The February derby at Celtic Park was a wonderful, raucous, pedal-to-the-metal, under the lights night for Celtic. Postecoglou’s new Celtic tore into Van Bronckhorst’s reigning Champions from the first minute and had established a 3-0 lead by half time. More importantly, Celtic had been utterly dominant playing the style of football the Australian espouses. By … [continue reading]
The Rangers
Another Country
If a week is a long time in football, last August seems lifetimes away. Context to August Derby The first Derby of the season was Postecoglou’s 11th match in charge. This was also the trickiest part of his reign so far. Immediate exit from the Champions League and a first match SPFL loss at Heart … [continue reading]
Random Willie
So, it is Willie Collum who will be the Man in Black for the crucial April Derby at Ibrox. Collum has refereed 16 SPFL top flight matches this season, the most alongside Madden and Walsh. This is his 5th Celtic match and 4th match adjudicating The Rangers. He was appointed to their 5-0 home win … [continue reading]
Who Has Striking Edge In Title Race?
As the title race reaches the final laps, let’s look at the comparative creative and goal threat across the squads to see who may have the firepower to secure the crown. I have used Opta data for this analysis and it relates only the SPFL Premier matches. The method will be to compare each position … [continue reading]
Juranovic’s Debut
Croatian right back Juranovic made his Celtic debut at left back in the recent Derby. He became the latest new recruit thrown in with barely a training session, and in a position he has populated 5 times in over 200 appearances (Transfermarkt). Such expediency has been thrust upon Postecoglou due to the enormous challenge to … [continue reading]
Starfelt Must Avoid The Duffy Trap
The signing of Duffy will become a case study for years to come on how not to assess, sign and then deploy a player with out reference to the structures and systems he will interact with. Starfelt’s Start Swedish centre back was flung on against Heat of Midlothian, made an error leading to a goal … [continue reading]
“Angeball” Stymied by Ghosts of the Past
When Postecoglou was first appointed my main concern was that the “playing football to please my dad” schtick was code for the type of football Tommy Burns’ Celtic played that would ultimately crash against an expensive rock of defensive anti-football. Prior to Celtic’s Derby defeat, I wrote the same in the Celtic Way and expressed … [continue reading]
Derby Defeat – Initial Hope Trumped
The good news is Celtic’s performance levels were much improved on the last three derbies. The bad news was a loss and the almost certain surrender of the ten in a row. The points raised here are expanded on the in the latest edition of The Huddle Breakdown. Please subscribe / watch / listen and … [continue reading]
Derby Chess Series
By James Dailey The pandemic shutdown prevented supporters from having the opportunity to witness the next chapter in the season-long tactical chess match between Neil Lennon and Steven Gerrard. I recently analyzed The Rangers under Gerrard in this recent piece, while this analysis is focused upon this season’s derbies. As a refresher, this data shows … [continue reading]
The Dubai Myth?
By James Dailey Today’s installment continues my “campaign” against 10 in a row complacency. Much has been made of this past season’s winter break, “what happened in Dubai” for Celtic and The Rangers, and the subsequent 13-point lead. Various narratives about winning mentality by Celtic have emerged, so I decided to analyze things from an … [continue reading]