Arabdownsouth wrote:

smedDUm wrote:

are here on Saturday for the first time in 4 and a half years.
5.30 ko with nae chunt there, will have a surreal feel
last time they were here was 15-Jan-16, a 7.45 ko on a Friday night, att 10,848, presumably live on Sky
we lost 1-4, 1-2 half time, Murray was our scorer, Griffiths(2), Simunovic & Commons theirs
Mixu was manager
starting XI - Kawashima, Dillon, Gunning, Dixon, McGowan, Souttar, Spittal, Rankine, Fraser, Murray, Riski.
subs - Zwick, Donaldson, Spark, Erskine, Paton, Telfer, Dow
they had Armstrong in their line-up, Scott Allan & Ciftci were unused subbies

Thanks be to Arab Archive.
Researching it caused me to shiver

Can only do better?
Nice warm-up they had last night tho.

 
I'd like to think we will put up a damn sight more fight than that pile of shite last night.

Not expecting to win but just a whole hearted tooth and nail performance please and see how it goes. Micky will be expecting a win no doubt 😉

That's what I like about MM. He never talks about the opposition, he just talks about Dundee Utd. He instils a growth mindset in the players - incremental improvement. Why should we not win? There are no points for playing well and losing.
 

We've definitely got a better team than the one that played them the last time.  But not significantly.  They are not as good in my view, although Edouard is some player.  Reynolds and Connolly will have their work cut out there.  We could be doing with Robson and Smith back for this one and I have a feeling MM will go three at the back so Neilson probably gets the gig with Edwards out still.  I really hope Shankland is back and gets the chance to show what he can do.  
All said, to take anything from this in terms of points is unlikely but as long as we compete and don't get a total doing that will be good enough for me.

Our 1st big test upon our return to the Premiership.

I feel Celtic will just have too much for us.

But i'm sure Mickey will have a game plan worked out to try and give us a chance to get a positive result. I think we will probably adopt similiar tactics to the Hibs match and try and suffocate the opposition and essentially spoil the match in an attacking sense whilst trying to take any chances we create ourselves (unlike the Hibs match where we were wasteful in that regard).

I'm hoping we can exploit Greg Taylor and Celtic's left hand side with Luke Bolton's raw pace.

Also hoping Edwards, Robson, L.Smith and Shankland can all be recalled to the 1st team squad to give us plenty of options.

With the English leagues being in close season the eyes of BRITISH football will be upon us on Saturday night to see if Utd are indeed back. 

Our players should relish that opportunity in all honesty. A chance for someone wearing tangerine+black to go and 'be the man' as MM likes to say. A chance to make a name for yourself for these young boys like Appere, Chalmers, Neilson, Harkes, Sporle, Bolton etc.

Arabdownsouth wrote:

Tek wrote:

Our 1st big test upon our return to the Premiership.

I feel Celtic will just have too much for us.

But i'm sure Mickey will have a game plan worked out to try and give us a chance to get a positive result. I think we will probably adopt similiar tactics to the Hibs match and try and suffocate the opposition and essentially spoil the match in an attacking sense whilst trying to take any chances we create ourselves (unlike the Hibs match where we were wasteful in that regard).

I'm hoping we can exploit Greg Taylor and Celtic's left hand side with Luke Bolton's raw pace.

Also hoping Edwards, Robson, L.Smith and Shankland can all be recalled to the 1st team squad to give us plenty of options.

With the English leagues being in close season the eyes of BRITISH football will be upon us on Saturday night to see if Utd are indeed back. 

Our players should relish that opportunity in all honesty. A chance for someone wearing tangerine+black to go and 'be the man' as MM likes to say. A chance to make a name for yourself for these young boys like Appere, Chalmers, Neilson, Harkes, Sporle, Bolton etc.

 
Good Post Tek, but I'd add that Hibs were our first big test 😉

They possibly were but in all honesty i thought they were pretty poor and i still very much regard that game as point/s wasted.

We were probably the better team overall.
 

Were they poor or were we very good at snuffing them out?

I'd say we are a lot more defensive and our skills in locking out nisbet, doige etc al were very good....although I believe that ended in us having too little up front and not creating enough.

Celtic a step up again but mellon sounds like the kind of guy who will have us up for it. Focusing on what we can do rather than what we cant

Last edited by Tangy (20/8/2020 6:42 am)

smedDUm wrote:

Our cheif in post #7 makes a good point re live coverage at 5.30 on Saturday.
Will we ever have played before a larger TV audience? Probably.
And re the Hibs game which still got pains me.
One or two on here are saying Hibs weren't great at all & neither they were but that was down to US.
I still maintain if we'd had another fit player in the 6-yard box a well deserved point was ours. Talking about limping Edwards.
Hibs came with Boyle & Co on fire but they were well doused by us.
Celtic is a bigger kettle of fish but as Tek says a positive response in front of Saturday evening's millions could be interesting.

Aye, the much maligned (by me) Connolly and Reynolds did a good job against Hibs, and the other guys around them too. We deserved better out of that match, without setting the heather on fire ourselves.

But thinking there will be an audience of millions watching on Saturday is fanciful, when the audience for Sky's coverage of the last two cheeks match in December 2019 was officially given by Sky and the SPFL as 1.4 million. That was Sky Sports' biggest ever viewing figure for a Scottish match, and away from these two playing, there's little interest down south.

To the match: from what I recall of Lennon's Celtic sides, they don't like teams who press them but excel against those which sit back and invite them on. Micky so far has had his players working very hard and doing the former, and I hope this continues on Saturday evening. 

TheShed wrote:

What’s the injury updates on Shanks, Robson, Smith and Edwards? Anyone know?

Gut feeling for me is only Robson will be available.

On another match related matter, I see the club's newsletter tonight stating

"No PPV available due to the game being live on Sky Sports"

I'm not sure if that has been a source of much income in the last two home games, but maybe the Hibs game had the same restrictions and I hadn't noticed. However, it annoys me a wee bit that Sky has the power to prevent the club selling their own product.


 

TheShed wrote:

 
Problem being club (through the spfl tv deal) have already sold the product to sky. Hibs game was the same.

Aye, I realise this, but it's just another thing to annoy me with the weighting given to televised football V supporters who attend, emphasised by the present health situation. Sky/BT/PremierSports have too much influence, I think most folk would agree.

About the game tomorrow: quite a few fans have said it's like a 'free hit', and even if we get beaten will be happy with a solid performance. Rather than that, I'd like to fluke it to a win after playing shit, to be honest. 

 

Last edited by PatReilly (21/8/2020 10:59 pm)

I've not missed the bias commentary from Andy walker tho....


Shite like 'if celtic win here they go equal in points with united'- its 0-0

'Thats really poor by bolton'- it was a great shot...just a bit high

'Hes running neilson ragged' - hes went left n right a few times but not go past him.

United doing well enough so far.

Going to be difficult to keep it up for 90 mins

Great workrate throughout but never looked like scoring and kind of felt was only a matter of time before they did.

Benji excellent but should have done better with initial shot at goal.

Defence was mostly solid, Neilson excellent again. Robson also very good.

Midfield worked hard but we lack quality when we have possession.

Chalmers did fine, Bolton very good but should be hitting target at least with that chance.

Clark was good in first half but looked knackered in second.

The subs had to be made but I think they weakened us.

Wee bit frustrating not to nick a point but nothing to get upset about.

Hope Shankland is back soon though, we desperately need quality in the final third.

Seek as phuck we the result, but nae complaints aboot our performance. It was excellent. Pretty p1ssed off we never got a point..

Celtic kept pressing the 2nd half, but they were never inspiring. It was great to see Broon and Lennons pus tripping them for 82 mins.

We're still 5th in the table, albeit we other teams having gehms in hand. Its s no bad position to be at this point in the Season.

I thought we were excellent to a man, special mention for Harkes and May not be everyone's choice but he was my man of the match. He was everywhere and for me is getting better by the game. Definitely going to be a player for us this season.