Caley v Celtic ,Post Match Thread.

Agree with the comments about us not having a striker. It should have been 6-0 today. It was a really good performance from us in the second half. The defence held up pretty well under pressure in first 45. We couldn't string 2 passes together. Maloney was outstanding. But we need to kill these games off quicker when we are getting the chances. From what I've seen of hooper, he has the right instinct to put it in the net if he gets service. I just hope he get's over his injury quick. But overall I'm happy with the performance.

 

fortune played well but would like to see him be more attacking and be a little bit more gready

 

Overall it was a promising performance from a team that look to be coming together more every match they play. Very good individual performances from 3 or 4 players and solid performances from the rest of them. Extremely positive performance and if we can go a level higher we will do well this season

 

I think Samaras is far more suited to playing the lone striker role and, perhaps strangely, it's because he drifts around. A striker who drops deep is very difficult for the opposing defence to mark, which means that either the striker will be left in space or a defender will be dragged out to mark him. That creates gaps for supporting players (in yesterday's case, Maloney, Fortune and to a lesser extent McCourt) to get into.

That's the idea behind a 4-2-3-1, anyway. I think Samaras is suited to that and I think that band of 3 support players can get beyond (Maloney seems to excell in it). We still need a lot more consistency and far better decision making from Samaras, but hopefully a new role can let him get his * together.

 

Have to agree with every word you said The guy has talent and and anyone who can't see that is wearing anti maloney specs because he left blah blah! Hammer is one of the people who don't rate him at all bit he's not the only on here!

Some of his passing today was just sublime, especially the one in the first half when he put Cha through but Cha lost control of the ball! He put Ledley and fortune through a few times in the 2nd half with great passes and as the commentator mentioned (think it was Andy Walker??) his movement and ball control was top drawer!

Alot of people don't like him but we should all get behind him when he's picked as I think he's a confidence player, bit like Sammy and who knows, we could maybe see the best of him again!

 

aye good second half and good to get the three points

 

great to see the wee man finding his game again after a poor pre-season - great example of why pre season is important though! WSM is a very, very good footballer and will be very important to us this season so praying he stays fit.

 

brilliant second half

 

Shaun Maloney's movement yesterday was absolutely outstanding. I think that's his position now; just behind the front. He has lost what pace he had thorugh injuries but he still has a small burst of accelaration, good technique and is always willing to move into space to collect the ball.

First touch was excellent yesterday. He was holding the ball up excellently.

Great performance from the wee man; overall team performance I think just goes to show how much we need another striker.

 

Aye. Reminds me of Baroš in Liverpool's team which won the CL. Runs around, is everywhere. The defenses didn't know what to do with him.

 

Yeah but apparently Sky never gave the guy any coverage.

He ran on while the physio was trying to attend to Paddy, slapped him on the back (when he'd injured his neck) the physio then shoved him, again the fan rubbed Paddy's head and the physio gave him a right good shove the second time, nearly flooring him. Then the guy ran back into the stand while two stewards strolled onto the pitch.

 

Only seen it up until the goal, had to go to a wedding.

From what I saw, 1st half was *, second half much improved.

Brown hopeless, again. Samaras, Cha, McCourt played well.

Still haven't seen much from Ledley, he looks a yard off the pace.

 

was away at the blackpool game, anyone got any links to the hoops game?

 

the problem with mulgrew is he's our weakest player, from the kick off ICT had a simple game plan, hoof the ball up towards mulgrew and watch the mayhem ensue. second half he improved a wee bit but is still a weak defender.
Hoovild looks good and and i thought for his mistake du ri was given a slight push in the back by the player behind him.
it could easily have been 6 or 7, Forrest will be a good player.
i thought the team was too heavily stacked with creative players in Maloney, samaras, fortune and Paddy, we didnt have the workers to compete with ICT in the first half.
Brown needs to up his game, so many carless passes in the first half. i can see that team starting v Utrecht except Juarez instead of Paddy.

 

I thought that Brown had a really good game in the second half. Mulgrew came into a bit of confidence also, was happy to see the boy getting better(still not the answer though.

 

I agree for the most part. I also think Brown did a lot to ensure that once we got control of the game, that many of their attacks broke down in the middle 3rd by harrying people on the ball.

You're right, Sammy really dislikes running at defenders. It's a deficiency to his game, but I think it comes out of how far ahead of himself he puts the ball when he does gallop with it. That style of running with the ball would probably be pretty easy for 2 CBs to close down if he were coming directly at them.

If you watch Paddy or even MAF they keep the ball much closer to themselves when they move with it

 

Zaluska - Scares the * out of me now if I'm being honest. 50
Cha - Got forward well, didn't have much defending to do. 50
Loovens - Solid. 56
Hooiveld - Solid. 56
Mulgrew - Shaky defensively again but grew massively in confidence after he skinned the ICT player. A lot goes through him he doesn't get credit for but not the answer at left back long term. 50
Ledley - Played well, seeing far more of him now. 50
Brown - Typical display of angry stares and uncalled for 2 footed tackles. 50
Fortune - Excellent, my MOTM personally. He is the answer on the right wing if he continues in this form. 50:)
McCourt -Won the game with another piece of magic. 50::icon_mrgreen::icon_mrgreen
Maloney - Worked hard and got into some excellent positions but still missed a one on one with the keeper then crocked our match winner stupidly. How he managed to win the MOTM however I don't know. 50
Samaras - Again grafted for the side but is still prone to his donkey moments. Someone needs to tell him to start running forwards instead of across defenders. 50