If you were the manager...

NomDePlum · Aug 3, 2021

First thing I'd do is hire a bunch of random people to act as my zealots, to take over social media and Celtic forums and tell everyone how lucky they are to have me as the new manager, how I'm special, a visionary, but it will take time regardless of that and no point expecting too much, and that my tactics and approach are not understandable by mere mortals.

After that it should all be a piece of *.

RalstonFanClubPresident · Aug 3, 2021

Peej said: ↑

Free reign, assuming the new board are willing and able to be custodians of a football club?

Oh where do we start!

Would aim to play a 433

Fullbacks will be looking to support the wide players (inside forwards), so when they are cutting in to support the striker, the fullbacks are overlapping (underlapping?) to provide support, but also continued width.
I would be looking for players to move in unison to some degree, without being to rigid. IE, when attacking from the left side, I would be expecting the right sided attacker to be coming in to support the striker as a front 2, then the fullback pushes forward to support the midfield (from a wide area, not cutting in) and not leave an open space there. In defence, the full backs comes back so it is a flat four and they all come back together, the wide players then fall back to again provide support to the midfield in number making it 5 across the middle.
If the play leans to the left in attack, the front men support in that direction and same to the right.

For set pieces, attacking wise, if we have a superb free kick taker, then anything up to approx 30 yards out and central (in line with the edge of the 18 yard box) will be a shot on goal 95% of the time. Anything from wider angles or further back will be set up to bring pace in to the attack, so if a drilled ball in can't be achieved, then I will be looking for a fast ball across the surface to the wide areas, again to get the crosses in. None of this floaty ball in to the box easy for the opponent to collect.
In defence, a man on each post, 4 men to man mark the 4 most dangerous opponents and 4 to be zonal in the box to defend. Keeper as well. 2 players to be waiting to counter - a pacey wide player and the striker.

As for personnel, we are looking for two full backs in the ball park of Lustig and Tierney. a no nonsense centre back - in the mould of Mjalby or Jos. A ball playing centre back in the mould of VVD. Keeper will not need to be a sweeper keeper, but will need to be quick with his feet at least and offer reasonable distribution. Idea would be to get the ball out to the ball playing centre back, who then either feeds the full backs or in to the midfield.

In the middle, I would be looking for 2 central midfielders and someone who is able to sit a bit further forward. McGregor, Soro, Turnbull would be the ideal 3 we have just now. But each can be improved upon. Want one who would literally be McGregor and what we know he can do, come collect the ball, good feet, good turn on him, able to move the ball forward. If collecting from the CB, then he then wants to be finding either wide player, or looking for intricate passing with his other two midfielders.
2nd CM would be more of a brute in some fashion, to break up plays. Torn between the hope I have for Soro, or the dream of a Wanyama, but I don't want to have a defensive midfielder by position. So more Soro, or peak Brown before he ended up acting like a timid CB.
The 3rd CM would be looking to be the playmaker and support the striker and attack. I wouldn't be expecting too much defensive duties, but mindful of his position enough to be an extra body when needed. Main duty will be to create runs and space to support the attacking 3, receive the ball from the midfield and feed the front 3.

When attacking, if the play focuses to the left, I expect the striker and RW to show support (striker links with LW and the RW becomes the ST in essence) I expect the attacking midfielder to show support as well for the winger in possession, thus providing triangles to play. The Full back is offering defensive support, till the point the winger cuts in, then they offer width support. FB really should be running that line all day long.

Off the pitch, I would be looking to get close to a core 25 man squad. a starting 11 that will be obvious and built for UCL group stages (not winning groups, but the players will be putting in acceptable performances at that level, that has to be the core 11), a "backup" 11 would be made up of guys like Soro, Taylor, Ajeti, Connell, Dembele - guys who aren't at the group stage level, but are able to provide good cover and development to try and be that position.
That would leave 3 spare positions, which for me should be made up of 3 highly promising youth players. (So Dembele would have been there last year, or Robertson, Hjelde, that sort).

As each season ends, assume we sell 1 or 2 of the core 11, I would be looking for which of the backup 11 are ready to step up and take the place.
Let's take Striker as an example as we currently have. Edouard would be the UCL level striker we desire, we would then sell him and look to Ajeti to step it up. If he is unable to, we would then look to sign the replacement. Assessment would be done on Ajeti and if he is developing any further, if not he would then (once Edouard was replaced) be looked to move on as well. If his development and/or performances in that backup role are good, he would stay of course. We wouldn't be looking to sell two at a time every time, just assess whether or not he is ready to step up, then assess if development and performances are of the required standard.

I'd be then looking to push for the reserve league (or U23 league) to be reintroduced, if so, brilliant. If not, I would be looking to have that group of players getting as much game time as possible, be that in a youth CL, or getting involved in other youth tournaments, booking friendly tournaments ourselves, tours, whatever. Just proactively get them game time on a reasonable regular basis, because in time they need to be producing the next 3 highly promising youth candidates each year or so as well.

Take the 3 who make the the 25 man squad, each year they should be looking to replace their backup 11 counterpart. Take Dembele, last season for me he would have been one of the 3 promising youth. This year he would step up to be the backup RW. That would be the best situation. Should the backup RW position be filled, then it would be a case of assessing who is the better option (ability, potential, transfer value etc) and one would be moved on. That opens up a youth position in the 25 though, and that could be Hjelde this season. Who in the next season would look to replace, say Welsh who would be the current backup.

The idea would be to constantly be producing 2 or 3 new talents each year for the 25 man squad, not sitting on 8 of them for years on end, but actively have them involved. If the starting 11 and backup 11 are of a good standard, then having 3 promising young talent should be fine, they would get game time over the course of the season, without flooding the team and without also being crowded out by too many players.

Then we get to the backroom staff.
Squads of staff would be needed.

For coaches, I would be looking for the club to have at least 8 coaches for the first team. Positional specific for Keepers, CB, CM, ST, Wingers (maybe one to focus on FB, but not maybe that specific) the other 2-3 would be general coaches. These coaches would be ones that the manager (me) would be looking to bring in myself, my right hand men. I would want the club to be hiring adequate specialists for the other positions. Say Duff as a specialist for wingers, Larsson as a specialist for Strikers, Mjalby as a CB specialist.

Would be looking to have a club doctor and a head physio (could be one and the same, could be two roles), who would then be given the direction to hire/provide a physio team for the club. Would probably be looking for 4 or 5 physios in there as well. 2 to focus solely on the first team, 2 to focus on the reserves, youth, etc and maybe another who would be looking after any specific players - say someone needs special rehab attention. Although that role could always be hired on a need to need basis.

Scouting, I would be looking for a BIG scouting department. Like the physios, hire a head of scout/recruitment and allow them to hire their own staff, but the remit would be at LEAST to have as full and extensive knowledge of European football, if not further afield. I would want literally to have the scouts be aware of country in Europe to some level. A great knowledge in obvious leagues, be that the "top 5" or key countries we would be looking to exploit - the Scandinavian countries for example - and a fundamental knowledge of other leagues that may be more unfamiliar - say Polish, Latvian etc. I don't need them to know every player going, but it should be expected if I needed a new backup ST, that they would be able to get me details on the best strikers in those leagues by the end of the day, with extensive research possible within a reasonable time frame there after.

As for further than Europe, I would be looking to the scouting team to be aware of other potential markets to exploit. So lets take Kyogo and Japan, being honest none of us have a clue till now. But it shouldn't have taken for Ange specifically to come here and tell us about him. I would expect a market like Japan, Australia, Mexico, USA, Israel, etc to be markets that again the scouting team have some reasonable knowledge of. So when we want a new Winger and there is desires to maybe exploit a market from far away, someone in the scouting team should be able to tell us about Kyogo, without just being some casual information he knows because he has a Japan fetish, but he actually knows about the league to a level that tells you he is an attainable player.

I may have went off on a massive fantasy land here, but honestly this shouldn't be fantasy stuff, we really should have a club built that understands world football, at least European football.
Look at all the clubs we keep telling ourselves to emulate, Ajax, Leipzig, Porto, Benfica, they all do all of the above and then some.

Celtic? We have Kennedy, Stracahan, McManus, Woods......anyone else?
Click to expand...

You've thought about this before.

If you were the manager...

NomDePlum

RalstonFanClubPresident