Danny 9 Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 Cast your minds back to MON's era at the Meccanodome. There are many things we remember about that time, but one of the ones which sticks out is that almost 90% of his domestic dominance was due to his Celtic team being downright STRONG. The average team he had was: Douglas, Valgaeren, Mjallby, Balde, Lennon, Petrov, Larsson, Sutton, Hartson...you get the picture. Essentially it was a very strong team with presence all over the park. There is only one, maybe two flair players there; Larsson for sure and arguably Petrov. This setup won Celtic a lot, and a major complaint on our side is that our team was swept aside by brutal strength - we couldn't compete because we didn't have the same power. Switch over now to the modern day; our team employs Cuellar, Papac, McCulloch, Cousin, Boyd, Thomson, JCD. Much more strength. So we've addressed the presence issue, to a degree. But we're not exactly running away with the SPL. So while Smith has made us stronger, it's not had the overnight effect MON did when he carried out the same thing. Is this because circumstances are now different to what they were a few years ago, or is it because that Celtic team had more than just brute power and Henrik Larsson? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Brown Brogue Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 They also went out and regularly hammered teams by 4 or 5 goals, something we seem utterly incapable of doing. This may have been down to Larsson, but Sutton and Hartson cost a lot of money and always scored 20 odd goals a season. Celtic also took advantage of their physical dominance by scoring a great deal of their goals from set-pieces, especially against us. To take advantage of a physical presence though you need to be capable of putting in a decent delivery, something they managed with Thomson, Moravcik, Petrov etc. Until we have a player/players who are capable of regularly delivering a decent ball into the box we could have a team of Peter Crouch's and it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ibroxblue 122 Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 O'Neill spent a shedload of money when he arrived and was fortunate to inherit Larsshole. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briton 394 Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 Cast your minds back to MON's era at the Meccanodome. There are many things we remember about that time, but one of the ones which sticks out is that almost 90% of his domestic dominance was due to his Celtic team being downright STRONG. Well I argue about him having dominance, as I have with Celtic fans. Dominance is more than winning slightly more than your opponents, surely? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillinger 0 Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 Celtic were much more aggressive under O'Neil then the current Rangers side. O'Neil's tactics were coarse and route one but it high effective because their midfield was more mobile and able to get into supporting positions. They had at least four players at one time that could deliver a decent ball into the box. There was also a significant airel threat from just about every player in that team. Our midfield is anything but mobile and our forward(s) struggle to score goals. As for dead balls, sorry but they are a joke. Walter has a lot of work to do this January if we are serious about the Title (and I am). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waddell 0 Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 Oneill team at thier peak would piss all over our current team atm that is just the truth . hartson , larsson , sutton in attack. mjallby etc in the defence.. we have a long way to go and wont ever have that kind of quality especially in todays game with money .. unless we unearth such talents. imo you couldnt buy a larsson atm.. and sutton was an exceptional player aswell. larsson helped them out many times to be fair and is the only world class talent to have graced the spl for many years now. no wonder they where succesfull. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
disgruntled_bear 157 Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 Oneill team would piss all over our current team atm that is jus the truth . hutton , larsson , sutton in attack. mjallby etc in the defence.. we have a long way to go and wont ever have that knd of quality. imo you couldnt buy a larsson atm. larsson helped them out many times to be fair and is the only wolrd class talent to have graced the spl for many years now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waddell 0 Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 Oneill team would piss all over our current team atm that is jus the truth . hutton , larsson , sutton in attack. mjallby etc in the defence.. we have a long way to go and wont ever have that knd of quality. imo you couldnt buy a larsson atm. larsson helped them out many times to be fair and is the only wolrd class talent to have graced the spl for many years now. is the truth tho , make no mistake the current celtic team are a bad lot, but the fact is i dont think we are that much better. certainly from what ive seen. plenty work needed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craigy 0 Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 Oneill team would piss all over our current team atm that is jus the truth . hutton , larsson , sutton in attack. mjallby etc in the defence.. we have a long way to go and wont ever have that knd of quality. imo you couldnt buy a larsson atm. larsson helped them out many times to be fair and is the only wolrd class talent to have graced the spl for many years now. is the truth tho , make no mistake the current celtic team are a bad lot, but the fact is i dont think we are that much better. certainly from what ive seen. plenty work needed. Tim alert Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dillinger 0 Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 Oneill team at thier peak would piss all over our current team atm that is just the truth . hartson , larsson , sutton in attack. mjallby etc in the defence.. we have a long way to go and wont ever have that kind of quality especially in todays game with money .. unless we unearth such talents. imo you couldnt buy a larsson atm.. and sutton was an exceptional player aswell. larsson helped them out many times to be fair and is the only world class talent to have graced the spl for many years now. no wonder they where succesfull. Give Walter's attiutude to youth players, we'll be lucky to unearth any kind of talent. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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