He Anit Heavy He's My Buddie.....
Celtic’s fringe players and hangers on, no matter what the papers say, routinely dispatched with a 1st choice St Mirren team in, if truth be told a drab wet night underneath the floodlights at CP. St. Mirren apart from hitting the bar and causing slight panic with their high ball to the back post tactics at set pieces offered sod all really on the night, and if it wasn’t for their goalie the game would have been finished in the 1st half.
That’s not to say that it was a high tempo, fantastic performance from the fringe hoops. Don’t know what game GS was watching when he said our pace was phenomenal, unless he meant our pace was phenomenally slow.
The 8 changes in the side from Saturday were always going to lead to a disjointed, bitty performance and the team done exactly that. Players regaining fitness, getting match sharpness and making debuts in alien positions to them does not lend to a cohesive flowing performance but then have the 1st team been playing cohesive flowing football?
Only when Aiden McGeady came on did a sort of urgency and direct-ness come from the midfield. Jaroisk, Pearson and Sno were quite happy at times to pass the simple ball, to keep possession for possession sake and basically not make an arse of themselves by grabbing the bull by the horns and running at the buddies.
Evander Sno while he was the best player on show, also showed he is a 19 year old with a lot to learn but with bags of ability and self-confidence. His imposing frame should really get put to better use as his stealing ball style is at odds with his hulking frame. He did show maturity though, as he was demanding the ball and his direct promptings in the 1st half was the sum total of Celtics creativity.
He really was doing what I expected Jarosik to do when he arrived from Chelski. Jaro was a shadow of the player he was in pre-season and at the start of the campaign. When he arrived from Birmingham I spoke to a Brummie season ticket holder who said while he was the most skilful footballer at St Andrews he hid when the going got tough and his confidence takes heavy knocks.
Judging by his body language last night, his slouched shoulders, head down demeanour and frustrated challenges this is a player lacking in confidence. It was no surprise he was hooked at half time. No doubting his ability but I’m beginning to doubt his style fitting in to the Scottish game.
His replacement oor Aiden lit up the game with his directness, pace and skill. Aiden’s performance for me puts him ahead of Shaun and Naka for a starting slot on Saturday. The boy can play in the words of dire straits and in this mood no team can live with him. Right he looked like he froze last week at OT, but r*ngers are no Man Utd and he has experienced Glesga derbies before.
Potential match winner written all over his pretty little feather cut.
But he still annoyed his doubters when he played a ball behind, the disappointing, Pearo when it seemed easier to put the ball in front but hey it’s not a Celtic home game without a moan at a homegrown talent.
One word about the crowd, they never panicked like they would have done if it was a league game and we were watching a team struggling to stretch a team with limited ability. Maybe it was something to do with the 20,000 that were missing or that we just don’t care about the CIS cup.
What did the game tell us? Well that if one of the 11 had to come in, while not being maybe up to 1st team quality they would certainly do a job and are tidy enough footballers. It also told us that GS is happy to let the team keep the ball for spells, not go anywhere and be happy about it. GS style, while pleasing on the eye, can sometimes see the pace of the game drop and relies on individual creativity rather than the team’s power and pace. When the creative players are having a mare, well hopefully he will have a plan b or c.
I would expect most of the games against lesser opposition to follow the same lines as the last 2 home games in which, we have won comfortably and have not looked troubled at anytime. But they have drifted along and really we need to kill teams of.
Good result, clean sheet and we created chances with a makeshift team. Not bad for a freebie really when you think about it.
Hail Hail
That’s not to say that it was a high tempo, fantastic performance from the fringe hoops. Don’t know what game GS was watching when he said our pace was phenomenal, unless he meant our pace was phenomenally slow.
The 8 changes in the side from Saturday were always going to lead to a disjointed, bitty performance and the team done exactly that. Players regaining fitness, getting match sharpness and making debuts in alien positions to them does not lend to a cohesive flowing performance but then have the 1st team been playing cohesive flowing football?
Only when Aiden McGeady came on did a sort of urgency and direct-ness come from the midfield. Jaroisk, Pearson and Sno were quite happy at times to pass the simple ball, to keep possession for possession sake and basically not make an arse of themselves by grabbing the bull by the horns and running at the buddies.
Evander Sno while he was the best player on show, also showed he is a 19 year old with a lot to learn but with bags of ability and self-confidence. His imposing frame should really get put to better use as his stealing ball style is at odds with his hulking frame. He did show maturity though, as he was demanding the ball and his direct promptings in the 1st half was the sum total of Celtics creativity.
He really was doing what I expected Jarosik to do when he arrived from Chelski. Jaro was a shadow of the player he was in pre-season and at the start of the campaign. When he arrived from Birmingham I spoke to a Brummie season ticket holder who said while he was the most skilful footballer at St Andrews he hid when the going got tough and his confidence takes heavy knocks.
Judging by his body language last night, his slouched shoulders, head down demeanour and frustrated challenges this is a player lacking in confidence. It was no surprise he was hooked at half time. No doubting his ability but I’m beginning to doubt his style fitting in to the Scottish game.
His replacement oor Aiden lit up the game with his directness, pace and skill. Aiden’s performance for me puts him ahead of Shaun and Naka for a starting slot on Saturday. The boy can play in the words of dire straits and in this mood no team can live with him. Right he looked like he froze last week at OT, but r*ngers are no Man Utd and he has experienced Glesga derbies before.
Potential match winner written all over his pretty little feather cut.
But he still annoyed his doubters when he played a ball behind, the disappointing, Pearo when it seemed easier to put the ball in front but hey it’s not a Celtic home game without a moan at a homegrown talent.
One word about the crowd, they never panicked like they would have done if it was a league game and we were watching a team struggling to stretch a team with limited ability. Maybe it was something to do with the 20,000 that were missing or that we just don’t care about the CIS cup.
What did the game tell us? Well that if one of the 11 had to come in, while not being maybe up to 1st team quality they would certainly do a job and are tidy enough footballers. It also told us that GS is happy to let the team keep the ball for spells, not go anywhere and be happy about it. GS style, while pleasing on the eye, can sometimes see the pace of the game drop and relies on individual creativity rather than the team’s power and pace. When the creative players are having a mare, well hopefully he will have a plan b or c.
I would expect most of the games against lesser opposition to follow the same lines as the last 2 home games in which, we have won comfortably and have not looked troubled at anytime. But they have drifted along and really we need to kill teams of.
Good result, clean sheet and we created chances with a makeshift team. Not bad for a freebie really when you think about it.
Hail Hail
posted by Keving at Wednesday, September 20, 2006
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