24 Sep 2021 00:35:03
I think Ange found himself between a rock and a hard place, when it came to the fitness of the Celtic players.
He's had to push them to their limits to get them fit, especially with the performance they put in against Midtjylland in Extra Time.
It was brilliant for a couple of weeks when Celtic were playing some of the best football I've seen in 40 years.
But now the players are dropping like flies.
It was concerning when Calmac got injured because of his playing history.
I had a feeling there would be a few more behind Calmac.
To be fair Rogic and Turnbull look fitter and are playing more minutes on the pitch.
Maybe the new Sports Science guy can help going forward.
24 Sep 2021 06:35:50
I think with the football ange wants to play it’s imperative we get more players in at Xmas, it’s a similar style to Spurs under pochetino, it looks great for a while then the team hit a wall where they are asked to do so much running. Leeds are a like it as well under bielsa, similar to how they were romping the championship then dramatically dropped off. The only plus for us is that quite a few have missed a chunk of the season already so shouldn’t get burn out later.
24 Sep 2021 09:25:31
It makes sense that there would be a reaction to upping fitness and playing style from what the squad was apparently used to, but bringing in unfit and unready players certainly adds to the problem. The squad is stretched to it's limit at present and the appointment of the Sports Science guy maybe should have been made earlier, as it's possible with 3 games a week there could be more 'casualties'?
As the January window is a long way away, I wondered if we had considered any out-of-contract players, but the budget may be spent?