John Hartson: Celtic will be Scotland’s ‘Invincibles’

That was just * stupid. I've always said the biggest leveller we have in Europe is fitness, we may not have their ability but we should * well be as fit.

 

Totally agree, and I've said the same for years. There is no excuses why Celtic players shouldn't be as fit as the players from the top teams in Europe in my opinion. At least we have a manager and assistant who appear to think similarly.

 

Bang on the money mate, I watched a program about Chris Hoy and it was about his training before the Olympics when he was winning all sorts of gold medals. I'm not a cycling fan or anything like that but he's just a normal Scottish guy with insane dedication to his sport.

I was thinking at that point I don't think there's been a Scottish footballer in the last 20 years at least that has had that level of dedication to their sport and to be as best as they can be, there's no reason that players can't give there all to take their bodies to the next level.

Look at what Cristiano Ronaldo done, look at what Gareth Bale done. They were both talented footballers who have turned themselves into football machines, I don't think anybody so them getting us good as they have done but they have through dedication and getting themselves as fit as they possibly can be.

Obviously some people are different than others, in how far they can push it but the point generally stands.

That's something that everybody is capable of if they push themselves hard enough. I think Ronny, John Collins and Kennedy see that and want that in our players.

 

Totally agree. The amount of times I have watched us play against team from over Europe, and I have been baffled at how we were pressed all over the park when we had possession, yet when the opposition had it, it was the complete opposite. We simply haven't been capable of pressing teams, and there isn't really any excuses for it.

For the first time that I can recall, the first leg against Inter, we played a big side from Europe, and we actually looked the fitter of the two teams. It's not just how fit we are that is impressive though, it's the way in which we press as a unit. In the group stages,, we had 1 or 2 players pressing, and we were easily picked off. Fast forward a few months, and we are now pressing in 3s and 4s. We don't seem to tire as the game goes on either, in fact, the longer it goes, the stronger we look, and Sunday was just another example. Delighted the path we are heading down at the moment.

In fact, if you think back to the qualifiers, we had one player pressing the game, and it was Johansen, but the biggest problem we had, there was nobody to back him up, and I think that is why were ripped apart so easily also. Thinking back, I probably gave Johansen a hard time, because he was probably carrying out Deila's tactics, but others around him just weren't fit enough to do likewise.

 

I thought that about the Inter game as well, also at the San Siro, usually by the last 10 minutes a team that's been playing against 11 men with a man sent off are usually *. We didn't look like that and we retained that level of fitness going into the game yesterday.

We are looking exciting, usually we get through European games on adrenaline, I think a big part of our away from home form is that we couldn't keep up though.

Look at Diego Simeone's Atletico last season, they got to the Champions League final and won the league off of the back of hard work on and off the pitch and talent.

We don't have the same sort of players available but we can match that on other areas of the pitch. That will take us above some other, more talented teams.

 

Atletico are a great example of what hard work can achieve. Didn't have the best team in Europe, or Spain for that matter on paper, yet won the league, and come within seconds of being crowned champions of Europe. Of course there was still quality players in their team, but without their energy and determination, they would have been no better than a decent European team in my opinion.

 

Very true, the supposed top dog in Football (Mourinho) never kicked a ball at the highest level or even close to it.

However both Hartson and Sutton have experience of adversity or fighting to prove a point. Sutton in particular has experienced it both as a player and a manager. For them not to equate that experience when voicing an opinion, is baffling.

Maybe it highlights more about the individual personalities , Sutton comes across as pretty single minded and therefore he would be a more autocratic in a role of management. Which doesn't bode well in this age of football.

 

Have to admit I wanted him out after the Hamilton game. I understood that he needed time and had been prepared to give it to him up until then, but nothing I saw then suggested we were going in the right direction. It's one thing needing time to really implement your ideas, and it's always going to take time to put a new philosophy across, but when a manager thinks Aleksander Tonev is a football player, never mind one good enough for Celtic, that to me suggests he doesn't know what he's doing. Couldn't be happier to have been proved wrong though

 

I'll accept his u-turn, a wee bit grudgingly mind.

But why is he going COMPLETELY the other way now

"They're going to win the treble, they look invincible" etc etc

Why the need to predict to such extremes, can't we just enjoy the football we're playing and look forward to the future with a bit of hope?

 

The difference between what Hartson said about Deila and what has been said about the manager on here is this; the bile that the likes of Big John are coming away with is broadcast to a wider audience, whereas the comments made on here are from largely anonymous posters who's identity would only ever be made public if they wanted it to be.

 

Wouldn't describe anything John said as bile to be honest.

 

Exaggeration for effect, it's very prevalent on this board.

 

May as well join in then :icon_mrgreen:

 

Stopped caring what Hartson wrote after the Dundee riot piece.

Funny how him and Sutton are all of a sudden on team Ronny after spending basically the whole season up till Saturday, slating him.

 

I'd agree with that, but as I said on another thread on here, the difference with Hartson is he admited he was wrong. Sutton's just carrying on like all the stuff he said before never happened

 

This is my main problem with it hes went from "completely out of his depth" to saying "they look invincible"

 

Invincible -naw!!! St Johnstone could beat us tomorrow, then it will be aff with Deila's heid!!!!!

 

He'll never be forgotten for that anyway. Lowest of the low.

 

Looks like you might be right pal

 

Cheers john ya * scud. lol