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Rangers vs Celtic - January 2nd


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100% league record for us in December which is great but Celtic are beginning to show a run of form so Saturday is a tricky match and the consensus of the P&B Bears on the Follow Follow thread  is that a draw will be fine.  I'd accept that.

I'd start with the team which beat St Mirren today:

McGregor
Tavernier - Goldson - Hellander - Barisic
Aribo - Davis - Kamara
Roofe - Morelos - Hagi

The only real debate is if we put Kent in for Ianis but I don't think so.

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I reckon Kent will be a stick on to come back in ahead of Hagi. He often seems to rise to the occasion and generally plays pretty well against Celtic and we will want players to run at that defence of theirs.

I think that a win would see us about 80% over the line in terms of the title so I think we should go into the match with the mindset of aiming to win rather than avoid defeat.

With that being said, I’d also be pretty happy with a draw.

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Kent's pace might see him get in ahead of Hagi. 

Our green n grey pals seem to have got their act together and are getting the wins now, I'd settle for a draw but a win would  give us a ten point lead and a wee bit of breathing space.

 

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I'd hate to be the Rangers analysts tonight, because I've no idea how you could possibly predict what Celtic are going to do.

My gut feeling is that they'll drop Griffiths for Brown and go with McGregor - Turnbull - Christie in front of them. Edouard up top.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Lennon said f*ck it and went with the diamond though.

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1 minute ago, bennett said:

Kent's pace might see him get in ahead of Hagi. 

Our green n grey pals seem to have got their act together and are getting the wins now, I'd settle for a draw but a win would  give us a ten point lead and a wee bit of breathing space.

 

19 points 

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6 minutes ago, G51 said:

I'd hate to be the Rangers analysts tonight, because I've no idea how you could possibly predict what Celtic are going to do.

My gut feeling is that they'll drop Griffiths for Brown and go with McGregor - Turnbull - Christie in front of them. Edouard up top.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if Lennon said f*ck it and went with the diamond though.

That would be meat and drink to us - and I doubt it will happen.

Midfield is the big battle and a huge challenge for Aribo and Kamara.  If they can keep the ball moving forward with pace then Alfie and Roofe will love it.  So will I.

6 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

19 points 

^^^ He's not wrong.

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2 minutes ago, The_Kincardine said:

That would be meat and drink to us - and I doubt it will happen.

Midfield is the big battle and a huge challenge for Aribo and Kamara.  If they can keep the ball moving forward with pace then Alfie and Roofe will love it.  So will I.

^^^ He's not wrong.

I dunno, I kinda think we'd prefer to play the diamond. Gets Tavernier and Barisic on the ball in space, and the way our 10's defend means we're unlikely to be overloaded in the middle.

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8 minutes ago, G51 said:

I dunno, I kinda think we'd prefer to play the diamond. Gets Tavernier and Barisic on the ball in space, and the way our 10's defend means we're unlikely to be overloaded in the middle.

If we change our shape to suit Rangers and go back to a system that doesn’t suit our players a repeat of the earlier result is inevitable.

We have to take this game to Rangers and I think we have to stick with our current shape we need the win, Rangers don’t

Where I see it being a little different is we may play with less offensive fullbacks, possibly Ajer and Taylor or at least 1 of them as I think going with Laxalt and Frimpong leaves way too much room in behind. That decision may be dependent on Juliens injury 

Turnbull is key for us and the biggest question is does he bring in Brown for Soro, which I hope he doesn’t. 

Edited by Jinky67
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unironically going to see what odds you can get on Morelos scoring anytime, have a feeling he'll get a goal.

Not sure why tbqh, not exactly something I'm basing on an in-depth statistical analysis but

i) he doesn't seem to have had any controversy I can really think of recently so he can maybe go into the game a bit calmer, doubly so since it's not akin to prior matches when the league has been tighter or it's a cup knockout (gist maybe that thanks to the points chasm it takes a little bit of the pressure off if he does miss an early chance or something), ii) Julien is probably going to miss out with a knee injury of some sort for Celtic which increases the chances of banter boy Shane Duffy starting and iii) the January window is opening up so if he's got an eye on a move away a good performance and a goal will help him out there.

Maybe even a couple of quid on a Morelos hattrick and all if the odds are mad enough, why not.

Edited by Thistle_do_nicely
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1 minute ago, Jinky67 said:

If we change our shape to suit Rangers and go back to a system that doesn’t suit our players a repeat of the earlier result is inevitable.

We have to take this game to Rangers and I think we have to stick with our current shape we need the win, Rangers don’t

Where I see it being a little different is we may play with less offensive fullbacks, possibly Ajer and Taylor or at least 1 of them as I think going with Laxalt and Frimpong leaves way too much room in behind.

Turnbull is key for us and the biggest question is does he bring in Brown for Soro, which I hope he doesn’t. 

I get that, but it's seriously risky to leave Tavernier and Barisic in space or 1v1. But then Lennon has never shied away from high-risk high-reward tactics has he.

I think the Jullien injury probably makes it difficult to stick Ajer out at RB because you'll be short of CB's. I can't see Lennon going with a CB pairing of Duffy and Bitton (assuming Jullien doesn't make it - not often a player getting stretchered off recovers in 48 hours).

 

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14 minutes ago, G51 said:

I get that, but it's seriously risky to leave Tavernier and Barisic in space or 1v1. But then Lennon has never shied away from high-risk high-reward tactics has he.

I think the Jullien injury probably makes it difficult to stick Ajer out at RB because you'll be short of CB's. I can't see Lennon going with a CB pairing of Duffy and Bitton (assuming Jullien doesn't make it - not often a player getting stretchered off recovers in 48 hours).

 

It’s even riskier to play into Rangers hands by changing shape to something our players clearly aren’t comfortable with, we have to take some sort of risk if to try take 3 points, playing to just stop Rangers would be exactly the wrong way for us to go about it.

As risky as it may be space in behind Barisic will be also there for Frimpong to exploit which puts Goldson and Helander at times 2v2 with Eddie and Griff and with no Jack and Arfield will this allow Turnbull enough space to do what he’s good at and feed balls in behind which neither Goldson or Helander particularly enjoy.

I don’t see Ajer at right back at all to be fair, it’s more likely we see Taylor come in which suits me as Frimpong seems to be finding some form and more importantly finding a final ball.

It’s an intriguing match and one I’m looking forward to which isn’t how I expected to feel considering where we are or how our season has been going.

 

 

Edited by Jinky67
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6 minutes ago, Jinky67 said:

It’s even riskier to play into Rangers hands by changing shape to something our players clearly aren’t comfortable with, we have to take some sort of risk if to try take 3 points, playing to just stop Rangers would be exactly the wrong way for us to go about it.

As risky as it may be space in behind Barisic will be also there for Frimpong to exploit which puts Goldson and Helander at times 2v2 with Eddie and Griff and with no Jack and Arfield will this allow Turnbull enough space to do what he’s good at and feed balls in behind which neither Goldson or Helander particularly enjoy.

I don’t see Ajer at right back at all to be fair, it’s more likely we see Taylor come in which suits me as Frimpong seems to be finding some form and more importantly finding a final ball.

It’s an intriguing match and one I’m looking forward to which isn’t how I expected to feel considering where we are or how our season has been going.

 

 

I get that. It's not an easy decision to make at all, but if you play the diamond and lose that could cause all kinds of problems too. The last time a team came out in a diamond against Rangers (IIRC) was Willem II in the qualifiers, and they took a total bodying and the game ended up 4-0. Obviously Celtic are a better side than Willem II, but it was a good matchup for us.

Funnily enough I was thinking about the balls in behind and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw Balogun instead for this reason.

I could see Rangers doing what we did last OF where we basically doubled Frimpong and forced Celtic down their left. I'm not overly concerned about Greg Taylor crossing balls in tbh. I am concerned about Frimpong getting a run into space.

You're right, it's a very intriguing match. Lots to think about from a tactical perspective - this is where the managers and staff need to earn their money.

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14 minutes ago, G51 said:

I get that. It's not an easy decision to make at all, but if you play the diamond and lose that could cause all kinds of problems too. The last time a team came out in a diamond against Rangers (IIRC) was Willem II in the qualifiers, and they took a total bodying and the game ended up 4-0. Obviously Celtic are a better side than Willem II, but it was a good matchup for us.

Funnily enough I was thinking about the balls in behind and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw Balogun instead for this reason.

I could see Rangers doing what we did last OF where we basically doubled Frimpong and forced Celtic down their left. I'm not overly concerned about Greg Taylor crossing balls in tbh. I am concerned about Frimpong getting a run into space.

You're right, it's a very intriguing match. Lots to think about from a tactical perspective - this is where the managers and staff need to earn their money.

I would only expect us to transition into a diamond when we have the ball and going to a more narrow 442 when out of possession and doing what Rangers did as you say to Frimpong and us doubling up on Tav especially with Taylor and McGregor and Christie providing some cover and support for Frimpong on the other side.

 

 

 

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