This side has peaked

I am firmly of the opinion now that this side has peaked and has seen it's best.

The problem for MON is that we will struggle firstly to get funds from the board & DD in January, and secondly it is difficult to get decent players to come to a diddy league.

In my honest opinion, I think the following defenders on current form are not good enough to play for Celtic and secondly are week in week out, causing us results due to individual errors.

Bobo
Joos
Didier

Now Stan Varga is for me worth holding onto as he is solid enough and Jackie has saved the day time after time. But the above 3 apart from having lost all form have not an ounce of fight or passion between them. At least if they had the type of passion and effort that say Anton Rogan had, then we would at least see a marked improvement. But alas, they have nothing.

I target the defenders because unless you lock the back door, it doesnt matter what you do elsewhere.

I have heard many people say that Larsson hid this problem due to his scoring feats. ie we were scoring more than we conceded.

But this is not accurate.

For the whole of last season we conceded just 25 goals.

At the end of November, less than half way through the league, we have conceded 17.

This is shocking considering we have conceded 13 goals away from home. Absolutely not acceptable.

So what can we do. I think we have to bite the bullit and make best with what we have because it will be a slow process to rebuild the side.

Coaching for me is a priority. The back 4 or 5 should be full time on the training ground until they are sick to death of practising.

MON should be on the training ground to see what is actually going on.

If changes need to be made in the coaching staff then hard decisions have to be made.

 

Some good points and some i dont agree with..

I reckon if you have a more prolific front line who are constantly causing problems for the other teams and also putting the more of the chances away than they are now it tends to keep the other teams on the back foot and if the forward line can hold the ball up front it all takes the pressure of the defence who can move up and not sit so deep where every mistake is more likely to lead to a goal...

Dont think there will be any major revelations in the transfer window....no matter who is mentioned i wont get excited until i see them arrive and their performances...MON has to get a few decent players in and use his "cunning" and "knowledge" cos at the moment he has made more bad signings than good...Juninho & Camara's wages/fees could have got a new defender in...

We had cover in the other areas anyway with the young lads but he seems reluctant to give them a fair go!!

 

Interesting points Bath_bhoy, but no one will convince me other than that a team needs to be built from the back. For years we have thrown matches away in the last throws of the dice.

A solid defence is something to build on. A weak defence will always be your downfall, no matter what pressure is soaked up by the players in front of them.

Remember it is individual errors from poor players that is costing us, not our system.

 

welcome 2 talk celtic, hail hail!

 

Can you be 100% sure that its not the system thats causing the individuals to make errors???...too many players played out of position as does happen frequently can have a knock on effect on all players as they may have to change the way they play...ie system... because some players are not in their usual positions say for example in front of them...

Dont think individual errors and systems can be totally segregated

 

have to agree, that this squad of players have peaked think we have saw the best of, balde thompson lennon joos hartson and sutton, camara juninho r just not good enough, lets hope the young guns mcgeady beattie wallace kennedy maloney r the real deal

 

sutton/hartson not good enough ?? why not they have done * all wrong.
Lennon ain't havin a bad season (football wise) but is coming to the end of his career

agree with the backs but were not in a posistion to be sending them packing
we need competition for our defensive places the way it is now if your playing * you still get a game cos there's nobody challanging for your spot.

 

dident sat that hartson and sutton where not good enough, just think we have saw the best of them, they aint going to improve at thier age.

 

Sutton is the backbone of the team at the moment...i reckon he will get even better...Hartson has bounced back better than ever and the first step should be getting him to sign a new contract...reckon he has more to come..They could also teach the young lads coming up a thing or two..

 

Id agree that the team has peaked, the current squad is getting too old with players like Sutton, Thommo, Lennon and Varga(?) all the wrong side of 30.. Lets face it, they're the back bone of our side. Our strike force will get better, im confident that Maloney will come back better than ever and show us what we've been missing. Camara is just pish, he can go back to Wolves or where ever. Hartson/Maloney up front with Sutton in a midfield role I think would do wonders for the team.
Thing is we've had some pretty bad injuries/suspensions at the wrong times and thats why we currently sit 2nd place in the table.

Another comment id like to make would be to start playing the youngsters more, Wallace, Beattie, McGeady and Pearson.. When I watch them they show such a desire to play football its great. Also like to see a few youngsters brought in, in the window.. Riordan, Hammell, McFadden and Diamond to name a few.

 

id say bobo and joos have been woeful!! dont think hartson and sutton need to improve. dont think hartson and sutton need to improve. camara might score around 18 this season in spl(if up front) everyone says he cant do it in europe, if he carries on playing in europe like he did in barca he'll be vital. think hes good down the right though. if he doesnt perform in europe i think hes offski!!

 

have to agree with bobo , would like to see riordan hammel and diamond, join in the transfer window, 3 young players with a great future , will have to be quick before the huns jump in and * them , and i dont think those 3 players mentioned would brake even our bank (well maybe)

 

I think Sutty and Hartson cant do any better than they do. Sutton by far is our best player.

Johnny Hartson frustrates a lot of people. He is criticised for his lack of mobility and contribution to the rest of the game. However, Hartson has always been nothing more than a poacher and a ball winner in the air. I dont think we should be looking for anything else from him. MON knew his game pre-signing and that is that. However, the Camara-Hartson duo is a dead duck.
For someone to play off Hartson they need to be able to read the game better than Camara. Camara looks as if he is a one man band, playing on his own. I think this is because he is so focused at running on-goal. MON should try him on the outside right position, like at Barcelona, where he played a blinder. There is no doubt he would be skinning defenders, something that Agathe has forgotten how to do.
I think the Maloney-Hartson duo would be a good one. Hartson winning knock downs for maloney to run on to. Maloney would be able to attack low fast cross balls from McGeady , Thompson, Pearson etc which Hartson fails to do, whilst Hartson would always maintain that arial threat.

Neil Lennon is also past his peak but still is a seriously important player for us, directing the flow of the ball between the defense and the midfield/forwards. He is an all round accurate passer of the ball and has that much needed fight and passion which is lacking in the team.

What we need more than anything else at the moment is a cental defender in the mould of McNeil/Aitkin. I know they are few and far between, but I would rather concede a bit of skill (which we dont have anyway) for a bit of Leadership and passion and fight.

I still firmly believe that unless we build from the back we are pissssing in the wind.

 

cheers YT.

 

i dont think the has peaked, however some players need a huge kick up the * to show them there not indespensible but with the lack of funds they cant get this kick so the best we can hope for is for the younger generation to really push the established players

 

To push th esatblished players they have to get a game...something MON is reluctant to do regularly....