Anthony Ralston

At point 1, I half agree. He certainly positions himself better and reads crosses better. However, there's no getting away from the fact that AJ is taller and that gives him a big advantage.

He is rarely skinned for chances because he always stands well off his winger. I think he has no choice but to do that, because his lack of acceleration makes him poor at defending wingers 1v1; but it's really frustrating to watch opposing wingers with all the time in the world to cross into our box. We get away with it because CCV and Scales are incredible at defending the box; but I'd prefer a FB that could stop crosses coming in.

I think there's some truth to the idea that he crosses well. He does pull some fantastic crosses out of the bag at times, I think he sees these things really well. He also wastes possession making some pretty poor crosses too, though, because his technique is erratic. AJ is a different kind of player, but there's no arguing with his goal contribution stats.

I don't agree that Lenny is a terrible manager, but I can't be bothered to argue about it. What I will say is that it doesn't really matter if Ange, Rodgers and Clarke rate some vague notion of "what he has got" or how he carries himself, none of them play(ed) him when they have other options fit. Look at what people do rather than what they say.

 

I've answered your question on Forrest. I don't really see the point that you are trying to make here other than to obfuscate. If I remember Jamie Smith, Ross Wallace, Stephen Crainey and McGeady getting their Celtic berths then I'm more than old enough to remember James Forrest get his.

The question you won't answer is if you think 2 goals in 17 years against Rangers and 1 goal from play in European football proper in 17 years is anywhere near acceptable for a Celtic winger with the minutes Forrest has had? You didn't answer why he struggled to establish himself in a very average Scotland team. You didn't answer how nobody ever seemed to make a serious move for him in that time - particularly when we are a club who would bite your hand off for a decent fee?

I think you have a blind spot for Forrest. Nobody is calling him rubbish here, just the fact that he is certainly viewed through rose tinted specs by a section of our support. That's a valid opinion and you seem more intent on trying to play the man than the ball.

 

I would say they are both a very similar height. Both are about 6ft.

Plenty of crosses go in when AJ is there so I don't see Ralston stepping into the team suddenly being a liablity there. The one clear advantage AJ has over Ralston is his engine and his ability to get beyond his winger - that's really about it which is why I'm not that worried or concerned if Ralston has to step in from time to time, he has proven himself at this point as a reliable backup to AJ.

There's no arguing with Ralstons goal contribution stats either, per minute they are as good as AJs I'd argue - proof will be in the pudding though.

I think anyone who think Lennon is a competent manager would need their head examined. He's the only Celtic manage to lose a title in the past 15 years, he managed that on 2 occassions. 1 of his titles came against a liquidated side, 3 more of them came with no Rangers, the next one came when he took over a club 7 points clear at the top and the final one came when the season was called off with 10 games to go. He is a chancer who walked into a job he should never have got and has been sacked within a year of little after it in any jobs he got since and lets roll call the level of clubs who thought he was good enough to manage them - Bolton, Hibs, Rapid Bucharest and Omonia. He is now managing at Scottish Championship level and his Dunfermline side lies 7th out of 10 teams in the league. He is atrocious.

 

You didn't answer about your age (note that when you pointed out that you could ask the same question, I freely shared mine). The point is that I want to know what age you were when you were watching Forrest in his prime. I can actually remember Roy Aitken, for example; but I don't have the same clarity about him as I do for, say Tom Boyd. So I just wondered how old you were. I'm not going to use that as an argument against your view of Forrest (I realise it's not a valid line of argument), I just want to understand how you can have the view of Forrest that you do and this was one hypothesis I wanted to test.

So just to help me see where you are coming from, would you mind answering my question?

 

His part in both Motherwell goals were laughable.
I don't mind him as back up but I would rather the spot goes to Donovan now.

 

I was wrong to say that AJ was much taller. He is taller, but not much taller. It's still an advantage, but not as much as I thought. I have corrected my post.

AJ's goal contributions are really impressive. I haven't done the maths on how Ralston compares per minute, as I can't be bothered to go through matches counting up their respective minutes over the period; but I highly doubt he compares with AJ. However, if you want to go ahead and count up their minutes and if it turns out I am wrong, I will be happy to be corrected.


I'm not getting into an argument with you about Lenny, you do you on that front.

 

I don't see what my age has to do with you. You seem to be obsessed with finding it out irrespective. I can remember with clarity the entirety of Jackie McNamara's entire Celtic career so I really struggle to understand why you are so intent on finding my actual age out when its very clear that I can remember watching the entire career ofa guy who signed for Celtic 30 years, 20 odd years before Forrest even made his debut for us.

It's obfuscation on your point and it's you who seems not to want to answer the questions I've posed for you on how you can rate Forrest so highly.

 

Strong, honest , good professional and mostly reliable..

Donovan looks like a good prospect though and would like him to continue to get the game time when AJ returns.

 

I'd say he absolutely does match AJ in goal contributions. Lets just focus on the easiest metric we can right now.


Ralston has 9 goals in 133 games for Celtic, majority of his games probably as a sub or certainly about half.

Johnston has 7 goals in 115 games, vast majority as starts so in goals alone I would say Ralston's goal contributon per 90 is significantly higher.

You'd be heavily reliant on AJ's assists being at more than double Ralstons given the minutes disparity to have them coming close.

 

It's not obfuscation, as I wasn't basing any argument on it and explicitly said that I wouldn't base any argument on it, as I acknowledged that that wouldn't be a valid argument. I just wanted to know as I'm trying to understand where you are coming from. I have given detailed arguments for my positions separately from asking your age.

You don't need to share your age with anyone if you don't wish to. The issue is closed.

 

AJ was second in the league for assists last year, so I'm pretty comfortable relying on that.

Source: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/scottish-premiership/assistliste/wettbewerb/SC1/saison_id/2024

 

I find it interesting you were very concerned in my age to discredit my view on Forrest but weren't all interested in offering you views on the questions I posed to you on Forrest regarding 2 goals in 17 years v Rangers, 1 goal from play in 17 years of European proper football, failing to cement a place in an average Scotland side over the years and why no club came for him during those 17 years.

I'd appreciate your views on those in why you have objected so much to what I've said on Forrest.

 

So last season, he had one more assist than Ralston had in the 21/22 season which was the only season Ralston got really consistent minutes. Source being the same website.

 

This is actually a legitimate point you have made here and come to think of it, I do remember some important goal contributions Ralston made that season too.

 

This is why I think he gets a very hard time. He does his job when called upon for us and rarely lets us down and generally falls back into his squad role when he has to. No toys out of the pram or anything like it.

I've no issue with AJ being our starting right back - his athleticism is a huge asset for us but Ralston is a solid backup and is actually a better defender than AJ for me and also has a bit more quality in his final ball and is better in the air.

 

Your stat in the previous post interested me enough that I went and did the maths for last season. AJ got 4 times the assists (8 versus 2) with 4 times the minutes (4k versus 1k). It seems that their goal contributions are far more similar than I thought. I stand corrected.

I still think Ralston has really poor technique and is terrible defending 1v1 against wingers; but I concede your points about him being better than AJ at defending the back post and having as many goal involvements (per minute) as AJ. The former doesn't surprise me all that much as I do think Ralston positions himself well; but the latter really astonishes me. Still, the stats are the stats and you were right on that one.

 

For a defender that's terrible at defending 1v1 I've rarely seen him taken to town. I think he is far better than you and others give him credit for. Some of the criticism I see him take is insane. We come in after drawing 0-0 with Hibs or 0-0 away at Ibrox and see loads of people queuing up to lay the blame at Ralston. Our backup right back who stepped in and kept a clean sheet and handled anything that came his way is the least of our issues - also bearing in mind he was carrying an injury into Ibrox and still got through it.

He's an easy scapegoat and I think he's a solid squad player for us. We have a whole host of players playing regularly now who aren't doing enough nevermind focusing on our second choice in a specialised position.

 

As I said before, he is rarely taken to town because he (understandably!) stands well off wingers; but this allows opposition wingers a free cross into our box with some regularity. I think this is a much bigger problem than you seem to.

 

Don't think it happens that much. Tierney seems to be the one that has struggled more in that regard. Whoever is at right back as well this season has had to deal with Forrest and Yang for a decent amont of games in front of them who are not fond of their defensive duties.

 

Tierney is a shadow of himself and yet I would be thrilled if Ralston improved enough to stop crosses even as well as that! I can't think of another Celtic FB that stands off crosses to the extent of Ralston. Taylor did it a bit, but nowhere near as bad.

Again, you have really surprised me with what you say about Forrest. It has always seemed to me that his defensive workrate is one of his best attributes! Not Maeda level, of course, but good. Yang, yeah, no arguments.