson Crossas Brown Maloney
McDonald

Back four are poor and would worry me. Fullbacks will need to support widemen as much as possible. Vital that Brown can support McDonald as much as possible. All in all Tuesday will be a huge test and think we will have to be at our best to get anything from our game. I await RTE’s in depth analysis of Celtic’s team with interest.

5

larry, it’s pretty definite that Crosas is out after pulling his hamstring yesterday.

A lot of people are talking about the huge gap in quality between the two teams, and sure they’re languishing behind Hull in their domestic league while we’ve romped to the top of ours.

But we all know that form goes out the window in these ‘Battle of Britain’ derbies so they’ll be determined and we must guard against complacency.

6

Didn’t see the match yesterday so thats another big blow for us. In light of that I’d say we will line up like this:
Boruc
Wilson Caldwell McManus Naylor
McGeady Hartley Brown Robson Maloney
McDonald

7

an away game against one of the best teams in england which is the best league in europe at this stage - add to that the fact that we havent convinced yet it doesnt bode well - we dont have a great record vs english teams either

ill go for a hopeful 1-1 draw at the bridge

8

Is anyone else other than myself making their way over to the game from the tfk? It should be a good night.

9

Not going, think dancingbaby might be heading along and Tipper is going I think.

Went last time and was hugely disappointed with the result. Think the tickets situation will be much stricter this time around.

Outside Old Trafford last year myself, Bandage, Pagey and dancingbaby discussed at length our tactics for swapping our Stretford End tickets for Celtic end tickets before electing me as spokesman for the group when dealing with touts. We agreeed on a strategy and I approached to do the deal when dancingbaby panicked with the excitement of it all and just shouted out a higher figure than agreed upon and ended up costing us a fair few quid each.

Very concerned about our lineup for Tuesday. Though we played quite well against Villareal the movement of Samaras was an important part of that and we’ll certainly lack something with McDonald up front on his own. Not much point in the likes of Maloney joining him because he’s too small to offer a real alternative so we’re going to have to be very good in possession in midfield to retain the ball and to give the likes of Brown a chance to get into the box. But the crossing from McGeady and Naka etc will be severely diluted by the absence of anyone even approaching six foot in the box.

10

Got the day off work tomorrow so its down to St.Kentigerns in Fallowfield to watch the BibleCodeSundays at 12 bells,a good feed of ale and off to the match.

Mawn the Hoops,intae this Red shite.

11

We were in the Chorlton Irish Club last time Manus and it was a smashing atmosphere. Queues for the bar were a bit much but smashing banter all day - long walk to the stadium though, think we picked up a taxi half-way though but plenty walked it.

Good to see a band anywhere though, makes a day of it.

12

Shebeen, Gary g and a load of other fooks are playing in the Irish Centre in Chorlton again too.

13

Celtic have taken the bus to Manchester. A better atmosphere than on a plane and they can have a right old sing song and a few cans of lager on the way down. Unfortunately, Marc Crosas wasn’t on the bus so he’s definitely out with hamstring twang (as the great Barry Glenndenning calls it). Barry Robson kept the bus waiting for an hour before he arrived according to Sky Sports News - I wonder what’s going on there? He might have thought the clocks went back this weekend.

14

I’m heading over alright. I just got the bro a ticket in the section right beside the celtic fans E235. My Celtic end ticket is in E234. There are still plenty of tickets on http://manutd.viagogo.com/Football/Manchester-United-Tickets/E-161459. DB you should look into this option.

Also going to that TAL gig in the irish club, its sold out now.

15

While buses are strictly speaking non-smoking, you’ve also got a better chance of a smoke down the back so looks like a good decision again from Lawwell/Strachan.

Crosas is a big loss - pretty sure he’d have played. He’s served his SPL apprenticeship now and is now a first team pick automatically it seems.

16

Bad weather delayed Barry Robsons communte from Dunblane apparently and this was the reason Celtics bus got delayed. Evra has trained today for United so hopefully he will make the match tomorrow night.

17

even if both were available I don’t think you could put Naka and Crossas in the same midfield away from home…from what i’ve seen both seem to be fairly timid in the tackle…

18

FAO, Dublin based Celtic supporters. The Celtic pub in town is now O’Neill’s on the corner of Suffolk Street. There was some disagreement between the landlord of The Bridge on Westmoreland St and the guy who was renting it from him and running the pub and that’s resulted in the move to O’Neill’s for some reason or other. I won’t be watching the game there tomorrow night as I watched Lyon-Celtic there in 2003/04 and it has negative vibes as a result. I’m not sure where I’m going to watch it though but I don’t think I’m going to watch it at home after doing that for the Villarreal game.

19

Yeah fair point. Think Crosas is much stronger in the tackle but he’s certainly not a bruiser. He’s more used to playing in the centre though so while he might not put himself about he’s a bit stronger in traffic.

Shit, that place won’t have much of an atomsphere, it’s too big and touristy and carveryeryish. Liked the Bridge.

Watched the Villareal game in Fingal but did so with a pint of water at my feet. Thinking back to the UEFA Cup run in 2003 I watched every game on tv with a bottle of water (same bottle) right up to the final and then went to Frasers for the final and left the bottle at home. To think some people blame Douglas for that loss and I know it was my fault. Anyway I’ll be discarding the pint glass tomorrow in favour of a bottle in an effort at re-capturing a bit of form.

20

[quote=“Tipper”]I’m heading over alright. I just got the bro a ticket in the section right beside the celtic fans E235. My Celtic end ticket is in E234. There are still plenty of tickets on http://manutd.viagogo.com/Football/Manchester-United-Tickets/E-161459. DB you should look into this option.

Also going to that TAL gig in the irish club, its sold out now.

[/quote]

cheers tipper - been told i have ticket for the celtic end but will believe it when i see it.

should be in manchester around 11. dont have ticket for TAL gig so will prob just go boozing in the city

what time do you arrive ?