And yet he ends the night as the Celtic hero. Penalty taker for one of the two Glasgow teams must be one of the best jobs in world football, a seemingly endless series of opportunities to take a free shot at the opposition goal.
I expect he'll score a good few goals between now and May, a few from open play and a lot from pens.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
Fairly mixed reviews on the Celtic forum in fairness - general (but not unanimous) view is he wasn't great outside the penalties, but they're glad to have someone who can score a penalty at least
It absolutely beats sitting on the bench, sure
Celtic being woeful shouldn't justify him missing good chances in fairness!
The lad is there 5 mins and has 2 goals and an assist. It's a fine start, room for improvement but you'd swear reading some lads on here that he might as well retire.
And yes he missed some chances, strikers do that sometimes, but overall his movements and positioning were quite good... and showed massive balls to slot home winning pen.
Last edited by Razors left peg; 07/02/2024 at 10:07 PM.
Its really not that complicated!!!
Hopefully he can get an extended run whereby he scores penalties, provides assists and has a good all around influence on games and eventually he might improve his composure and technique for finishing non penalty chances.
Perfectly clear which post. The competition winner one. Nonsense from a poster who's fluent in it.
He missed plenty tonight, I thought he offered little in open play & got very different headlines due to two penalties, which he had the balls to take & take well. Celtic created an assembly line of chances & he missed all of them, I counted five, some were could have done better some were had to score ones. But he was the reason they got out of jail also & that's the bottom line on it.
Last edited by CraftyToePoke; 08/02/2024 at 5:23 AM.
Stephen Kenny Saviour, Leader, Winner, An Autobiography - In All Good Bookstores Now
I'll agree with that one, sure. Though RLP spoke of more than one post/poster
I think at times people here (and there I go doing it now...) try to blow up one extreme view into a wider-held firm view when actually a post like that one is best ignored imo. And blanket defence posts are very similar I think
Last edited by pineapple stu; 08/02/2024 at 7:29 AM.
I remember four, one saved by Marshall where he should have lifted it, one saved by Marshall's feet with a decent effort but he was later flagged offside, one blasted onto the bar (had to score) but again offside and the worst was a total fluff from 8 yards from a lovely low sqaure ball across the box. That was the one that annoyed me the most, a great chance at a crucial time of the game. Scoring it would have really announced his arrival. Instead it planted doubts.
I say "annoyed" because I was praying for him to get a good start and create his own momentum. The penalties probably did that in the end, but he and everyone else knows that they don't show the whole picture.
Harsh assessment but he'll have more chances soon and it's early days.
People are hopeful because he played premier league football quite young. Injuries have disrupted his development, and yes he may well not amount to more than you say, but I don't see any reason to write him off yet. If he has an injury-free semester with Celtic now, and plays regularly, it'll be an opportunity for him to show what he can do.
It's also that he has some great attributes for a centre forward. He's tall, he's quick and he has a decent touch. He absolutely hasn't put it all together yet, and he may never do, but there's another possibility which is that by 24 or 25 things click for him, he learns how to use his speed, size and strength to best effect and he becomes a genuinely top level striker as a result.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
So he needs more time. Idah has made 166 senior appearances for Norwich and has 22 international caps. Next week he faces St Mirren, followed by Kilmarnock. It'll all come together but he needs more time.
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