20 Sep 2016 13:00:30
does anyone else think that we should go back to the first team we had last year as they played ghreat together and bring on the players we bought when they are ready to fit into that style of play.
for me we where miles better last season and that's not because of the league we played in, its because they where a tight nit squad even when we played the so called better teams we played them off the park.
20 Sep 2016 13:21:33
Can't go back, we must evolve and move forward.
For a start the team last year burned out and limped over the line. Barley won a game after the semi final. More than that the team was playing at a Lower level against weaker opponents.
Already it is clear that many bof the players that looked quality at the lower level are struggling to make the step up.
The manager also clearly didn't have confidence that the group was good enough- otherwise why sign 11 players. Look at hearts the season before, they signed virtually a new team- they just managed to integrate them quicker and more successfully.
I still maintain that Warburton made a massive error on his recruitment. If we had kept the core of the team from last season and added 2-3 players of real quality then I think we would be in a much better place. Instead of diluting the money we had on 11 players the cash could have got us the quality centre half and striker we still don't have.
There is a worrying lack of both short term and long term strategy at the club both on and off the field. Without a coherent strategy of clever investment instead of short term fixes and panic buys we will never catch Celtic.
For example this window, quality central defender and a striker. The next window more quality in midfield. The next look at further strengthening defence and midfield and so on . I simply don't see this kind of plan in operation.
20 Sep 2016 13:40:39
I think we are playing the majority from last year james but we need to be integrating our useful summer signings i. e windass, rossiter, garner as they are better than the alternatives we had in the team last year.
20 Sep 2016 14:09:21
James, if only it were that simple! Several of last year's crew were loanees, others have quite rightly gone to pastures new, gone away on loan again or even disappeared completely (Templeton) or in my view no longer deserve a starting place (Kiernan) or showing no real form and lucky to be starting (Wallace) . They may have been a tight knit bunch but in reality there are only 7 ofthat group of players still at the club so we would have to integrate a whole new group anyway. They are well paid professional footballers and many haven't played much together yet which seems to be our biggest problem but surely if MW wants them to play in a 433 (whether you agree that is how we should play or not) they should have the skills/ ability to adapt to it or else they shouldn't be playing.
20 Sep 2016 14:49:58
The players we bought were all improvements. We can't just have added 2-3 players because the squad was so thin on the ground. We needed major investment and players like Windass, Niko (when fit), Rossiter and Garner are big improvements and Dodoo, Senderos, Crooks, Gilks, Barton and Hodson have gave us a lot more strength in depth. Its a long season and we really. needed quantity as well as quality. I am sad about the start we have made but things will click.
20 Sep 2016 15:16:57
Honest Ger,
Whilst you definitely have a point about concentrating our financial resources better I wonder how that would have worked out in practice. Of the squad of 19/ 20 or so from last year 4 were loanees, should we have replaced them with other loans? 5 were paid off or released -do you think we should have kept any of them? 3 are younger lads who've gone out on loan again-should they have stayed in the current squad? That's 12 players in total and whilst some our signings have added limited or no value so far I don't think that just 2 even better quality signings would have been enough. I do accept that some of the signings have been motivated by the short term and almost certainly misguided view that we could win this league at the first time of asking.
20 Sep 2016 15:20:30
got to say I love warbs and his style of play last year but he made a rookie mistake imo,
he signed a lot of midfielders two of which (barton and niko) are too old to play in a 4-3-3 .
the only area that really worried fans last year was defence and it was clear for everyone to see that we needed two ne cb's senderos is very slow clint hill moves at jogging pace and hodson is back up for one of our best players .
that is not what we needed we needed 1 maybe two front players 2 midfielders maybe three to bolster the squad .
but a good manager should know to
A) build from the back
B) strengthen your weakest area first.
by not having a strong defence there is a lack of confidence in the attack and rightfully so.
20 Sep 2016 15:45:39
So james stirling by using your rational thinking A+B haven't happened so warburton isn't a good manager as he has acheived neither? But you still love him?
20 Sep 2016 15:50:49
Barcelona aren't great at the back, have all their managers been bad? all of mourinhos teams are brilliant at the back does that mean he's the best in the world?
20 Sep 2016 17:39:33
Cee
I wouldn't compare us to Barcelona in any shape or form.
20 Sep 2016 19:41:11
Take your head out the sand cee comparing us to Barcelona they can score 6 a game that's the difference.
20 Sep 2016 19:13:48
Cee, Barcelona can play that way against ANYONE in the world and believe they will beat them. Your team and celtic for that matter can't play that way all the time as its ok for domestic games as both may dominate most games.
Go into Europe and that cannot be the case so u MUST have a different way to play.