Brendan Fraudgers!

@jj81 fancy a spar in here too?

 

spar sell buckie?

 

• Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers is looking at ways of partnering his star strikers
• Moussa Dembele and Leigh Griffiths scored 50 club goals combined last season
• Rodgers could be tempted to use a back three in order to play the pair up front
• Celtic are preparing to face Rosenborg in their next Champions League qualifier

Brendan Rodgers admits he has not given up working on a way to plug a partnership of Moussa Dembele and Leigh Griffiths into his Celtic team.

The Parkhead manager fully intended linking up his top strikers, worth 50 club goals combined last season, at Parkhead against Linfield before Griffiths was ruled out with a calf injury.



That left Dembele as the central striker of an experimental formation featuring a back three with midfield general Scott Brown occasionally dropping back to join a scarcely troubled defence.

The midfield mix was mesmerising for the visitors, with Olivier Ntcham, Callum McGregor and the advanced Tom Rogic complemented by width from Scott Sinclair and James Forrest.

The formation switches suggest that Rodgers has plans to ask more of his team in terms of their flexibility. That may yet include the Dembele-Griffiths combination if he can find the ideal formation to operate in behind the deadly duo.

Rodgers has spoken about the issue since early last season when Dembele's dynamite start kept the previous campaign's 40-goal forward Griffiths on the bench.

When asked if plotting permutations with a back three might lead towards the partnership being formed, Rodgers said: 'Sometimes when those two have played together they've made the same runs. They're similar types of player who want to be in the box.


Sometimes the fluency is broken when the two play together. But it's my job — and the coaches' job — to say: 'Can we find a way?' If not, we'll just keep doing what we're doing.

'It's dependent on the game. Against a team like Linfield — and we'll see it in the Scottish Premiership as well — you have to try to disorganise their back four.

'Sometimes having two up there can do that, just depending on where your wingers and midfielders are. We're trying to find different structures in the team that help but it has to be fluent.

'That's the key. We went to a back three with one controlling midfield player who could drop into the backline (Scott Brown), two advanced in front of that, two wingers to stretch the game.

'Ninety-five percent of the two Linfield games were played in the final third of the pitch. And we know lots of teams now come and do that.


The use of a back-three system could enable Dembele to be partnered up front with Griffiths
'The players are understanding it better now. And with the positioning of the players inside, they can circulate the ball with confidence, knowing that because of their fitness they'll hopefully come through in the end.

'We won't be perfect this year. It's a gradual thing. But the more we work together, the more the players will get confident.

'We're starting to piece together the qualities that are needed to play in the Champions League, which are speed, power and technique.'

Negotiating a way past Rosenborg is imminently what is needed to move closer to playing in the Champions League, with the Norwegian league leaders in Glasgow on Wednesday.

 

Interesting from BR around variations, I expect him to change it up more often this season..

The only issue I have with a three at the back is we lose the excellent width that KT provides.

But we have excellent options and if we sign a new CB, KT could play as a wing back in a 3-5-2. I still think we'll start most games 4-2-3-1 but we have plenty of options...

Gordon
Lustig Simunovic KT
Forrest Armstrong Brown Sinclair
Rogic
Griffiths Dembele

Gordon
Lustig Simunovic Boyata/New CB
Hayes Brown Ntcham KT
Rogic
Griffiths Dembele ​

 

could play Hayes at LWB, he's better on the left anyway. His directness is better served from there. Also definitely need an upgrade on the right side.

 

Doubt we'll see Griff and Dembele start together, JC.

 

Ready to walk

 

Clearly Brendan is considering it..

 

He's saying he may try and find a way of starting/playing them together more often, think we'll see more of it this season. Griffiths delivers such accuracy from set plays he's hard to leave out..

Good options to have it will be interesting to see how much he changes it.

 

Who BR?

 

Aye. Over the banner.

 

Scaremongering by that Brian McNally at its best, looking for likes on twitter by including the 'not sure ready to walk' element rather than just saying Rodgers wasn't happy with the banner. Funny how an extra few words completely changes the meaning!

 

Lol..

 

BR spoke about not playing 2 up front last season because he didn't have the right midfielders, I'm guessing Ntcham is the missing link.

 

Two up front means dropping Rogic or Sinclair. (Playing either a diamond or a flat four).
Its good to have different options across the season though, we shouldn't have one set formation

 

We could play all 4 and just have an ayssemtrical formation. Two strikers, an attacking centre mid and a left winger, but no right winger.

 

I think we have tried the back three before a number of times last season and on the whole it never really worked out.

As much as I'd like to see griff and moussa up there together I think the cons out weigh the positives. Maybe we could do it if we are chasing the game but as a formation going forward i just don't see it.

 

This is very worrying news about Brendan possibly leaving. We wouldn't survive without him.