This coming weekend, Celtic travel along the road to play against Motherwell. Traditionally, as fans, we view this as a difficult place to go and it is.
We usually have a tough game and often it’s a close result but since their current manager took over, we have had a pretty good record against them.
Yes, we have a bigger match coming up on Tuesday night so for me, I will be happy with a draw from the match. Yes it’s a top of the table clash but do Motherwell really have the mindset combined with ability to go all the way and push for a top of the table league finish? To be completely honest, I don’t think so.
When Sevco were drawn to play against Motherwell in the cup, I immediately thought that Motherwell had no chance of a win in that match.Why is that some readers may be wondering?
The reason for my, with the benefit of hindsight, entirely justified guess was that their record is an absolute disgrace against Rangers. Given that most folk seem to think that Rangers and Sevco are the same club, I made the assumption that their record would be equally poor against Sevco too.
Andrew Stuart Murray McCall to give him his full name took over the Motherwell job on the 30th December 2010. Since then, his team have played against us 7 times. Of these games, Motherwell have one victory and six losses. In total, Celtic have scored 17 goals and conceded three.
Against Rangers and Sevco, his record is even worse. I am reliably informed they have had played against them eight times, drew once, lost seven and conceded 23 goals. When I say reliably informed, I mean that I copied the information from someone without actually researching it myself.
So combined, McCall’s Motherwell have played against Celtic, Rangers and Sevco a total of 15 times and only have one victory, one draw and 13 defeats to show for it.
If you also have a look at his record in Europe, it’s pretty grim too, out at the first stage this season and I have to say it was quite a convincing defeat. The point that I am getting at is that I am not so sure that McCall is able to play against teams whom are deemed to be the better or favorite team before the match.
I don’t know if it’s a question of tactics or if it’s a question of nerve or a question of the level of ability of this players. I don’t actually care what the reason is either but I sincerely hope that our players will be fighting to get a start against Spartak Moscow. If they are, they should be on the top of their game. If they are, then there’s nothing to say that we can’t beat them.
It’s this poor record that is making me dismiss Motherwell as serious title contenders.
Of course, these words might come back to haunt me but the point I am making really is that with such a poor record against the perceived bigger teams, I think we should go there with confidence.
Moving on to the European match, just three days after the Motherwell game, we have a bit of a trek across the continent to Russia. Thankfully, the weather shouldn’t be too cold yet over there so it’s not as if we have to spend a day or two to adjust to the climate. The average for October in Moscow is approximately 6 degrees.
The next thing to consider is fatigue for the players. At this stage of the season, we shouldn’t be tired and I am sure the squad will be travelling either first or business class meaning that they will be able to get a good rest on the flight.
With our record in Europe under Neil Lennon, we shouldn’t have to worry about this silly away day hoodoo that some people like to remind us about.
So far, so good really. The only thing that we have to worry about now is the opposition. Of course that’s a fairly big factor. I have to admit that I don’t know a great deal about the Russian team, outwith Aiden McGeady. Will he be fired up to show his old club and fans what we are missing? I’d think so and given that he’s a professional sportsman, I can’t fault him for that.
Apart from Aiden, we don’t know a great deal about the opposition, although, I’m sure that the scouts and coaching staff at Celtic will. In general, the Russian league is one of the more financially better off leagues of the world so I’d expect a lot of expensive and competent players to be facing us.
Going back to the Motherwell game, if we leave there with a point and we do the same versus Moscow, I think we can say it’s been a productive two games.
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Motherwell! As that’s our next game!
In a word. NO ! There is a 20 point cushion in the SPL to play with. Our support needs to move away from the mindset of having to win every game. We can drop 2 points every 2-3 weeks and still come out on top. Giving our youngsters experience, building our team for the future and obviously doing as well as we can in Europe is the priority. Points from the SPL can be made up, they cant in Europe, if we don’t get anything from Moscow any chance 2nd spot is gone.
Hail Hail.
I agree with the previous comment, though I’d be happy to finish 3rd and its important that we prevent them from winning three points. Best going to Moscow now than in a couple of months when it will be freezing. Hope to have Sami back for Tuesday and a solid midfield with Ledley along with Brown and Wanyama and perhaps Kayal, though both he and Ledley lack matches. Only Commons or Forrest can play , not the both of them.
I have to be honest…
We shouldn’t be remotely worried about Murderwell…
We should hump them…
However..for discussion purposes….
There is no doubt in my mind that Moscow is miles more important than Motherwell…for a variety of obvious reasons.
So if the result goes against us on Saturday( It won’t)…we have plenty time to recover.
We don’t have that luxury in the CL.
one word NO!! the league will take care of itself. Murderwell and that f*d McCall will not even finish second.
Not that Moscow is the be all and end all either….I think we have what it take’s to get a result in Moscow but
I’d prefer we finished 3rd for the simple reason I think we could do some damage in the Europa this year and we will be seeded going into the knockouts.
Celtic are starting to look good again this season. Twice we have dropped points this season in the league and the opposition have failed to capitalise…beat M/well and win our game in hand and we’re cruising.
It’s maybe if’s and but’s, but I don’t see us not winning the league this year…in fact I think we’ll piss it dreadfully.
Next season’s qualifiers for the Champions league is what this years group stage is all about.
HH 1NL YNWA
I wouldn’t risk any of our top bhoys against Motherwell, we dont need any fresh injuries . We’ll romp the SPL this season .
I think Motherwell is the most important game – (a) it’s the next one and we should ONLY be looking at the next game & (b) It’s our bread & butter. No way should we be thinking we will romp away with the title anyway so it doesn’t matter. You can’t turn it on & off at will. We need to start a winning run, winning breeds confidence.
I’ve no worries at all in giving some of the younger players more game time – it’s some of the more experienced players I worry about.
Europe – I’ll enjoy it as long as it lasts, no pretensions about making any real impact on the tourney. Just trying to compete in the group right now. 3rd would be a bonus even more so after dropping points to Benfica. Moscow will be formidable though although they have a poor home record in Europe (Read it was 1 win in 12) ?
No worries about travel / fatigue…players won’t be travelling economy…tiredness – They are pro’s asked to play 90 mins twice a week.
Motherwell always make it hard for us, we have to match them for fight / desire and workrate then we can outplay them…then take the performance on & up a notch or three for Moscow.
Following on from their ‘light’ training session on Wednesday night at Ibrox Motherwell will be up for the fight as they always are against Celtic. They won’t be jumping out of tackles like they did against sevco. Motherwell will be going for it all guns blazing and it could be dangerous for our top players. Better to let the young lads loose and give them more game time.
The kickfest will be brutal on Saturday after murderwell’s diabolical performance last night, remember they “only kick when it’s Celtic”
motherwell is our next game an that is the only game we should be focusing on!
Thus far we haven’t shown in any of our game’s barring Inverness, that we are good enough to open up a 10/15pt gap b4 Xmas .. Think we need to push on from sat against Motherwell get 3pts an once the game is over, then start to think champions lge!!
Strongest side available for sat..players like sammy,kayal,ledley an ambrose need game time..lets get the bread n butter out the way, then worry about spartak think all the afore mentioned will have a part to play in that match .. HH
Our next game is always the biggest game. This is Celtic ! To me Raith was a massive game ! We can only compete in the champions league if we win our own league ! So for me one game at a time ! ! Hail Hail