Stuart Armstrong

I'm not worried..

He'll be in talks soon, if we aren't already, and he'll sign one..

He's in the form of his life and that is down to one man..

 

His best position is in the 2 for me

 

If you think back to the first game at tynecastle, where he played left wing and looked pish. Timid, afraid to try anything and totally bereft of confidence. He was hooked for Sinclair who came on and made an instant impact. I genuinely thought that was the end for him here.

Fast forward 8 months and look at him now. The complete centre midfielder, the type we'd been crying out for, and in current form the best midfielder we have. It's a pretty remarkable turn around.

he's an incredibly clever player, his movement is superb, one minute he's hanging about the edge of the box, the next he's in behind the defence in a position to cross/shoot (see sinclair's goal vs Huns). Not only that, his range of passing has come on, and probably the biggest improvement is his shooting. Under deila, he had a shot that was more often than not a pass back. Now he's rattling them in left right and centre, on his right and left foot.

The main thing now is tying him down, because if clubs hadn't taken notice by now, after tonight they certainly will. He's a clever boy and I'm sure he realises at this moment in time he's at the absolute best place he can be, however we thought that with Ledley and look what happened there.

Get it done Celtic.

I should add, Brendan deserves a huge amount of credit for what he's done with stuart. From a timid player scared to try anything that didn't involve a simple pass, to a guy who is taking massive games by the scruff of the neck and impacting on them.

 

Brendan doesn't really play that kind of formation though. We generally have 1 sitting midfielder, 1 box to box and 1 number 10.

 

4231 is exactly how we set up.

Armstrong starts in the 2 and has freedom to get up the pitch, but he also does his defensive duties.

 

Armstrong was always good with Dundee United at central midfield, anybody who had seen Armstrong play for them would know that. Under Deila he was shunted all over the place, bound to have affected his confidence. Brendan seems to have brought Armstrong out of his shell again and playing him in his proper position.
I think he is actually better than Broony just now

 

More often than not he played wide left of a 3 behind the striker at Utd.

He's a totally different player to the one at Utd, and the one under deila, now.

 

I disagree. When Brown, Armstrong and Rogic are playing that is not the case. Brown and Armstrong both cover the width of the park and both get forward with Rogic as a 10.

Possibly to an extent when Bitton is playing rather than Rogic but even then I'd say it's a stretch to call Brown a box to box midfielder in that case.

 

We were even having Rogic dropping deeper than Armstrong in certain game's as Armstrong was the better runner..

Worked quite well as well. City away was one if I remember right..

 

The system under Rodgers is slightly different, so he has much more freedom. We only play with 1 holding player, whereas under Deila the '2' tended to both sit in.

Our best midfield all season has been Brown holding, with Rogic and Armstrong ahead of him.

 

Instead of bagging Ronny, we should be praising him for bringing him in and persevering.

For his first half season (Jan onwards) he had the PFA POTY in Johansen, Brown and an influential Commons in his way.

Second season he had Bitton who had a very good (if I recall correctly) start to the season, Brown and the emerging Rogic.

Also had the likes of McGregor floating about. When you look it that way, it's understandable as to why he found opportunities in the middle limited.

Ronny deserves credit, he believed there was a player in there when I certainly had huge doubts. He brought him in, gave him game time and in turn aided his development.

 

That was the first game I really noticed the shift in formation. Both Armstrong and Rogic played very well in Manchester.

 

I don't really think Armstrong was a Ronny signing. He was the manager when he signed, but Armstrong and GMS had been in our sights for a while.

 

I'd imagine he was very much a Ronny Deila signing.

Deila always said he wanted more Scots in the side, he was clear that he wanted to continue with our strategy of getting young players into the team, and the style of play was centered around pace, energy and mobility.

Ronny was rightly criticised in his final season, but deserves credit for a lot of things - Armstrong included. The unfortunate thing for Deila is that we never saw the best of Armstrong while he was in charge.

 

Lucky Kenny Miller missed him with that ridiculous lunge/challenge on him otherwise he might not have been playing last night...

 

Can't wait to get Rogic back, he completes that midfield along with Brown and Armstrong, gives us everything we need.

 

He's taken a lot of hits in recent games and last night, that's a complement to Stu that they see him as a big threat, he takes the knocks no bother then gets up and blows right past them. Absolute beast.