SPL Discussion

eirebhoy

It seems nearly every club has their own thread so I'm feeling a bit left out. I just wanted to reply to redspiders post in the Aston Villa thread so I decided to open up a thread for SPL chat.

redspider wrote:

Off-topic perhaps, but ....
What does this move mean for Celtic? It certainly is good news for McGeady who should get more games perhaps, which is good news for Ireland international matches. But Petrov will be missed at Celtic, and is he really replaced?

I dont know if it was already discussed on this forum but Celtic seemed to be badly missing players up front. Vennegoor-of-Hesselink will help fill that gap to some extent.

I think Celtic are as strong in midfield as they've been in a long time. Graveson and Jarosik will most likely be the first choice midfield now. Even though Graveson isn't really a holding midfielder I'm sure he'll be given that role at Celtic. Jarosik is basically Petrov's replacement.

The competition for places on the wings is excellent. atm Nakamura and McGeady are playing there. Maloney still has come back from injury so it'll be interesting to see what happens. Nakamura as had a couple of poor games recently (confidence imo) but he's still the best player at Celtic and Strachan won't drop/rest him for more than 1 or 2 games. McGeady is on fire atm and has been Celtic's best player in the last 3 games. He's guaranteed his place on current form. Then there's Riordan. He scored 20 goals for Hibs last season but Strachan see's him as a winger. He won't be happy to sit on the bench either.

I wouldn't worry about the strikers. Hesselink and Zurawski are 1st choice. Beattie and Miller as backup with plenty of midfielders that can play there too. If I was Strachan I'd play a 4-3-3/4-5-1 system.

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Boruc

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Wilson

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Balde

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Caldwell

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Naylor

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Jarosik

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Nakamura

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Gravesen

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McGeady

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Maloney

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Vennegoor of Hesselink

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Nakamura is certainly at his best in a central free role. McGeady and Maloney can support Hesselink (he's used to it playing with Farfan and Kone at PSV). Graveson and Jarosik will both get stuck in and are also good on the ball. There's plenty of goals in that team.

It's the best transfer window that I can remember. It's not often Celtic get to attract Chelsea, PSV and Real Madrid players. What's amazing is that 8 of those players were signed by Strachan and the total fee was just £11-12m.

kinaldo

Celtic or Rangers to win the SPL and both of them to flop in Europe. Just my two cents