The first half to day was immense and that fourth goal was brillaint all round. I can' think of a better 45minutes under Strachan, can any of you? Plus what was the difference today from other weeks?

Marc Crosas had a very good game today. If I was a gambling man I'd put my money on him being the changer today.

Bad news for you lot, is that he will have to give up his place come Wednesday, for McGeady + Nakamura.

Thats the best 45 minutes I have seen this season I think Crosas could be immense he looked on a different planet in the first half.
It will be a big job keeping him.

He was great in the first half, but fell away in the second. Hopefully that will stop when he gets more games.

What about Brown? Thought the was great today.

McManus needs to learn how to play like Caldwell.

Don't know that I've seen the fans that happy since the wee man took over, first half was a joy to watch, even if we'd taken the few chances to make it 5 before well scored, w lost our way second half, and Motherwell were the better team second. I'm hoping that he's decided to put out his team and we are seeing tyhe revolutionary team set up under Strachan...Caddis in, Loovens and "others" for xmas
All in all a great afternoons entertainment

Beyemystic will be in the huff.

If it wasn't for Motherwell's second half goals giving him some ammo he would be having an episode right now.

Good football today for 50 mins. Defence is still shite at defending. good going forward. Crosas looked good but tired quite easily. Strachan will go back to his usual for wednesday though

Thought we were excellent today in the 1st half. I think for the most part McManus has been good for us but Loovens now deserves a shot alongside Caldwell.

Brown, Robson, Maloney and Crosas were standouts today and also signs that Skippy was getting his first touch back.

I don't see why having 12 players would be bad news.

I don't understand that point anyhow looking forward to Wednesday game Pretty sure it's going to be a difficult game, I'd like what Strachan did yesterday with the team, more please.

He said the bad news for Celtic fans was that Crosas would be replaced by McGeady & Nakamura.

Anyway, the game on Wednesday is must-win for Celtic. McGeady will obviously return, probably in place of McDonald and I also expect Hinkel to replace Wilson and Hartley to come in for Crosas. I think Nakamura might have to make do with a place on the bench though.

I'm no expert but when you leave out two sand-dancers like TRAITORBhoy and Nakamura and play much better it tells you something important

Yup that the team has an amazing midfield.

I'd put McGeady in for Crosas on Wednesday night.

Somone said Robson was a stand out? Though he had a relatively quiet game compared to his usual standards.

I said when Robson came on V our home defeat agsint Motherwell that he should be made Captain, he came in after our league defeat against Rangers and our cup exit V dons...we never lost a game after that.

He played the captains role again IMO V Motherwell on Sat....he should be Captain of our team, he's doing teh job now

5-0 v Motherwell 3 years ago was the best Celtic have played under Strachan.

I have a terrible memory, but the first 45 on sat was "the beautiful game"

Killie away in the cup last year, especially the first half was close to this performance.

Agreed Robson should be captain but I don't think he done much yesterday.

The full 90 minutes of the 5-0 game was like that. I think Motherwell had one shot on goal in the game if I mind right.

Taking into account the opposition, the best performance under Strachan was the 3-0 drubbing of Benfica. Artmedia aside, probably the only time we have comfortably won a European game under him.

The first half on Saturday was superb, with Samaras being a particular stand out for me. Special mention to Crosas as well who came in and performed admirably. The second half we were back to our usual. McManus shouldn’t be anywhere near the starting XI far less actually captain us. Loovens can surely be no worse.

I'd love Strachan to keep up with this adventurous behaviour by doing exactly that, plus add Caddis, if it goes pear shape then it goes pear shape

Caddis needs to be brought into the team asap. Quite why Strachan is reluctant to play him god only knows. I fear his career could be damaged if things continue as is.

I was stunned when I seen the team V Motherwell, so so unlike the wee man to do that in the time he's been here, I hope he says fukk it and decides some more changes, the game V Motherwell was the best value for money for a long time, if he gets it wrong then he gets it wrong.

Understatement of the year?

One swallow does not make a summer, bhoys.

Even under John Barnes we occasionally dished out these sort of pummellings.

It shouldn't be allowed to paper over the cracks (in fact, yearning chasms) which still plague the team.

Who would Celtic fans have as their starting 11, out of interest?

I'd say Samaras and Maloney should be regular starters, but who do you take out? Celtic can definitely play counter attacking football a lot better without Hesselink slowing you down.

Caddis should probably start ahead of Hinkel, from what my Celtic supporting friends tell me, but I very rarely make the effort to watch Celtic.

As things stand:

Boruc

Caddis
Balde
O’Dea or the untried Loovens
Naylor

McGeady
Brown
Crosas
Robson

Maloney

Samaras

Put Caldwell in for Balde and what ^^ said

I agree with everyone so far, we were exceptional during the 1st half on saturday, i can see us hammering the Danes tomorrow too.

My team would be:

Boruc

Hinkel
Caldwell
O'Dea
Naylor

Brown
Robson
Crosas
McGeady

Maloney

Samaras

on paper it looks a fantastic attack minded team, so lets see what the gord does with them tommorrow.

I'm getting worried noo I think they'll give us a game

Oh no doubt they will do but let’s face it, this is the easiest team on paper we have ever faced in the group stages of the CL, a team struggling at the bottom half of the table alongside a team that Queen of the South nearly won through against in the UEFA Cup.

No doubt we'll beat them at CP but fold embarrassingly away from home. As per usual.

I would start.

Artur.

Caddis...But it will prob be Wilson/Hinkel.
Caldwell
Loovens....But it will be Mick.
Naylor

McGeady
Robson
Brown
Maloney

Samaras
McDonald

Indeed, this season is the perfect opportunity to lay that to rest. The chances of that will no doubt be slim. If we don’t set our stall out for a damage limitations exercise then we will probably capitulate early doors.

The wins over Porto and Feyenord are an improvement even though they were only friendlies, if Strach goes 4-5-1 with Samaras upfront we could well win away to Allborg.

Meaningless bounce games are irrelevant I’m afraid.


Who knows. When Aalborg away comes round, we may as I suspect, be playing them for 3rd spot.

I don't know why you must rate Villareal so much. They finished 2nd ( was it?) in La Liga last year, in a season were every team done nothing but drop points. Real Madrid who won were trying their hardest to give it away and Barcelona were mince. This pre season they have been shocking and it has continued into their league form were they have been diabolical. A draw or defeat in first game and a 1-0 win in the second.

I don’t necessarily rate them so much. I am looking at things primarily from our perspective. Still, I am amazed at how easily you seem to be brushing aside them finishing 2nd.



Quite why you think pre-season bounce games hold any credibility is beyond me, especially when you all but discard them finishing 2nd last season.




Yeah, 4 points out of 6 really is diabolical!

Were have I said they hold credibility? I said their poor performances have continued into their league form. Thats the fact, not how their results were in pre season.

If you have read reports, seen highlights etc you would have seen how bad they are. I would go as far to say they were worse than we played against St Mirren in their first game.

I'm pretty sure that Strachan will not underestimate Aalborg, we need to be at the top of our game

I hope so. I have a bad feeling that this team will batter us at the start and aslong as we don't conced we will get a victory.

You see FC Cluj tonight!?

Cluj, lol.

2-1 in Rome Adds a wee nervousness about tonight too, maybe a timely reminder about a supposedly "relatively" easy game... I'm sure Aaborg see tonight as their easiest away .

Well done to Clij...must be nice being one of their supporters this morning

What do you suppose the chasms want?

His point is valid in terms of lots of Celtic fans who will want Strachan sacked dependent on how we perform this season

You seem keen to mention these meaningless bounce games therefore I came to the conclusion that you must hold them in some regard which I find strange.



You never mentioned anything about ‘poor performances’, instead saying they were shocking and then talking about how this continued into their league form. I took form, in this football speak, to mean results clearly.



If they are playing as poor as we did against St Mirren and at the same time beating Deportivio who the previous week disposed of royal madrid, then it really doesn’t augur well for us. If that’s what they can achieve when they are shocking and diabolical, I hope we don’t meet them when they put in good to excellent performances.

How many times did you see them in pre-season by the way?