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It'll no doubt get mentioned the difference in position. However if Conor Goldson, for example, were to play every available minute left of the season (including two cup extra times) he will only have played 271 minutes more than 40 year old Davie Weir had in his last season. Think it was just the 3 titles and 4 cups he won

We played better when we had an actual fixture pile up and half the squad out Walter always said it was more about mentality than physicality and that's what we seen today. A lack of fight and desire, the pure basics, missing from us.

I've defended Tav plenty for the same reasons but we've replaced better goal scorers than Tav. celtic's two main full backs have scored 4 goals between them this season and last season when they won a treble. It's time to get goals from elsewhere and move on from guys that have won 3 trophies in 7 years.

I'm keeping Butland, Yilmaz, Sterling, Cantwell, Dio and Sima. I mean Dio technically isn't our player yet and Sima definetely isn't our player. We need a mentality change and we need a squad that is athletic, dynamic and adaptable which Clement can a hold of and improve. Vast majority of this squad will be here though.

Clement has made a few mistakes over the last month and today but some of the basic lack of desire from the players was the biggest crime. Easy runs for Ross County, guys not tracking their men and no aggression. Just basic want and desire was lacking more than anything. Once again it came from the usual players when things are going wrong. Hopefully I'm wrong, especially in 5 weeks time, but when it's crunch time this core group usually look lost.

Just in general I think his goals would have papered up some proper cracks today but it would have put us in a great position to at least get the 3 points. Horrendous finishing.

Same old, same new. Dropping points to Motherwell the same weekend celtic drop points. Losing 3 goals to Ross County and celtic in the same week and picking up 1 point out of 6. Is that you 2022? Same old pish.

Totally agree which shows where we are defensively. I actually think Goldson plays better with Balogun. I don't think the defence is being helped much by the midfield either. So much space for Ross County.

We could have scored 4 but could have also conceded 4. Real lack of control and way too passive. The whole team has been fucking shite defensively. If Ross County had a bit more quality they would have scored a couple and created a couple of more chances. They're finding holes everywhere. Totally reeks of the 3-3 game. Get Sterling on for a bit of control and aggression.

I actually don't mind Dowell, decent at picking out passes from deeper and can get forward and get a goal. He was absolutely embarressing for their 3rd last week though. Unless there is something we don't know then Matondo should be getting a start. Borna is Borna at this point. I think against Ross County is as good a game to re-introduce him if Yilmaz still isn't fit because as good as Sterling was last week I think we need him elsewhere on the park. If I can give Borna one positive at this stage is that he's still our best corner taker so we might actually score from one today Enough in the first 11 to win that and plenty on the bench if need be. The latter has been a rarity for us this season.

I watched Milan and Roma tonight but what a result for Atalanta!

What a joke of a situation

Matondo is an effective player but he doesnt play anywhere near enough football to be deemed anything but a poor signing. As much as we can feel sympathy for the player we don't pay players to sit in a treatment room as much as he does. Since joining us we have played 106 games and when you tally up his minutes he's played around 24 games which is less than a quarter of the minutes he could play. He is a good player, you don't score those two goals in the last couple of weeks without having something. Also in his limited minutes he's managed 13 goals and assists which is a pretty decent return but again he just isn't on the park nearly enough.

I just thought that was a nickname for him. He'll be Mazda from now on!

Sprints 0

Mazda

I'd rather we went back to a 4-3-3 against them with 3 workers in midfield. I reckon a 3-5-2 would expose us. Down the wings Tav and Yilmaz would be out numbered 2v1. Then to cover that you would need one of the centre mids to come out to celtic's full backs which then leaves a 3v2 centrally for celtic which would then lead to Sima or Dessers dropping deep which defeats the purpose. If the midfield isn't getting moved about you're then asking one of those 3 cbs to go to places we dont and they probably dont want to be. That would end up being the case cause you would have shape it into a back 4 when behind the ball which puts everyone out of shape and out numbered particularly in midfield. With the ball I think it would beat the press especially wide. You're asking celtic's wingers to press the wide CB or the wing backs but either way it leaves men free and also leaves the celtic full backs with decisions to make if the wingers go to the CBs. Push up onto the Rangers wing back which then potentially leaves the CBs 2v2 or support the CBs and give a Rangers wing back a chance to advance which then leaves celtic's midfield with decisions? Obviously having Dessers drop and leaving Sima in behind 1v1 could be very fruitful but risky. At the same time if we retain the ball and celtic step into their own half we're left with 7 v 10 against them in that half which makes things hard to break down. Also leaving our back with line with the majority of the ball is asking for problems and that's how it would turn out imo. Also with a front 2 we lose everything that brought us back yesterday. A LW winning a penalty, a RW scoring the second and another LW scoring the third. Even if you want to include Dessers disallowed goal it was our LW and RW who set it up. I don't think we need to take that away. We could also do what Gio did in the SC semi and play a 4-2-3-1 but basically push one up centrally at times with Aribo then Jack or Lundstram that day, pull Bassey up into midfield and leave Goldson, Tav and Borna 3v3 and we pretty much controlled the game and then they scored from a well worked set piece. It worked with Tav and Borna cause they were more athletic then than Souttar or Balogun are now and were comfortable out wide and Bassey had the pace to get back in - we just dont have that now. However even when we turned the game round it was back to the tried and tested 4-3-3. You just wouldn't be able to do that with two up top and wing backs imo. I can see the reasoning but just not for me.

We really need to offload Scott Wright in the summer, can't believe he actually still has another year left on his contract. Pretty poor player and the absolute heart of a mouse unfortunately. I can accept him not being technically as good as the rest of our wingers but to be the absolute laziest one of them all is not on. It's not the first time and hopefully that was the last we've seen of him offering absolutely nothing for us again.

Basically a work horse with an eye for goal!

Aye no doubt one or two will get injured before the end

We've got 9 games to win a treble. Front 3 of Sima, Dessers and Matondo has to be the way to go with Cantwell in behind and against celtic I'd take out Cantwell for a 3 of Lundstram, Dio and Sterling. Tav, Sima, Dessers, Matondo, Cantwell and JL all our biggest contributors, get them on the park and lets hammer some of this shite!

Against them I would go back to basics with what we were doing under Gerrard without playing a number 10 against them in a 4-3-3. When we played with a base of 3 combining of Davis, Kamara, Arfield, Jack and even McCrorie early on we controlled and sometimes dominated games that we didnt even win (LC final comes to mind). Our record with that was 4 wins and two defeats - one of them being that LC final and a dodgy sending off for Morelos and we still nearly knicked a draw. Even under Beale our best result against them was with a base 3 of Jack, Raskin and Lundstram. Our best result under Gio against them the game turned around with taking off Aribo for Arfield and finishing the 90 with Arfield, Davis and Lundstram who was replaced by Kamara during ET. We got a wee bit of success with Roofe and Alfie up top against them but I'd argue two of those games were some ofthe worst performances against them under Gerrard. The 1-0 game with the own goal and McGregor being world class and the Helander game though we were fucked with covid iirc. We only started playing Roofe and Morelos once we knew we were better than them too. We tried a diamond in his first game, we tried that fucking stupid 5 in centre mid tactic when we lost two nil and we played Hagi once in midfield at parkhead and it was a slog despite drawing. This season we've tried Cantwell twice and we've had Lawrence yesterday and you just lose control of the game imo. I like them two playing together or even just one especially against packed defences cause they can create and aren't needing to run about like mad. However, against them, we need to go back to that base 3 and right now that would be Lundstram, Diomande and Sterling. You can control the game, mix it up and protect the defence.

Yeah and not for the first time for them either this season. Yesterday was the 9th point they've lost from a winning position and as you say they lost it twice yesterday. It's also the 6th point they've lost in 90 minutes+ this season. People talk about our mentality but celtic's this season has been poor and that's before we get onto the lost 7 point lead. Of course it would be nice as well if we stopped giving them a 2 goal start.

Only issue I have with Butland today was the third goal and he wasnt the only one for that third goal. The first pings of maeda so fast its hard to react, the second was a penalty and he made 2/3 big stops to stop it going to 3.

Stewart fucking greetin' about our penalty was embarressing but not unexpected. Apparently "winning the ball" means slightly knicking it away from the opponent while completely avoiding the fact that if Silva doesn't get kicked down he has a free run on to the ball.