09 Jul 2025 10:45:17
Maeda in paradise . re summers he is normally a cm but in the two preseason games so far he's played wide left . I thought he looked decent . most of the forward thinking clever passes came from him he linked up well with Kenny and inamura his movement and positioning was good . yes he looked a bit short of pace ( but so would Bobby Lennox after seeing maeda play ) also young Donovan (17 I think) ) the RB scored the winner . yes he did get caught out a couple times but I think he also played well .
09 Jul 2025 11:31:27
DRB, yep he scored but imo neither looked close to first team ready. Their right back wasn't the quickest and he never got round him once. It was Inamura who made the telling passes.
09 Jul 2025 11:44:11
No don't look first team ready just thought they played better than you thought?.
09 Jul 2025 11:57:56
I thought Maeda did his best work through the middle, because although he still puts in a double shift in chasing and covering, he looked to have lost that injection of pace and rarely passed his full back when he was played out wide.
09 Jul 2025 16:26:03
DRB, maybe your right, maybe I am being harsh and just expecting more. I just thought that as this was their shop window to the boss, I might have seen more creativity, drive and ball control.
It may have been a solid surface but quite a few players stuggled to control the ball and took heavy touches.
I really want some of our youngsters to get a chance but it is a difficult environment to thrive in, especially when we need first team level squad to get us through CL qualifiers and through the groups.
It us difficult to give these youngsters a chance.
09 Jul 2025 19:37:24
Maedainparadise Remember this was their 2nd preseason friendly where players only played 45 mins and not even at full pace as manager and coaches were worried about hamstrings calf strains etc as although they were working hard in double training sessions these training sessions were arranged to try to avoid injuries.
Furthermore the players have done very little ball work and don’t have anything like the ball control that they have to have built up before season starts . It would be. Very fool hearted for any youngster to try dribbling past opponent with his current poor control . Certainly BR wouldn’t be looking for that . BR will expect creativity drive and ball control as we near the season KO, if youngsters are not getting much first team action then, he will certainly see them in the many in house matches that everyone will be playing.
10 Jul 2025 06:55:51
Dessie, I get that but the issue for them now is that the rest of the squad will start playing in the pre season games to get match fit for the qualifier, so their chances to impress will get less.
Sadly for our young players, 1 maybe 2 a season get an opportunity to join the first team squad, from what I saw last season and so far, there are no real standouts at this time that I can genuinly see breaking through and making an impact.
I genuinely hope I am wrong.
Imo, the biggest issue we have is that when there are players with potential, they get snapped up as they don't see a route/ pathway to first team football, and that could be due to poor advice or our model of buying cheap and selling high.
10 Jul 2025 19:26:39
They get snapped up because greedy agents push them into believing there is a dual carriageway leading to a Motorway to first team football, all the time earning more money than they can get even at Celtic in Scotland
The one thing the agent doesn’t tell the young starlet on the road to success in England or continent that without exceptional hard work and proper top athletic lifestyle, the wrong turn at the fork of the road brings most to the lower Scottish leagues teamb.