SPL - Celtic 07/08

[M-boy]

Celtic have an injury boost ahead of Wednesday's Champions League tie with Benfica as Paul Hartley, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Stephen McManus have all traveled with the squad.

(various sources)

Milan's Dida has had his ban reduced to one game plus a further one game ban which will not be served unless he reoffends during the one year probationary period. uefa.com

[Chrisharry12345]

could someone give me some pointers on the preferred starting xi. im doing some research for a champ league ff

[M-boy]

gk: Boruc

lb: Naylor: unless we sign someone better (actually, just someone else as we don't have any other left backs at all)
cb: McManus: club captain
cb: Caldwell: is getting his chance at the moment, but there are plenty of alternatives in Pressley, O'Dea, Balde and Kennedy (when fit) just no good options, so Caldwell gets it.
rb: Hinkel: when fit. Caldwell has filled in their for most of the season, Hartley has played the last two, but Hinkel should be back soon. Wilson and Doumbe are both long-term injuries (I think). Youngster Caddis had a brief run-out on Sunday.

lm: McGeady
cm: Brown: sometimes gets shunted wide right to accomodate Donati and Hartley, but will always play.
cm: Donati: Occasionally loses out to Hartley
rm: Nakamura: has been injured a lot this season, but is a nailed on starter when fit. Rarely as effective in away matches, but still useful, especially from free kicks

New winger Koki Mizuno will challenge on either wing as he provides an option as a more orthodox winger, but is yet to play. Jarosik occasionally comes in and plays anywhere across the midfield. Riordan has been played once or twice as a winger and Sno makes the odd cameo as the holding midfielder.

cf: McDonald
cf: Vennegoor of Hesselink

Killen occasionally gets a game, usually as sub for VofH. Zurawski and Riordan are other attacking options but are very rarely used.[/b]

[Chrisharry12345]

gk: Boruc

lb: Naylor: unless we sign someone better (actually, just someone else as we don't have any other left backs at all)
cb: McManus: club captain
cb: Caldwell: is getting his chance at the moment, but there are plenty of alternatives in Pressley, O'Dea, Balde and Kennedy (when fit) just no good options, so Caldwell gets it.
rb: Hinkel: when fit. Caldwell has filled in their for most of the season, Hartley has played the last two, but Hinkel should be back soon. Wilson and Doumbe are both long-term injuries (I think). Youngster Caddis had a brief run-out on Sunday.

lm: McGeady
cm: Brown: sometimes gets shunted wide right to accomodate Donati and Hartley, but will always play.
cm: Donati: Occasionally loses out to Hartley
rm: Nakamura: has been injured a lot this season, but is a nailed on starter when fit. Rarely as effective in away matches, but still useful, especially from free kicks

New winger Koki Mizuno will challenge on either wing as he provides an option as a more orthodox winger, but is yet to play. Jarosik occasionally comes in and plays anywhere across the midfield. Riordan has been played once or twice as a winger and Sno makes the odd cameo as the holding midfielder.

cf: McDonald
cf: Vennegoor of Hesselink

Killen occasionally gets a game, usually as sub for VofH. Zurawski and Riordan are other attacking options but are very rarely used.[/b]

nice one mboy great stuff.. do you think celtic will play one up front against barca? if so will hesslink get the nod?

[M-boy]

No probs Chris. And we've just signed another striker Georgios Samaras on loan from Man Citeh. I imagine that he'll be third choice, but also that he'll get quite a lot of game-time.

Regarding our formation I assume we'll go 4-4-2 at home. It's kind of expected of us. Away from home it's less clear cut and depends on the result from the home leg and the way that match has gone. We've gone 4-4-2 in away from home in Europe earlier this season and been skelped. That was at Donetsk where our midfield failed to get into the game early on and we lost two goals in the first ten minutes. But before that we got away with a 1-1 draw in Moscow to qualify for the group stage playing 4-4-2 (I think).

We went 4-5-1 at Milan and Benfica, although I think both VofH and McDonald were unavailable for the latter game. Both games were 0-1 defeats, which is about as good as it gets for us away from home.

Depending on the first leg result and on fitness, we'll probably go 4-5-1 with a midfield of Brown, Donati, Hartley, Jarosik and one of Nakamura or McGeady with McDonald up front, but a midfield of Nakamura-Brown-Donati-Hartley-McGeady is not inconceivable either.

[Lone Ranger]

RANGERS... 3
CELTIC... 0

'nough said.

Hello M-boy, you have not been updating from since the above result, I thought you had left the forum, then I seen your name on a thread the other day, gee that result really must have sickened you , or have you not had time?

May the best team win, we're both playing sh*te at the moment!

[M-boy]

RANGERS... 3
CELTIC... 0

'nough said.

Hello M-boy, you have not been updating from since the above result, I thought you had left the forum, then I seen your name on a thread the other day, gee that result really must have sickened you , or have you not had time?

May the best team win, we're both playing sh*te at the moment!

Hi LR. Don't worry I didn't become a recluse after that result! I was sickened by it though, couldn't even watch for a bit of it.

Soon after that result real life commitments took over, so I didn't get a chance to update it for a while. I'm spending quite a bit of time on Fiso these days but I just never got around to updating this (and no-one seemed bothered) so I only responded when Chris asked about the team.

I'll probably update it with our January transfer window dealings.

Thanks for asking though, you're alright (for one of them)

[Lone Ranger]

Not bad mate for one of them I know what you mean real life commitments, sometimes if it wasn't for the footie and the fiso I would go mad.

See we have signed another old pensioner in Dailly, I thought Weir was a risky move but have been proved wrong, so I'll wait and see before I shout about Dailly

Cheers LR

[slarty]

Thanks for asking though, you're alright (for one of them)

I thought it was just a line in a song about Tonto and him!


Suppose I'd better justify posting in here, Jarosik leaves for Russian side FC Samara and all the Samaras move to Celtic

[M-boy]

Celtic's January transfers

In

Georgios Samaras (Man City, loan)
Ben Hutchinson (Middlesbrough, undisclosed)
Koki Mizuno (JEF United, undisclosed)
Barry Robson (Dundee United, £1.25m)
Andreas Hinkel (Sevilla, undisclosed)

Out

Maciej Zurawski (Larissa, £500,000)
Jiri Jarosik (Krylya Sovetov Samara, £740,000)
Teddy Bjarnason (Lyn Oslo, undisclosed)

[M-boy]

No probs Chris. And we've just signed another striker Georgios Samaras on loan from Man Citeh. I imagine that he'll be third choice, but also that he'll get quite a lot of game-time.

Regarding our formation I assume we'll go 4-4-2 at home. It's kind of expected of us. Away from home it's less clear cut and depends on the result from the home leg and the way that match has gone. We've gone 4-4-2 in away from home in Europe earlier this season and been skelped. That was at Donetsk where our midfield failed to get into the game early on and we lost two goals in the first ten minutes. But before that we got away with a 1-1 draw in Moscow to qualify for the group stage playing 4-4-2 (I think).

We went 4-5-1 at Milan and Benfica, although I think both VofH and McDonald were unavailable for the latter game. Both games were 0-1 defeats, which is about as good as it gets for us away from home.

Depending on the first leg result and on fitness, we'll probably go 4-5-1 with a midfield of Brown, Donati, Hartley, Jarosik and one of Nakamura or McGeady with McDonald up front, but a midfield of Nakamura-Brown-Donati-Hartley-McGeady is not inconceivable either.

Just to update this. Jarosik is gone, Robson is a direct replacement for him.

Also, I forgot that Brown is suspended for the first leg of the Barcelona tie. That means that the midfield may be:

Nakamura - Donati - Hartley - Robson - McGeady
with McDonald up front
Or

Nakamura - Hartley - Robson - McGeady
with McDonald and JVoH up front

Or

Nakamura - Hartley - Donati - McGeady
with McDonald and JVoH up front

It's hard to tell really . Robson made his debut today coming off the bench and scoring with his first touch - a lovely freekick but it's too soon to say whether he'll be ahead of Donati a week on Wednesday. Like Brown, he has those Scottish qualities of tenacity and general radgeness that Donati does not possess. However Donati's passing, whilst at times erratic, is of a continental quality only possessed elsewhere in the squad by Nakamura. He's also played the vast majority of games this season, so I think at the moment the 4-4-2 featuring Donati and Hartley in the centre is most likely.

[M-boy]

CELTIC…3
(Vennegoor of Hesselink 14, McDonald 51, Hinkel 76)
HEARTS…0

Scottish Premier League
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Celtic Park, Glasgow

Celticfc.net report

1-0

2-0

3-0

CELTIC (4-4-2) Boruc; Hinkel, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor; Nakamura, Donati (Robson 78), S. Brown, McGeady; McDonald (Hutchinson 87), Vennegoor of Hesselink (Samaras 73)
Subs not used: M.Brown, O’Dea, Sno, Hartley

HEARTS (4-5-1) Banks; Neilson, Karipidis, Berra, Goncalves; Cesnauskis (Mikoliunas 68), Jonsson, Palazuelos, Ksanavicius (Nade 73), Driver; Velicka
Subs not used: Basso, Wallace, Zaliukas, McCann, Elliot

[Yer Old Da]

You at the game M-boy? If you were, how did Hinkel do?

[M-boy]

I don't think it has been mentioned on this thread before, but Andreas Hinkel is cup-tied for the tie with Barcelona. Paul Caddis, who did not make the squad on Saturday due to a family bereavement, is likely to deputize and make only his second start for Celtic. Paul Hartley could also be used in this role, as he has played at right-back on several occasions. However, given Caddis' strong recent performances he should be preferred.

[M-boy]

You at the game M-boy? If you were, how did Hinkel do?

Hinkel was very good going forward Yod. As you'll know, it's been a long time since we've had fullback that get to the bye-line and put crosses in and that's great to see. However, I felt that every time Hearts broke it came down our right so defensively I think he still has work to do. Really, I think it's a matter of him getting to know and understand the rest of the defence, particularly Caldwell (God help him!), rather than him being a poor defender.

[mikeg13]

Any Celtic fans have info on David McNally, think he was marketing director at Celtic before moving to Fulham, any info on him would be appreciated

[M-boy]

Never heard of him mike, but I'll ask around. Incidentally, I was in the pub last night with our chief executive, Peter Lawwell. When I say with him, I mean I was four feet away from him and didn't speak to him, but I'm a very popular man, so I'm not surprised he didn't come over to say hi.