No new injury concerns for Celtic and James Forrest is available again following his recent illness.
This will be a tough game and they’re a much improved side this season. They gave us a good game there earlier in the season when Hooper scored two opportunist goals and defeated the huns at home at Christmas.
I’d restore Forrest to the team and consider leaving out one of Stokes or Samaras - it would harsh on either.
Just after perusing our upcoming fixtures in order to plan my first trip over for the season and I see that five of our next six games are away (one is neutral so I suppose it’s not technically away).
This will be a big period for us, I hope to be in attendance for the Motherwell game, Sat 25th February.
I think we should be going for the jugular in every game, St. Mirren usually have a nice surface which suits us, the only grounds that we may be required to change our style of play is when we take on St. Johnstone, Inverness and Motherwell.
Are Matthews and Izzy on it, very surprising if he’s left them out for this. I, again must voice my dissatisfaction at the dropping of Stokes, not his best game last week but it’s a negative change nonetheless.
Very surprising team. Can’t see why Cha would play ahead of Matthews at all. Don’t mind Ledley instead of Izzy because I think the latter is still finding his feet after his long injury absence, though I’d still be playing him. But if I was to leave Izzy out it would be to make room for Stokes, not Ki.
Having said that we haven’t been good enough at retaining possession in a couple of recent games and putting Ki in there should help with that if he puts in a performance.
There are some morons on the Celtic Facebook page. The abuse Scott Brown receives by certain mongs is way over the top. He has been a vastly improved player for us under Lennon and while he can be frustrating at times, he has played very well the past 18 months. Yet some people can’t see past him and continue to berate him for nothing. At one point I’d have been one of Brown’s fiercest critics but I’ve now came full circle on him.
Agreed. My one remaining issue with Brown is that he should be assessed on the same criteria as everyone else. I think his selection is cast in stone and I don’t think he’s suited to every game, though I’d play him in most. I don’t think Ledley should sit on the bench any more often than him for example. So he shouldn’t be judged by his transfer fee or performances in years past but nor should he be a protected species.
I agree, personally I wouldn’t have started him today because I feel he’s a more defensive option than Stokes, with Samaras reverting to his wide position. But he’s been solid and consistent when he has played for us and a lot of his work goes unnoticed. I’d like to see Lennon switch to 4-3-1-2 with today’s side.
I think Scott Brown has been very good under Neil and he deserves his place in the team.
All the changes are tactical, according to Neil. Cha to give more pace and aggression (not sure about that), Izzy dropping out as he’s still finding his way back to full fitness and Forrest back in because he’s over his illness.
