Re:Rangers v Celtic 21st October
I’m feeling extremely confident ahead of this one. It promises to be a very enjoyable occasion for the neutrals given it’s a battle of the two best club sides in Europe on current form, with the huns having brushed aside the French and German champions and Celtic defeating the European champions in recent weeks. But to me it’s a game that can’t be enjoyed until the last couple of minutes when you know the result is no longer in doubt and Celtic are cruising.
My confidence stems from the fact that we’re a considerably better team than them. Like any Walter Smith team they’ll be physical and direct and they’ve been quite effective using these tactics under him but our players have the physical and mental stature to cope with their tactics and then it comes down to who has the better footballers, which Celtic clearly have.
Though these blatantly irrelevant and annoying international fixtures are a complete curse I think tiredness will be balanced out given that they had the likes of Ferguson and Weir playing the Scottish double header too. In fact, Weir at 37 years old is someone we need to get at. He has particularly struggled lately off the back of international and champions league games given the lack of recovery time and was shocking when they got humped by the diet huns at Tynecastle post the Scotland win in Paris and also at home to Hibs the weekend after they won in Lyon.
Our injury problems are a slight concern and the main ones I’m worried about are the right back position and Scotty Brown. Wilson and Doumb are out for the long term. Hartley filled in at Gretna and had to come off injured after straining his hamstring and then Caldwell moved out there from centre back and hurt his knee. Though both of them pulled out of the Scottish squad the vibes I’m hearing are that Hartley is out but Caldwell will be fit and will play right back.
John Kennedy also picked up an injury in training while everyone else was away on international duty so Darren O’Dea is likely to resume his partnership with McManus. I have no qualms about him coming in as he’s proven to be very capable when called upon particularly in the last 16 games against Milan last season. Bar the first goal in Donetsk the skipper has continued to improve and develop - he’s becoming a defender of real quality so that’ll be a solid partnership.
I hope Scotty Brown’s fit, primarily for his supreme footballing ability but also for the ‘get it right up ya’ factor to the huns seeing how they were sure he was going to join them. The youtube video of their game at Hibs last season where thousands of huns in the away end are baiting the home crowd with a non-stop ‘Scott Brown. We’re gonna sign Scott Brown’ chant for about 5 minutes is quality. I’ve said on here before though that Strachan doesn’t take risks with players’ fitness. We saw that when he left Naka on the bench for the Milan game and it’s the polar opposite of O’Neill, who played Sutton and Larsson with broken arms and cheekbones respectively, and selected the likes of Agathe and Petrov when they had muscle strains. 1 week is too short a recovery period for a hamstring strain so unfortunately I can’t see Brown featuring.
Naka’s back in full training now and Big Jan has been working towards returning for this game too but I don’t know how close he’ll be. In any case I wouldn’t necessarily mind a 4-4-1-1 given how well Jarosik did against Milan (I vowed to no longer call him Jiri Jarosh*t in the aftermath) and also due to the phenomenon that is Scott McDonald, who can play equally well on his own upfront or in a two. Evander Sno got a few goals for the Dutch U-21s against Scotland the other night and he can come in to give the midfield protection.
I’d go with the following (assuming the injury situation is as I anticipate):
Boruc;
Caldwell; McManus; O’Dea; Naylor;
Nakamura; Donati; Sno; McGeady;
Jarosik;
McDonald;
Prediction: Rangers 0-3 Celtic
