St. Mirren average about 6,800 per home game - and they had a higher attendance for Heats, Aberdeen and Dundee Utd than Celtic this season.
The big difference is that St. Mirren got £2.27m from the SPFL last season.
Super goal yesterday, quick feet to avoid the tackle and make space followed by a perfect finish. Hit the post/bar early in second half with a header and drew a couple of good saves too. Some good layoffs too. Really solid game from him albeit against a poor side totally dominated by Celtic.
I think Idah has only just recently started to look confident and fluent with his game, it's taken a long time for him to get warmed up this season.
Decided to watch Celtic v Hibs this afternoon for my sins. Watched Idah pass up three great scoring opportunities, two fresh air swipes and a free shot from six yards out hit straight at the keeper. Did at least "assist" a goal - he flicked on a corner that a Hibs player then turned into his own goal. Scales missed a great chance as well.
One of the Idah chances was a sitter alright, the attempted backheel flick in front of an open goal. The one that came over his shoulder was difficult to execute I think.
For his chance I think Scales showed as good a degree of technical competence as you could expect from a defender in that situation - a good first touch and a good connection, but it was a good block by the keeper whose proximity made him favourite in that position imho.
Overall Scales and Trusty played a very aggressive high line that got burst a few times only to be bailed out by Schmeichel. Not sure if you’d be critical of either in particular but collectively the back four / deep CM unit got caught out badly a few times. They’d get killed doing that in Europe.
Interesting 20 mins or so from Idah last night. He got involved early, a few nice touches and layoffs. Then he played a routine pass to Forrest straight into touch. Then he had a back post header that I think he should have scored from but I think it was blocked by the keeper (or defender?) at Zagreb' near post. Then a dreadful failure to hold the ball up led straight to a Zagreb counter attack from which they missed their best chance of the match, a header saved by Schmeichel. Then on around 87 mins(?) Forrest beat his man and drilled in a low cross that Idah seemed certain to tap in only for a brilliant intervention by a Zagreb defender. Replays showed the pass was maybe a couple of feet too far behind the 6 yard line but it looked for all the world that Idah would score only for the defender to cut it out.
Will be interesting to see if he gets the start in the cup final on Sunday. One of his big things last season was that he did a lot of damage in the Glasgow Derby games, so whether or not he starts this one will maybe give us an idea of how Rogers sees him at present.
He sees him on the bench. All £9 million of him.Originally Posted by Eirambler
Go Coillte Mach rachad / ní stopfaidh me choíche /
Go seasfaidh mé síos / i lár Chondae Mhaigh Eo.
Still very much a work in progress it feels. Starting to fill out even more, his stature a bit more apparent out there now. But have to say, he needs to work on his overall game. For his size his hold up play doesn’t seem good enough. But even with his technical limitations, you can see he’s a threat with his combination of (relative) speed and strength — in a couple of years he could be a very good player but he must develop further.
Yep, doesn't get the start today either.
Scored his pen in the shootout, but he was otherwise pretty useless today. Always looks like he has great natural attributes and so much potential to build on, but it hasn't happened yet. Celtic spent £9m on him in the summer and let Vata go for nothing, will be interesting to see how those decisions look in a few years time.
I don't think Celtic let Vata go for nothing, did they? He just wouldn't renew and it appeared as though he was concerned about path to the first team. Maybe they should have paved a path given how he is going but there could have been impatience on the player's side?
Yeah he wouldn't renew so they lost him for 0. But if they backed him with decent first team game time instead of leaving him in the Lowland League he'd most likely have stayed. It became a bit of chicken and egg in the end with Celtic leaving him out of the first team squad until he signed a long term contract with them, when the best way to keep him would have been to do the exact opposite. Awful way to do business with a developing young player.
Dock lost to Liverpool as well , 2 decent young wide players
No goals in six games for him now this month. Not good considering the level he's playing at. One last chance to break his duck on Sunday if he gets a run out.
Anyone know how he did today with his 20 minute cameo?
Another blank for him today at home to bottom side St Johnstone to round off a dry December in front of goal. Seven games, no goals. Really needs to be doing a lot better against that standard of opposition to keep himself in contention for further Ireland caps.
Five touches in that time per whoscored. Maeda came off the bench at the same time, had 19 touches and scored.
Five touches in 25 minutes suggests he was very peripherally involved. Or it may have been the way Rodgers had things set up; I don't know. But he does seem to struggle to really impact a match and get involved.
But ultimately, he's played as many league games as in his loan spell (15), and actually started more (6 v 5) though with slightly fewer minutes (582 v 607) - and has 5 goals compared to 8 last season.
Nothing a good run of form won't fix...but that good run of form doesn't look like happening at the moment.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 29/12/2024 at 6:30 PM.
I feel like he's a player that we've tried to play into becoming an international player, 29 caps is a lot relative to what he has achieved at club level. I'm not writing him off by any means, because he has a lot of good attributes - height, pace etc., but my own view is that it's up to him to earn his way into the team from now on rather than being handed caps the way he has been up to now. There's a good few others ahead of him at the moment based on his 29 caps so far, and they're playing in stronger leagues than he is too.
Idah about to come on. 63 mins. Celtic really poor. Rangers are really on it tbf.
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