Celtic have a right-back crisis ahead of Sunday’s SPL clash with Gretna after defender Mark Wilson was ruled out for at least two months.
Hoops manager Gordon Strachan revealed that Wilson will be missing after undergoing an operation on his knee in America.
Stand-in Jean-Joel Perrier Doumbe, who was stretchered off during the Champions League win over AC Milan on Wednesday with an Achilles injury, will find out the extent of his injury later on Friday but it is feared he might not play again this year.
Reserve team player Paul Caddis is also out injured so Gary Caldwell is likely to deputise at right-back at Fir Park on Sunday.
Don’t want to tempt fate but Celtic should have way, way too much for Gretna. It’s probably an ideal opportunity to give Chris Killen a start and it’ll offer him a great chance to get off the mark. I wouldn’t risk Naka unless he’s fully fit but he’s apparently trained as usual since Wednesday. JVoH, Magic, Wilson and Doumbe are all out. I’d go for the following team:
Agreed with that. Little bit concerned about Caldwell at right back but we’ve no other options. Watched the interview with Strachan from Celtic TV last night and he said they’d look at options over the international break which suggests he’s not comfortable with Caldwell there either. Don’t see the alternatives though and one of Kennedy, Caldwell and O’Dea has play right back really. Talk of Hartley filling in there but he’s been impressive in midfield. Bjarnasson might be another option but he wasn’t great there pre-season defensively anyway.
We’ll probably be able to overcome the right back issue in the SPL but it’ll be a concern for the rest of the CL group games. Neither Wilson or Doumbe are expected back in the medium term so it looks like it’ll be Caldwell as he has the defensive attributes that Hartley and Bjarnason don’t possess. That said he looked uncomfortable there towards the end of last season and I don’t like the thought of the partnership he’s built up with Mick being broken. It all depends on a) how good Caddis is and if he’s up to doing a job at the highest level and if there’s any out of contract right backs around that we might be able to pick up outside the transfer window.
It also depends on how long Caddis is out injured for. He’s not fit at the moment and Strachan didn’t seem to be suggesting he’d be available again soon. Did we sell Garry Irvine or is he just out on loan? He might be another option.
Irvine was released last week. I rarely go on the official website but I was checking fixtures last week and there was a short little paragraph in the news section on his release.
It’s unlucky that both our first-team squad right backs got injured at pretty much the same time and then the reserve/youth right back happens to be out also. It looks like it’ll be Caldwell.
Teddy is in the squad for tomorrow. I’d like to see him get a run at full back and for us to retain the centre half partnership. Do Benfica play with wingers lads/attack outwide?
Teddy is in the squad for tomorrow. I’d like to see him get a run at full back and for us to retain the centre half partnership. Do Benfica play with wingers lads/attack outwide?
I’m sitting on the fence a bit here. I’m changing my mind from the original team I picked on this thread as I’d also like to see Caldwell and McManus maintain their partnership in most games.
But for the huns game at Ibrox on Saturday week then I think Caldwell at right back might be the way to go. My primary reason for saying that is their main attacking threat will be long diagonal balls to McCulloch on the left wing and Caldwell would be much better equipped to cope in the air.
For tomorrow then Hartley or Teddy should be able to do the job.
In my best Johnny Giles voice:
I haven’t seen much of Benfica larry. But they generally play with two wide men and an attacking midfield player in a free role behind a lone striker. Simao was their previous wide left player but he joined Athletico Madrid in the summer. They signed a 19 year-old Argentinian guy called Angel Di Maria for 6m to replace him and he’s meant to be shit hot. Rui Costa still plays in that central attacking midfield role too.
That’s what I think too about Benfica. They tend to play with wingers alright and they got plenty of joy against us down the flanks in Lisbon. Teddy isn’t an option there. He was played there pre-season just to give him game time as opposed to anything else. He’s not able to defend and he doesn’t understand the position enough to play there.
Hartley probably has the game intelligence to carry it off but we’d miss him in the middle. He was sloppy in possession the other night against Milan but played Kaka out of the game for 90 minutes which is more than Mascherano or Carrick managed.
Sno could play the holding role with Hartley switching to full back I suppose but I’d be reluctant to make too many changes to a midfield that is improving. A 5 man midfield isn’t natural for us and it will take time to bed in.
Christ that was a shocking first half. They are truly dreadful but we’ve managed to match them for incompetency.
Still fancy we’ll turn them over though.
Sample post from the HB:
Originally Posted by Mr Brightside View Post
Worst performance yet under this little clueless wanker.
I am sure Paradise could inspire even Lou Macari these days as there can be no other explanation how the most average Celtic side assembled by this little ginger wanker can beat decent sides.
Don’t give a flying fcuk about Wednesday should they fail to win this game I would fine everyone of the cunts.
WGS would be within in his rights to fcuk off out of Celtic - what a bunch of ungrateful fans we have - its the new breed of Celtic fans too who dont remeber the dark days of Biggins & Muggleton
Criticisms of WGS are absolutely crazy. Look at how we set ourselves up against Milan over the last 3 games and see how well Strachan has coped, unlike other more celebrated EPL managers. Today’s game was made difficult by a dry bobbly pitch, a bit of fatigue, a full back injury crisis and some sloppy performances. That said we kept going again and you don’t win that many games in injury time by luck alone.
Special mention for Scott McDonald again today. He didn’t have his best game with the ball but his work was tireless and he held it up superbly again.
Most others were average at best. Naylor and Boruc were disappointing, defenders were fine and untroubled, midfielders were too quiet, Killen missed a great chance but improved as the game went on and took his goal superbly.
These fooking pricks that watch games with one eye while browsing message boards with the other and moaning their pathetic fooking holes off on the internet even before (and at) half time really, really pi$$ me off.
Nobody’s claiming that was an acceptable performance but the reactionary idiots who pile in to lambast everyone at the club from top to bottom when there’s only about half an hour gone in the game are sad bastards, especially given what the team has achieved under Strachan in the last few years. That post rocko quoted is representative of a lot of absolute cooonts on Celtic sites.
Sure we were poor today but we kept going to the last whistle and got the result which was admirable given the effort we put in on Wednesday night. They didn’t water the pitch and it was dry and bobbly which affected our passing game, we had a series of knocks and injuries and we didn’t play well. But we were relentless and got the job done. Every win is worth 3 points and that one could be crucial come May. End of story.
if there’s any out of contract right backs around that we might be able to pick up outside the transfer window.