Greg Taylor

We could have ended stronger but Rodgers spent all our budget on Engels, Idah and Trusty

Quality over quantity

 

When he was moved into midfield, he was a better midfielder than 3 of our actual midfielders today (McCowan, Engels and Bernardo). It's actually kind of mental.

 

If it’s his last game, all in all he has done well for Celtic. Had his ups and downs but ultimately beat off all the competition he had for his place. For all that’s said about his limitations, he had a great attitude and never hid.

 

Thought he was one of our better players today, gonna miss the *. Good servant. Says it all about our lack of options when he has to play in the middle though.

 

Thought Taylor was one of our better players.Two great shots from distance that just whizzed over the bar, and when moved into midfield, he worked his socks off.

You can't legislate for what Schemeichel did. Game in the bag, few minutes to go, and he commits the howler of all howlers.

 

Was absolutely fine when we were dominating until he has to defend against anyone who has pace and power he didn’t want to be anywhere near that Morris today.

 

Absolutely knocked his pan in as he does every time, will be missed. Says it all when your left back goes into midfield and is the only one to have a decent game in there.

Can't believe how many have been on GT but stayed quiet on KS for the goal?

 

As soon as Morris came on, you just knew if they were going to get back in the game it would down that side. Why the * was he not trying to stop the cross? Just allowed Morris to whip it in.

 

Why are we still asking questions like this?

We know the answer. It's bcoz he's a * * defender and anyone with any kind of pace or power will rip him

 

Yesterday for me was a great summary of GT’s time at Celtic.

Overall done lots of good stuff, was neat and tidy on the ball and worked his socks off.

Then they score a * goal, and the immediate thought is, how come GT hasn’t stopped the cross?

Against Munich - Olise’s goal was a combination of GT being really unlucky and a thunder strike of a shot. Yesterday he could have got tighter, but Kasper had a disaster.

Both times though, GT gets called out!!

Not sure he deserves that yesterday

 

Thought he was excellent yesterday

 

Aye yesterday probably summed him up he was absolutely fine until he had someone actually have a go at him

 

I thought he was fine yesterday, the cross is all on Schmeichel, an absolute horror show from him.

I do think it's best he moves on now, need a more dynamic left back to challenge Tierney next season.

 

The goal was not Taylor's fault. It's almost entirely on the midfield (and Schmeichel and AJ to a lesser extent).

In the build up, Yang leaves Taylor alone against 2 players here. I think he should drop back in.



Aberdeen are held up and Yang gets back in. But he's too narrow. We have 6 players in that tiny space and Taylor has still been left with 2 players to deal with. I wouldn't only blame Yang, though, as someone (probably Bernardo) should be putting pressure on the ball. Note the Aberdeen player running towards the back 4 and not being tracked, that's going to cause a big problem as it leaves our 4 defenders against 5 Aberdeen attackers.




Look at this next part. Only McGregor is fulfilling his defensive responsibilities and dropping back to protect the defence, but the other midfielders are much too slow to do this. The midfielders leave Taylor, CCV and AJ all with 2 players each to deal with alone!!!! Aberdeen have a 6v4 versus our defence! Because CCV has been left with 2, Scales has to come back in narrow to help out. This means that Taylor can't go out to block the cross until either Yang or Bernardo gets back to pick up the other player he is covering. If Taylor goes out to block the cross, the winger has an easy pass to an Aberdeen player unmarked in our box and Aberdeen would have a 5v3 against our defence in our box! Taylor is in the least bad compromise position he can be in.



Finally, look at when the cross goes in. Aberdeen have a 4v3 just outside our 6-yard box. Of our midfielders, only McGregor is where he should be. Yang, Forrest, McCowan and Bernardo are much too slow to get to where they should be (Bernardo and McCowan should be roughly level with McGregor IMO).



Finally, I'm going to blame AJ a little. He's ballwatching here, leaving the Aberdeen number 2 alone in a perfect position to pick up any spills in one direction and their 14 is alone in a perfect position to pick up spills in another direction, because McCowan didn't get back. This means Schmeichel has little choice but to go for distance, a more difficult skill that doesn't come off for him.




It's a terrible goal to lose; but Taylor is not to blame. The blame lies squarely with the midfield (McGregor excepted) and to a lesser extent Schmeichel and AJ. I think even Schmeichel deserves more leeway than Bernardo, Yang and McCowan. At least he made an honest mistake rather than just not doing his job.

 

The full back has to be trying to go out and stop the cross. That’s just the basics of football. Schmeichel is more to blame, but Taylor made zero attempt to block the cross, that’s pish from him as well.

 

Cheers for this, well put together and hopefully gives some people a bit of pause from their automatic, thoughtless Taylor bashing.

 

Shut it dafty.

 

No my fault you're talking * is it? Laid out in black and white for you and you still canny see it lol.

 

Certainly up there with CCV and probably just shading McGregor; but for me, CCV was just outstanding again. I can't deny that Taylor's performance definitely puts him in the conversation for MOTM, though.