Rousseau

As with most top German sides, Leipzig are superb at pressing in that compact 4-4-2. We've been OK, but need to be more courageous with the ball, with several opportunities to pass the ball forward being abandoned; Halliday and Tavernier in particular take an absolute age to make up their mind what to do with the ball.

I'm not sure what Batshuayi has to do to start with Costa out -- did he get a few minutes later on for Chelsea?

I try to see the positive in any potential transfer, but I fully concede I may be away with the fairies on this one!

RE Considine: while at first I was more like: [tweet]817888738160345088[/tweet] I actually think this is not a bad option. I doubt he's a first team player, but he could be a good squad player: he's versatile, strong, quick and has a lot experience at this level. Admittedly I've not seen him in a while but I do recall him being a stand-out in earlier Aberdeen teams when he played full-back?

Spain played 4-6-0 when they won the World Cup (maybe the second Euros?). The difference was that they had a philosophy and way of playing attacking football, while Levein played it to defend. Pointless.

That was a good win (more mental than anything) but truly awful football. I wonder what MW could do with those players?

There is nothing wrong with MW and FMcP going after players they have worked with before and know can play the way MW wants; The players to have shown flashes of ability thus far have all come from this source.

I'm disappointed for the lad: He seems to score quite a good few goals at SC-level so I think he deserves a shot at the first-team, with a few appearances here and there. I wonder what MW thinks is missing? He maybe is too lightweight for the role MW wants, but he's still only 19, so it may come.

It just goes to show how laughable these rag stories are: they make up the story that we're interested, only make up another story saying we'll not be getting him? I think I'll just wait until a players signs and arrives at auchinhowie.

Those 'scorpion kicks' seem quite run-of-the-mill now, with Ibrahimovic doing it regularly and now Mkitaryan and Giroud. Bergkamp's was a touch of class, though.

Happy New Year everyone!

Well, I've explained why. We can agree to disagree.

For whom? Hodson? Then we can't attack and would've had a very shaky back-four of Wilson, Hill, Kiernan and Hodson. Tavernier was poor, but it's the best option we had for today's game.

I thought I answered? No. I agree Hodson is a better defender, but not sure he's a better wing-back. Like I said, I think having a back-three with Tavernier at wing-back worked better than Hodson and Tavernier (who was always going to play) in a back-Four.

I must admit, I think having a back-three and Tavernier in the team worked better than a back 4 with Tavernier: Tavernier would've bombed forward leaving Wilson/Kiernan and Hill at the back against their three (assuming Hodson would also play slightly forward at LB), which gives me nightmares.

I don't think it was "by default": I mentioned earlier that Celtic like to change to 3-4-2-1 in-game, so isolating McKay was a decent decision. The manager deserves credit where credit is due, and, of course, vice versa. Playing a natural winger at wing-back has worked wonders for Chelsea. I thought we played OK, but just lack that quality. I think the Manager deserves praise for that. The players need to do better, though.

I think the reason McKay was so good was because he was at wing-back, with space to run into and no direct marker. Pretty sure it's the clueless manager that decided that...

I agree. I think that's where better quality will come in, where we won't be making those silly mistakes.

Nope, but you're often watching another game.

I'm pleasantly annoyed. We played well, but we just lack quality.

I wish we were a little more clinical: we've got at them a few times without it quite coming off. A couple of those wonderful cross-field passes from McKay were frustrating as Tavernier was one-on-one both times, but couldn't control them -- wind, perhaps?

Celtic commonly switch in-game to 3-4-2-1, so it makes sense to have the option to match them. We can revert to our 4-3-3 with Wilson at LB, or Halliday moving there with Kiernan CDM (where I think he has played in the past).

Happy Birthday, Frankie!

My point was that you defined Bergkamp as world-class for doing things only a forward could do. Clearly, there are world-class defenders too. I think a player must must exceptional in their position. In his position Ozil is world-class.

I don't think the goal (conceded) was the difference in performance or anything to do with our heads going down, but from the fact that St Johnstone matched our formation just before they were gifted the goal. We then didn't have the overload in the middle (Miller, Windass, Holt and Halliday were playing against 2 centrally!) for us to play through them. It was a nice twist from the Manager, but I'm disappointed we couldn't make it work after they matched us. Even going back to a 4-3-3 was not a bad move, but our execution was poor. One again though the only attacking "tactic" from our opponents was lumping the ball into the box, which we dealt with very well.