Martin O’Neill returns to Celtic as interim manager alongside Shaun Maloney

If MON beats Rangers and Kilmarnock, and at least draws Midtylland, he should have the right of taking the team to the end of the season, if he wants to. Perhaps he's explicitly stated he'll only be here until the intl. break.

 

From what I gathered from the post match he didn’t directly say it but I took from what he was saying that he had tell players play the way you would instinctively play …. Which makes me think was Rodgers curtailing certain aspects of players way of playing to play a certain way that Rodgers thinks the game should be played ?


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As much as he is a bygone era manager, he just simplifies things and plays to everyone's strengths. He doesn't have much of an ego and even at his age seems keen to learn from others - physios and even Maloney.

Ralston doesn't overplay, Trusty and Scales don't act like playmakers, protects McGregor with Engels, lets Engels sit deeper and plays Nygren as a 10 feeding balls through to a pacy Kenny.

 

Juninho, I assume? Unless wee Lubo ended up suffering from a case of the Gorams without me knowing it.

 

We all know MON is incredible at man management and he has just delivered an absolute masterclass in how to defuse a toxic situation and turn the atmosphere into a much more positive one.

Early days and he'll have much more difficult tactical challenges ahead in the next month and a half, but Maloney has impressed me so far too.

All of that is quite separate from whether Rodgers is a good manager or did a good job. There's a lot of scapegoating of Rodgers here that doesn't sit well with me.

 

Genuinely I don't even think he is.

He was fond of a 3-5-2. Agathe and Thomson playing the role of what we consider a modern fullback. Larsson dropping deep to receive balls. Lambert in the 6.

He wasn't your typical 2000s 4-4-2 merchant anyway.

 

Love the guy, hence the name! Reckon he's been brought in to immediately bring back a nostalgic feel-good factor at the club until such times as we have our new manager in place. If that stretches into the new year then that's no issue as we're really learning who our best players are during that period, and if he's still here it can also help with recruiting new players in January too. (Double bubble on the recruitment side)

 

Agreed. Think hes here for the international break. Thats when the new guy steps in.

However longest would possibly be the cup final but that's only fairy tale me thinking of mon lifting the trophy again.

 

If he gets us past Rangers he deserves to be at the final and lift the trophy if we win, either as a manager or fan.

 

Thank Christ he was there to step in. We would have been in absolute tailspin mode without him.

 

There seems to be two schools of thought in coaching one being positional where in the most rigid, like a Pep system everyone in the team has a role and when the ball is in certain positions the player is to get into a certain position or make a certain run. I remember Henry talking about playing left of a front 3 for Pep and essentially anytime the ball got to Xavi he was to make a certain run round the outside of the full back and double back to face, even if he didn’t get the ball he was to do that everytime Xavi crossed the half way line.

There is then the relational or player centric model where you get the ball to certain players in your team and you build your attacks around that. Very reliant on having players who can think for themselves and suits the creative types as the others round about do a job to get them in dangerous areas. The guy who managed Fluminense was a big advocate of that approach.

Rodgers was more towards positional but not as rigid as a Pep or even Ange. He relies on front players to come up with something but expects them to make certain movements e.g striker to drop deep and wingers to invert.

It was clear last night the message was for Full backs and wingers to create width, also go for the byline and get crosses and cut backs into the box, Nygren to get up and support Kenny, almost making it a 2 up top and the two centre backs to advance the ball quickly. As they were all things we had not seen much of lately.

 

It inspired me to stick on Road To Seville this evening.

My earliest memories of Celtic are the 2002/03 season and it is why I fell in love with the club and football in general, so I don’t care how long he’s here for, I’m going to savour every moment. Even if it is just for the nostalgia buzz.

 

Similar. Loved his sides.

 

Out on the training pitch focused