buster.

It's about what team he thinks is better equipped to do a collective job, facing this specific challenge. It's not just about who is playing well. ie. Kent will start #NoSentiment

Saturday (Celtic) is huge and is about killing any chance of a change in momentum at what is traditionally a pivotal time. We win, we reach camp 2. We lose, we go back to base camp approach.

That's what we've been doing of late. Enough good players getting 6 out of 10's to be able to maintain winning run against provincial clubs. As you say, we need the average to go up on Saturday to 7 or so with a couple of 8´s and even a 9. At the moment, Kamara is the glue.

There was talk of odds in another thread. Any chance of getting a price for a Place bet on this League? 1. Dado 2. Rousseau

Hats off to the team for getting over the Paisley defeat and putting together 3 more league wins on the bounce. If we were only at K2 Base Camp 2/3 weeks ago, now after the December fixtures negotiated successfully, we've reached Camp 1 (of 4) on the way up to the summit. It's possible to get to Camp 2 in just 90 minutes but it is the most difficult part of the climb and the weather is unpredictable. As others have suggested, we are going to have to up performance levels on Saturday from what we've been producing in recent weeks, in what has in the main been a league performance blip (rather than results). When it comes to defending, we are missing Ryan Jack but haven't really been punished as yet. I think we have to go for the throat, look to take the initiative early, rather than the now customary slow start that builds into a head of steam 15-20 minutes in. If we allow them to take the initiative, they have the players to take advantage and I think we would struggle to turn it round. SG&Co have had their fingers burnt in this fixture when taking a conservative approach. He'll know what we have to do and it'll be down to the players to go to the well once again and put in one of those performance levels you reach, only a few times a season. Difficult to overstate the importance of this game.

20/21 textbook first half - relatively slow start - start to get into game and score between 15-30mins - add second before HT 20/21 textbook 2nd half - 3rd goal between 45-60mins - then start the subs 60+ A third of our league goals have been scored in a 1/6 part of the game (15-30) Taking penalties off, Roofe is now topscorer in the league.

I think you can slow down a tadge but still actively look to score, a sudden push down on the accelerator on a counter attack as opposition have little option but to go for it if two down. Change slow for intelligent. If it goes well, we also have to bear in mind not uneccessarily overloading players re. Saturdays game. All that said, I'd grab a 0-1 victory if offered, like a dug aboot beetroot.

Alfredo merits his start and I think is ready and certainly well over due, to step up a gear or three. Good move to offload Kent. Bench has a goalkeeper, 3 defenders, only 1 midfielder and 4 forwards. Bit light in the middle, thought Dickson might be on bench. Has Balogun ever played defensive midfield ? I reckon they'll have an early go at us, trying to get a goal before we settle and start to impose our game on them. Best counter would be to start quickly out of the traps and get the early goal ourselves. Concentrate lads and remember, don't stick on one goal. Don't slowdown until we get two in front. Nerves kicking in and I'm just watching !

He is obviously keeping the goalscoring for Saturday !

His 30 minutes at the w/e point to someone who has regained sharpness that given the chance may mean goals.

Thanks for reminding me. I was organising the day thinking it an evening KO !! ______ I posted this earlier this morning, but given this is now the ra offiiiiiiicial matchday thread, it's better here. As far as SG&Co are concerned they'll have to weigh-up the players available, the loading and current physical state of each, the requirements for the two games in a spell of 4 days and the subsequent week free from a game. The main question or risk is in the midfield where if we are to be without Arfield and Jack, then we can do without an injury tonight but it looks like we'll need to start the same three in both games. The focus being on if Steve Davis will be able to maintain a physical level to be able to play at someone near his best come Saturday. He is already coming off three games in 8 days where he completed 90, 77 and 90 minutes. The last time Davis started on the bench was at Paisley in the League Cup. Zungu is the other main option and he started that game. Unless carrying some slight knock/niggle, I'd imagine Davis will start tonight and SG will hope to be able to get him off the park at some pint in the second half. Whilst on the midfield, I have always liked the look of the young lad Dickson, from that Alkass Cup win to his debut at Falkirk recently. All around Europe we are seeing very young players coming through quickly at big clubs. If you are good enough, you are old enough. Another question arises about Alfredo Morelos and for tonight, it's a positive one. He played his best half hour for months against Hibs. Does Roofe get offloaded, does he get shifted out wide or does Morelos start on the bench ? My guess is Morelos for Hagi will be the only change from Saturday.

No longer pay much attention to the EPL but a glance at the scorelines is suffice to see some crazy results and a degree of unpredictability coming back into it this season. Maybe, it is worthy of a little time although it'll have to wait until the title is decided in Scotland.

moved to match thread.

I repeat points win prizes and Celtic, under Lennon or anyone else have a squad capable of going on a long winning run against provincial opposition. If you add that to three points at Ibrox, it becomes ominous. Now is the time.....We really need to go out and look for the win that would put further daylight between us and them. I think they'll turn up (performance wise) on Saturday and that we'll need to be at our best. Can see both teams scoring more than one goal.

The return of Ryan Jack doesn't sound like being anytime soon. Zungu is very much going to have to play his part this season.

Perhaps I'm not a man of modern times but more often than not, struggle to see the Com part of the modern SitCom. I once heard Cosgrove say a programme called Two Doors Down was Scotlands best ever comedy. I hadn't seen it but made a point of looking it out and it reminded me of Off the Ball, in that every episode/programme is very, very similar. Cowan and Cosgrove explain the repetitiive conversations away as a feature, tropes of the show. Then BBC Scotland gave them an extra hour and a half after Saturday Sportsound to let them repeat the repetitions, this being to replace what was a much more interesting hour hosted by Kenny MacIntrye that often got into the nitty gritty of issues. In the week that Jim McLean passed on after suffering with dementia. Could BBC Scotland look to lessen the repetition and stimulate the mind? ps. I look forward to reading the scripts #"A Life of Slice"

Cheap or expensive,...... the important aspect for me is consistency in awarding them. Never has been, never will be.......perhaps the 22nd version of VAR might get closer.

I'm struggling to see any positive spin from a defeat. We are in the territory where Ponts win Prizes, the rest is decoration.

I fully agree but has been and what can happen when the stakes seem to get higher, can differ. Our discipline has been very much the understated improvement that I think helps reflect the concentrated focus the management team and players have employed this season. As you say, it's up to us, don't give them a decision to make.

Nowt much left to say about Jim McLean after what was an excellent read and tribute from JMc. I was based up in Arbroath for a few years in the 80's and along with some of the lads nipped down to Dundee to watch quite a few European ties that included some on the way to that European Cup semi-final. Great atmospheres and excellent football, a time when some provincial clubs could play a bit. Ferguson (Aberdeen) and McLean (Dundee Utd) demonstrated where exceptional management could take a football club. Their teams did more in Europe over several seasons than Rangers or Celtic did in two decades from 73 to 92. I'll certainly raise a glass to Jim McLean and what he brought to the party.

and -red cards to Rangers' players. IIRC an in-form Kenny Miller missed a New Year OF fixture after a midweek red card against Peter Houston's Dundee Utd side (we won the match 7-1). In the previous OF fixture that season, Miller had scored both Rangers goal in a 2-1 victory at Ibrox. This was a decade or so ago and the OF fixture played on the 3rd of January finished 1-1, with two goals deep into the second half (79 and 81 mins). For some, Lee McCulloch's headed equaliser may have felt like a tribute to the 66. IMO, that season was to shape many things that were to come down the line but that is another story and nowt to do with odds.

Both exploit your imagination.

I'd imagine the next few days will see the odds on Celtic shortening as many neutrals, as well as their support, see value in that price. ie. next Friday might well show a truer reflection of the here and now. Personally I think it's more 11/10 for us and 15/8 them. This season has saw us being favourites to win away in Europe against the likes of Liege and Lech. Unusual, but the bookies were proven to be right, so when they make us odds-on after conceding one goal at Ibrox in 10/10 league victories, there is obvious reason to why. Thereafter, the money put down may alter odds.

The audacity in that appointment was only matched in our inability to bring wider public attention to why it was unsuitable.

Wide areas have tended to be our source of joy, whether it be in creation or defence but I think you are spot-on with how things are developing, defensively. I'd add that opposition seem to be tentatively developing counter measures against the freedoms enjoyed by Tav and Borna in the first half of the season. If we look at league fixtures, Ryan Jack last played on the 22nd of November against Aberdeen. For me, there is no doubt that he and Connor Goldson are the most important parts of our defensive efforts when you take into account the way we play as a whole. In other words, I think Jacks continued absence can be illustrated with your cumulative point on cross balls into our box. The last two league games have produced clean sheets but we could easily have conceded and dropped points against Hibs. We didn't, and that is in itself an encouraging sign but as you say, you don't want to keep crossing your fingers and looking to defy the law of averages.