Hibs v Celtic

1

Big game for Celtic tomorrow. Important to bounce back from European defeat with a win. It’s something O’Neill used to place a lot of importance on and Strachan has been the same - the big games are the ones after European travails. No injury worries ahead of the game but I’d be tempted to make maybe one change just to keep everyone fresh - however there’s a CIS League Cup game at Dundee next Wednesday to give a run to more fringe players.

To that end I’d go for:

Boruc

Doumb Caldwell McManus Wilson

McGeady Brown Donati Nakamura

Jan McDonald

It’s important to keep Caldwell and McManus together I think to keep the partnership developing. Also if we get a goal or two up there might be no harm in introducing Hartley in a central role as that will be required of him in Europe.

Midweek against Dundee:

Brown

Doumb Caldwell O’Dea Naylor

Hartley Jarosik Sno Rioran

Killen Magic

2

I agree with giving Naylor a rest. His trail off in form has been really disappointing. I’d be tempted to play Hartley again because he didn’t do anything wrong in Donetsk but Hibs play an open, attacking game so it should be set up nicely for McGeady. Big game for Scott Brown going back there too.

As for Wednesday night then I also agree that the likes of O’Dea, Sno, Riordan, Magic and Killen need a game. Not sure what the story with Jarosik is - he hasn’t really featured in any squad since he gave the Russian press a lowdown on the team ahead of the Spartak game.

3

Jarosik has been in the wider panel - he’s just not making the bench. He was doing all the same pre-match training the night before the Donetsk game which means he was in the panel of 20 or so that travelled. To be honest I don’t think he said much to the Russian press - just a quick comment on who plays where for them to fill up copy.

CIS Cup isn’t our priority so it should be used to give the first teamers a rest considering the Dundee United and Milan games are all in the following 7 days. Then we’ve 3 away games in a row: Gretna, the huns and Benfica.

4

I wouldn’t play Jarosik. He’s a write-off as far as I’m concerned and I’d play one of the youngsters instead of him.

5

I suppose it depends on who is fit. We haven’t had a reserves game in nearly a month so I’m not sure who’s available but last time I noticed both Ferry and Grant were injured I think. Not sure about Bjarnasson but I’d play him if he’s fit I suppose.

6

Teddy got injured towards the end of pre-season and the other two were injured last I heard too. Mark Millar’s another centre midfield option from the youth/reserve set up too. Did Jim O’Brien go on loan anywhere? If not, he could get some game time on the wing or upfront. I read there that we haven’t kept a clean sheet away from home in 51 weeks! That’s mental.

7

kerrydalestreet are reporting Naka has a knee problem and will be out for 3 weeks. Not sure if that’s accurate as Strachan mentioned in his press conference he’d a full squad to choose from although he did say Naka was carrying a knock. Who knows? It could be nothing or perhaps Strachan doesn’t want the opposition to know he’s out. We’ll find out tomorrow but it’d be a blow if he’s missing for the Milan game on Wednesday week.

8

How long is Teddy out for? Big blow for him as this is the time when he should be on the fringes of the team. Would be a blow if Naka was out though he isn’t in the best of form. Will be interesting to see what team Strachan picks on Wednesday week given Hartley’s performance in the Ukraine.

9

Naka had one poor game but other than that he’s been outstanding again this season. I’d hardly say he was out of form.

10

Today’s team:

Boruc,
Wilson, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor,
Brown, Hartley, Donati, McGeady,
Hesselink, McDonald,

Haven’t seen the bench yet but Naka is missing alright.

11

therock67 wrote:

Naka had one poor game but other than that he’s been outstanding again this season. I’d hardly say he was out of form.

Fair comment.

12

Bandage wrote:

Today’s team:

Boruc,
Wilson, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor,
Brown, Hartley, Donati, McGeady,
Hesselink, McDonald,

Haven’t seen the bench yet but Naka is missing alright.

Doumb is starting, not Wilson

13

Very disappointing to be 2-1 down at half time because I think we’ve looked fairly decent for most of that first half. Obviously individual errors have cost us at the back for the two goals (Boruc and then Caldwell) but the second goal was more worrying because it was similar to a chance they had a couple of minutes beforehand when Brian Kerr (who’s having a great game for them) is ghosting in behind our back 4 from 1-2s.

Individually most players are doing quite well (Doumb in particular has been impressive) but we need to push them back more. Brown might be the difference in the second half because they’ve taken off their left back and Murphy isn’t tracking runs so they’re relying on Shields getting back or Jones covering across.

Hartley’s having a good game holding in the middle of the park but he needs to pay more attention to Kerr. Still think they’re there for the taking because we’re knocking it about well.

And one final point - Scott McDonald needs to start placing his shots on goal. He’s blasting it every time and it’s making a lottery of what are very decent chances.

14

I can accept defeats when you lose to the better team, like last Tuesday night. But today was absolutely fooking pathetic. The attitude of some of the players was shocking and some of them need a good fooking kicking. There shouild have been murder in the dressing room after that. Disgraceful performance.

15

Name names Bandage. I thought we were sluggish at times today and were outfought on occassions. Naylor and particularly Caldwell were poor for their second goal while Boruc had a shocker obvioulsy. Other than that I thought Donati could have had more energy in his game and was too slow to get back when we lost possession. Hartley needed to involve himself in the game more too I thought. Doumbe kept the ball well and should start against Milan imo. McDonald worked hard but as rock said he needs to improve on his shooting after working so hard to create a chance.

16

larryduff wrote:

Name names Bandage. I thought we were sluggish at times today and were outfought on occassions. Naylor and particularly Caldwell were poor for their second goal while Boruc had a shocker obvioulsy. Other than that I thought Donati could have had more energy in his game and was too slow to get back when we lost possession. Hartley needed to involve himself in the game more too I thought. Doumbe kept the ball well and should start against Milan imo. McDonald worked hard but as rock said he needs to improve on his shooting after working so hard to create a chance.

Boruc: I completely acknowledge his superb performances in other games, and I might have accepted one mistake from him today, but letting in two goals like he did betrayed a casual attitude and was criminal. Concentration lapses like that could cost us the league.

Doumb: Had a good game. His mastery of the basics of defending showed up the rest of the back four.

Caldwell: Some blame for the second goal but I thought he was one of the ones who showed some semblance of intensity and conviction.

McManus: Disgraceful first half. Slightly better in the second.

Naylor: Inept from start to finish.

Brown: Not good enough. Constantly running down blind alleys and losing the ball. There’s a time for tricks and it’s not at 1-1 when you’re not playing well.

Donati: Shocking work rate. Lazily gave the ball way for the first (obviously not his fault that Artur threw it in the net though) and I was shouting at him from the very start of their move for the second as he ambled back without making any attempt to put in a tackle or a block. Basically strolled around the park and needs a good boot up the hole.

Hartley: Did a decent job and tried hard.

McGeady: His goal didn’t mask what was a very poor performance. Constantly lost the ball carelessly - it was like his Bratislava performance.

Hesselink: Could and perhaps should have scored. Can’t fault his effort but his end product was terrible.

McDonald: Again tried incredibly hard. As rocko said he drilled a couple of efforts straight at the 'keeper but he was constantly getting on the ball and getting in dangerous areas and I thought it was the wrong decision to replace him with Killen in that we ended up with two target men upfront when we were causing them problems with McDonald’s running in behind.

I’m basically singling out Boruc, McManus, Naylor, Brown, Donati and McGeady. I thought they were fooking awful. What particularly pissed me off, aside from the lazy efforts at tracking and marking, was the fact that when we got it balck to 1-1 we seemed satisfied to stroll around, passing it at a shockingly slow tempo almost as if to say we’re better than these and the goal will come even if we can’t be arsed to play with any degree of urgency. Well we won’t win too many games away from home with that attitude. I thought it was shocking.

17

Agree with much of that and would single Donati out for particular criticism myself. I saw him barely breaking into a stride at times when we lost the ball. Agree with you that someone to have a go at him all right. McGeady was poor all right though he at least had some energy. Anyone else think that Collins doesn’t appear popular with Celtic staff at all. There appeared to be a very cool attitude to him I thought. Am I picking this up wrong or is there history there?

18

Not aware of any history between Collins and Strachan but he played under Tommy Burns and left on a Bosman during his reign - hardly likely to be still animosity I’d have thought but who know. That transfer had a court case around it because Celtic claimed Monaco aren’t in the EU so shouldn’t benefit from the Bosman rule so maybe there’s bitterness over that.

Regarding the performances today. I’d agree with most of what Bandage wrote except I’d make the following points:

Boruc - seems silly to dwell on past performances but that’s what you have to do when it’s an aberration like this. He made two mistakes and was punished horribly for them. I don’t think it was lack of concentration, they were just errors of judgement.
Agreed on the back four
Agreed on the midfield except for McGeady. He scored our first goal and hit the shot that was well saved for the corner for the second goal. I thought he held onto possession quite well actually and would have said he had a decent game.
Think you’re being harsh on Jan as well. Every week people moan about his effort because they don’t think his end product is enough. This week he got one chance which he missed at the back post but he was stretching. He was excellent for our first goal when he won the ball for McDonald. Then when McDonald played a silly enough ball back to him he had the composure to pick out McGeady. Also nearly created a couple of chances for himself but was unlucky with the ball not falling for him. If he’d have had the three chances McDonald spurned he’d have scored two.
I was all in favour of McDonald signing because he has a cracking work ethic and he holds the ball up very well but his finishing is poor so far. I could nearly forgive him that for his link up play but too often he shoots wildly from 25 yards when a simple pass to Jan or out wide would be far more effective.

The reasons we lost today however weren’t McDonald’s, McGeady’s or Jan’s fault. We were too porous in midfield, despite a decent shift from Hartley, but mainly in was 3 individual errors that cost us. I don’t often see the bright side of Celtic defeats but I thought we were very unlucky today. We owned the ball most of the time and they got very lucky at the back.

At least we didn’t concede a back post header which suggests we’re improving that area of our game.

Finally a word for the referee. I don’t normally praise referees because you rarely get a good performance but I thought he was spot on today. He called one free kick unfairly on Aiden but other than that he called nearly everything exactly right.

19

Boruc apologises. Is that a Scottish accent I can hear?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...ic/7009570.stm

20

If I was overcritical of Aiden and Jan then I think you’re perhaps giving them too much praise rocko.

I recognise that McGeady scored and had a good shot where we scored from the resulting corner but still I maintain that he lost the ball cheaply far too many times, possibly every second time he received it.

As for Jan he tried hard as I said but I expect more from somebody with his pedigree than toiling away and breaking even with the likes of Rob Jones over the course of the 90 minutes. I don’t blame him for the chance he missed on the stretch at 2-1 and he did well for the first goal but there were other occasions where he was fairly ponderous. He had a great chance in the first half and had someone outside him (can’t recall who) but he cut in and had a shot blocked. He could have done better at 2-2 when he took advantage of a defensive slip, flicked it over the prone defender and scuffed his shot into the ground. We owned the ball and he got an awful lot of possession in and around the box and we made fook all from it. I expect him to be stronger and more purposeful on the ball.