Scottish Cup | Vital Football

Scottish Cup

wee_od_88

Vital Football Hero
Hello folks! My apologies for not being on much over the festive period but a very warm Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you!

We somehow managed a win against Partick Thistle with a last gasp Leigh Griffiths goal at the weekend. Apparently the game was another very dull affair.

Reading some of the news stories today, I read one explanation which actually seems to really make sense actually. We lack nerves, we lack a need to go and win games, the players almost lack fear! The players didn't get going against Thistle until after Bitton was sent off.
The players constantly say they're not worried about Aberdeen because they know they will slip up....and so far it's been true! It's almost as though the player believe that too much and don't feel they need to try so hard to win games! If this is the case, I think it's time the players wake the fuck up and someone needs to put the fear of god into them! Perhaps that's why Lennon was successful, he wouldn't stand for those poor performances and would threaten to drop players if they didn't perform, he'd scare them! That's what the likes of Alex Ferguson would do! It doesn't seem to be Deila's style though, and maybe that's fine for a mid-table club.....but when you're Celtic and you have such high expectations you need to perform and if they players aren't, you can't just calmly say that it's something they need to work on, you need to tell them to get it fixed! :emoticon:13

Our next game is away to Stranraer in the Scottish Cup and we have a number of problems. Griffiths is back from injury, Commons started against Thistle and Forrest had a good game when he came on in the game as well.
Brown is injured, Boyata is injured, how long can Lustig go without a break as he's played the longest run of games without a break since he probably joined the club, Armstrong is injured, Mulgrew is injured, Ciftci was subbed off at half time against Thistle after a poor performance and Bitton's 2 bookings to give him a red card against Thistle could mean he misses the Scottish Cup clash.

I'd go with:

Gordon
Lustig - Ambrose - Simunovic - Tierney
Allan - Johansen - Rogic
Commons - Griffiths - Stokes/McGregor/GMS

Subs: Fasan, Izzy, McGregor, GMS, Cole

It's difficult, we're not playing well but we should be beating Stranraer easily.....so do we use those who need a confidence boost and have something to prove? Don't want to necessarily play all of our first team players because we're struggling with injuries and things already.
Stokes and GMS could be the sort of players who need a game like this to kickstart their seasons. They should be able to play well against Stranraer so should they play?

Normally in the Scottish Cup we only get 5 subs instead of the usual 7 so players like McGregor, Rogic and Stokes who can play more than one position could be vital.
I hope Deila doesn't put players like Cole or Forrest on the bench, if he wants to use them then they need to start. The bench needs to be the flexible players in case someone picks up an injury we didn't expect or if someone is struggling that wasn't expected to be subbed.
 
This 4-4-2 is working nicely, albeit against a lower-league side. Cole is causing them fits. He is a bit clumsy but this is the big player in the box that we have needed.
 
Cole with his first goal! He's worked hard and been scrappy. Deserved for him and the team. 2-0.
 
HT 0-2

Cole's goal has taken a bit of pressure off us as up to that point we were making it difficult for ourselves and had created very few chances.

Not a great pitch tbh and they've not really posed any threat.

Should go on and win this comfortably now.
 
Allan makes up for his gaffe with a great pass to Griffiths who finishes beautifully! 3-0 and onto the next round.
 
Pretty fine performance. It was very relaxed and the 4-4-2 worked quite well. Cole is a force in the box, though a bit clumsy. We still have a tough time breaking down domestic opposition when they sit in the box, but we weren't threatened much either.

Hail Hail!
 
Happy New Year lads! A comfortable win in the end today. I agree that we might life difficult for ourselves at times and if it hadn't been for some fantastic saves from their young keeper, it would have been even more comfortable!
The 4-4-2 worked but I didn't like that Griffiths played the full 90. Don't want him getting injured! Cole got a really good run out, did some things well, some things he could have done better! I feel we could have used someone like Forrest as a striker towards the end and got Griffiths off that pitch since we don't want to use Stokes.

Johansen looked a bit better today! That was a positive for him.
McGregor was good in the first half but did little in the 2nd. Commons did very little all game I felt!

Would have liked to have seen O'Connell get a run out for 15mins or something. He was out on loan this summer but suffered an injury and returned to the club for treatment, it seems he's now back fit and in good time too with Boyata injured! He needs playing time though.
I also thought GMS could have done with a game more than Rogic.

The big disappointment today was the stupid "fans" who felt it necessary to set off flares before the game! We'll get punished again and we DON'T need more excuses to get punished by the SFA!
 
East Kilbride defeated Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale 2-0 last night. That means we will play East Kilbride in the next round of the Scottish Cup on February 7th and the game has been moved from East Kilbride's pitch to Hamilton's New Douglas Park.

Congratulations to East Kilbride and commiserations to LTHV! EK are a part time team while LTHV are a junior team so it would have been a massive game for either of them to get through and face us.
 
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