Never started a match thread before. First time for everything.

 

And hopefully the first time McInnes can beat Celtic in a fixture that means something.

 

Nothing can go on forever. Records are there to be broken.

 

So let's fucking break it.

 

Beautiful day anticipated. Always bump into loads of good folk I forgot existed at this time of year and the pub crawl I've got planned before and after takes in everything I need. Will have at least 50% and hopefully 75% of my kids with me at some point, depending if my eldest gets his arse in gear. Can't manage 100% as the youngest not legal to drink.

 

Any win would be wonderful. 3 points will be lovely.

Utter rubbish being talked on here,put limited first team squad has been stretched

All Dec, we’ve had half our regular defence out most effective attacking player Gms!

Players won’t be 100% fit @ expect our loans Frees @ youngsters to beat a team assembled

By millions ...

 

Mcinnes is trying to find a way as going toe to toe we’re humped ,trying to make chicken salad out of chicken

Shite springs to mind ....

 

Expect more upset as January is around the corner @ more will go @ Milne won’t back the gaffer withany real dough.

 

Ross @ anderson need loaned out as looks like there not going to make it.

 

Wilson ,tansey , Reynolds,Gleason,forrester,Gms,shinnie bye bye..!

 

We've won plenty of games without them though, so does it only count when we lose that we are some bodies short? We beat Rangers at Ibrox without GMS & Devlin, yesterday was absolutely nothing to do with the players missing, perhaps you could argue that Devlin & Lowe would have been a better defensive option, but it was simply due to McInnes being negative, he put all 10 outfield players in our own half in the 2nd half, it was finely poised at 1-1, we should have shown some intent and took the game to them, we didn't, we let them dictate the ball and we got our reward.

 

This pish regarding McInnes is becoming tiresome now, he gets praised, and rightly so, when he gets things right, it is only normal that he takes some stick when he gets it wrong, which he did yesterday. We never looked like scoring from open play yesterday, that is fact, even when Gordon & Boyata fluffed a simple pass, we still couldn't capitalise, instead, we waited until we conceded a goal before we forayed into their half, and look what happened when we did, we caused problems. Like I said earlier, Celtic lost at Hearts, Hibs, Killie and drew at Livingston, they played their own game, they didn't try to be clever or anything like that, we did, and again, we got fuck all to show for it, the only thing that was close yesterday, was the scoreline, and that wasn't really a fair reflection of the game, was it?

 

Would prefer a pacier attack with McInnes' tactics yesterday,moving the ball about and thru teams like Celtic quicker,though our options in that department are limited with Wright not cutting it,and MacLennan hot and cold.

  worth looking at when injuries lessen

   

   

 

A very average hibs team beat them recently, why can’t we?

 

2 reasons......

 

Firstly the team that Hivs faced was a lot different to the one that we faced. Brenda brought back players he rested or were unavailable for whatever reason against the spoonburners. The side that we faced was pretty much their first choice starting 11 with the exception of Christie starting in place of Edouard and Tierney being out injured. Whilst we were shorn of Devlin, GMS and Lowe.

 

Secondly, Lennon recognises that Hibs cannot successfully sit back against anyone, never mind Celtic, and hope to take anything from the game. So he sends his team out to have a go at Celtic's weakness, which is indubitably their back line. They got lucky scoring in the first minute which meant Celtic had to chase the game fielding a weakened side, but still Lennon kept his team pushing forward. Attack is the best form of defence!

2 reasons......

 

Firstly the team that Hivs faced was a lot different to the one that we faced. Brenda brought back players he rested or were unavailable for whatever reason against the spoonburners. The side that we faced was pretty much their first choice starting 11 with the exception of Christie starting in place of Edouard and Tierney being out injured. Whilst we were shorn of Devlin, GMS and Lowe.

 

Secondly, Lennon recognises that Hibs cannot successfully sit back against anyone, never mind Celtic, and hope to take anything from the game. So he sends his team out to have a go at Celtic's weakness, which is indubitably their back line. They got lucky scoring in the first minute which meant Celtic had tofielding a weakened side, but still Lennon kept his team pushing forward. Attack is the best form of defence!

 

Totally disagree with you in the sense that regardless of players rested, they aren’t a great team. We were shit and scored three ffs. Celtic have squad depth and hibs didn’t face a drastically weakened Celtic.

 

Secondly, your point is that they have a coach willing to attack Celtic. I’d agree with that. Why can’t we have a go at Celtics weaknesses? While we were shit our starting 11 is more capable than the hibs 11 that beat them.

 

 

Totally disagree with you in the sense that regardless of players rested, they aren’t a great team. We were shit and scored three ffs. Celtic have squad depth and hibs didn’t face a drastically weakened Celtic.

 

Secondly, your point is that they have a coach willing to attack Celtic. I’d agree with that. Why can’t we have a go at Celtics weaknesses? While we were shit our starting 11 is more capable than the hibs 11 that beat them.

 

I agree they aren't great but when they put out a team comprising of 80-100% of players Brenda would regard as his "first picks" they are generally far too good for anyone else in Scotland. They will suffer the odd setback away from home (don't think sevco will beat them though) but they'll sort out their deficiencies in the January window....striker and right back for starters......and pull away from the chasing pack steadily. There's no disgrace in Celtic beating us with their financial advantage. But DM has to realise that us sitting back, inviting pressure, conceding 65%+ of possession will generally result in us suffering a defeat.

Is it not that had we scraped through and got a result nobody would be complaning about the tactics. Look at the two sevco games. We played the same way and got results. I actually think if we had lowe and devlin in the side the tactics would have worked. To me the problem is just that compared to teams like Celtic and even Sevco our squad is not strong enough.

Is it not that had we scraped through and got a result nobody would be complaning about the tactics. Look at the two sevco games. We played the same way and got results. I actually think if we had lowe and devlin in the side the tactics would have worked. To me the problem is just that compared to teams like Celtic and even Sevco our squad is not strong enough.

 

This is it for me. Easiest thing in the world to look on from the sidelines and shout "attack, attack, attack"

 

I suspect if we'd have "had a go" and pressed/attacked for the full game, we'd have been picked off at some point -  not least because of the exertions of the month, and them having Edouard etc to come off the bench.

Is it not that had we scraped through and got a result nobody would be complaning about the tactics. Look at the two sevco games. We played the same way and got results. I actually think if we had lowe and devlin in the side the tactics would have worked. To me the problem is just that compared to teams like Celtic and even Sevco our squad is not strong enough.

 

But we didn't. We did our recent usual and lost albeit fairly closely. Our only recent win against them was in a game where they were in celebration mode and also knew that if we won the game it would stuff sevco's chance of sneaking through to finish second.

 

If we are going to get beaten by the Dhims, I'd far rather we went down having a go. Yes sitting back and encouraging them on works against sevco. Because despite their outlay dwarfing ours, the players they have are of a similar standard to us....they just have loads more of them especially defenders and midfielders. It just doesn't work against Celtic because their players are of a higher standard.

 

Let's try something different against them

But we didn't. We did our recent usual and lost albeit fairly closely. Our only recent win against them was in a game where they were in celebration mode and also knew that if we won the game it would stuff sevco's chance of sneaking through to finish second.

 

If we are going to get beaten by the Dhims, I'd far rather we went down having a go. Yes sitting back and encouraging them on works against sevco. Because despite their outlay dwarfing ours, the players they have are of a similar standard to us....they just have loads more of them especially defenders and midfielders. It just doesn't work against Celtic because their players are of a higher standard.

 

Let's try something different against them

 

If we have a go and end up 3 goals down in no time because of the gaps we leave as a result, that's preferable to being in the game right till the end?

 

There's a balance to be struck, and I'm not convinced what we saw the other day was a million miles off it.

Easiest thing in the world to look on from the sidelines and shout "attack, attack, attack"

 

Nobody is saying "attack, attack, attack", something that couldn't have possibly been done anyway with only 35% possession.

 

In fact, we did have an attacking personnel and line up with two strikers and McGinn and MacLennan on either wing. The problem was nothing connecting with our front four, as Ferguson and Ball were sitting way deep with presumably defensive duties drilled into them. Within the first five minutes, it was obvious that Scott Brown was spare. He and their back four were spreading it across between them but because we had May and Cosgrove chasing between THREE men, Boyata, Benkovic and Brown, it only took a few seconds for them to make the extra man count and Brown was able to walk into our half totally unchallenged.

 

The problem was that we didn't see the obvious unfolding and the antidote was to get Ball or Ferguson pressing higher up and countering the spare man. This isn't "attack, attack, attack". This is schoolboy stuff and simple mathematics. The reason we didn't adapt for the WHOLE game is something we could speculate on but whatever the game plan was, it not only didn't work, it was pitiful. Gordon never had a save to make, we couldn't get close to scoring from open play until it was too late and we conceded FOUR at home, all of which were easily preventable but luck and the way the game goes meant they were due at least one of them.

 

It was an infuriating performance and for me, totally sickening that we made schoolboy errors both in tactics and the personnel deployed in the back line. Captain Marvel Shinnie offered nothing in midfield once again and shouldn't have even been there. The only reason he's being played there is that at least he has some bite and none of McInnes's recruits are near good enough in the middle of the park. It was an embarrassing capitulation and as Brenda correctly said, the scoreline flattered us. Even the two pundits on Sportscene were saying how Celtic always had an extra gear they could call upon, an extra bit of quality which separated us and given the patent gulf in class, we simply can't afford to make stupid, preventable errors if we want to compete, which I'm not even sure that we want to, as per the aspirations thread.