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Players Missing Games

Discussion in 'Celtic Chat' started by bkk bhoy, Oct 19, 2020.

Discuss Players Missing Games in the Celtic Chat area at TalkCeltic.net.

  1. D'Ecosse

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    With the depth of squad we have, I wasn't overly concerned going into the game
    Who would ever have complained in advance of having Brown, McGregor and Ntcham in the middle?
    Even Mo & Klimala up front, was not really a concern for me (at least going into it).
    I get it with Griff & Ajeti not being fully fit and wasn't completely shocked, no down on it. You figure let Klimala run them around and get those guys on in the second half (while there's still time to do something!)
    Biggest disappointment for me was Ntcham - real opportunity for him to stand out and he was non-entity.
    Welsh WAS a shock inclusion, but he actually did 'OK'. I just wouldn't have started him though - would have gone with a 4-1-3-2 with Brown sitting (even dropping into a 'three' while wing backs penetrating) and a more fluid midfield
    It was more our shape and ability to create and penetrate that was just completely wrong - it's so easy to blame Klimala but what service did he get? Then MO missing that absolute sitter - I had seen that glorious Larsson chip in the preview to the game on CelticTV and watching that miss immediately recalled it was crying out for someone with his skill to execute that opportunity. If that is a goal, changes the whole perspective of the game - despite all the acclaim in the 'press' (sic) I thought 'they' were not exactly barn-stormers either.
    Now - If you took 7 of their squad away (our 7 - Julien, Bitton, El Hamid, Forrest, Eddy, Christie, Johnson) and three more who are not fully match fit (Rogic, Griff, Ajeti) - that is TEN absolute first team quality - not simply making-up-the-numbers guys - they would have been in DEEP doodoo - their depth is pitiful (and will STILL be factor as the season goes on)
    At the end of the daym even with those omissions, we DID still have the players to get it done - they just didn't! Too many of our bhoys just didn't show up, with the quality they possess, but didn't use. And we were completely missing the coaching ability to put together a formation that worked and inspired confidence in the team.

    But look - it's only ONE POINT if/when we make up the game in hand - this is NOT the end of the World.
     
  2. joemc

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    Tbh the main problem we had was thier midfield pulling ours all over the shop , and because some of our players will not press it leaves us open , they created big holes coming deep pulling our midfield while they overlapped the player and would fill the space he came from , our defenders should have squeezed up wen our midfield got pulled , leaving no space for their overlapping player to have a run in on us un contested , they used this tactic all over midfield .we needed to press in groups and squeeze up the space from our defence and midfield .
     
  3. Foley1888

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    I think the lack of pressing up in the previous game came from the one recent success we had against them at Ibrox last season. We made ourselves compact not so much by pushing the defence up but by having the midfield quite deep however what we did do well in that game was press our wingers on their full backs which is where the first goal came from and although Christie wasn’t great going forward he hounded any midfielder that dropped deep to get the ball so they had no easy out. However I fear that flawed our approach of sitting of them in the subsequent games and we failed to play out when we did have the ball.

    We cut off any easy ball out from their CB and forced him in to going for a pass that wasn’t there. Intercepted this and were through on them.

    We massively didn’t help ourselves with the basic defensive errors either as despite the no shots on target stat we still had 4 good opportunities which should have resulted in goals
    3 for Ely and one for Griff but the fact we never managed to even get a proper shot off on any of those is telling. The only other time we looked dangerous was when Ajer stepped out from the back as you could tell that didn’t quite fit in with their man when he committed the guy who was meant to stop him.

    It was the same in the first half better use of the ball would have exposed space with them as Kamara was often tucking in like a LWB even when Barasic was still at left back. Ntcham was just too poor in possession combined with Brown only really offering a flat pass and Klimala not having a clue where to be.

    The inside right channel (first half) was often open for a driving run at their CB or if another CM got dragged over for a switch over to the left but our use of the ball was shambolic and we would take 3 passes to get there.

    When you consider Welsh was playing it safe understandably, Duffy has no real passing ability, Brown offers nothing going forward, Ntcham was off it and Klimala wasn’t up to it you are only really down to your two wing backs, McGregor and Ely that opposition needed to worry about. They crowded out Frimpong who lacked any support, Laxalt was the same mainly on the other side. McGregor made one or two runs but often went with the safe option and Ely battled away but is not a CF and missed our best chances.
     
  4. joemc

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    Pretty good assessment , and I agree with everything in that , basically we wer already weakened by the losses from edouard christie jullien forrest , the found it much easier to nullify wot we had , and played with too many who wer making debuts , I enjoyed reading your summing up of the game tactics unfortunately not so much the game itself .appreciate the effort u put into your response .
     
  5. MacEwan Himmy Butler Gold Member

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    For me Edouard on form is the only player who could of changed the result on Saturday so I’m not buying it as an excuse. I just imagine him getting that Moi chance or the Griff chance. On form that’s 2 goals for him.

    All ifs, buts and maybes.
     
  6. wulliebad

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    9 out of the 11 were normal first team players used nearly every week,we can't sit here all season shouting about how strong our squad is and how strong our bench is and then use players missing as a reason we lost,its just not * on.
    The two new guys who got thrown in were not the worst on the pitch,they tried and they worked and one of them even looked like he cared.
    That can't be said about the other 9.
    Ntcham looked like someone we paid 50p for,not a multi million pound player we were hoping would stay,If he is one of the problems in the squad just * him off,we don't need that kind of effort this season.
     
    NomDePlum and Peej like this.