SENTINELCELTS

Morning,all.

Well,we have given it our best shot at the top table,but have ultimately come up short after four games of the six. In these,I think we can count ourselves unfortunate not to have been in a healthy lead at half time against Real,and doubly so that Luka Modric came out in the second half and gave us all a display of quite breathtaking football. Sometimes.our ground can intimidate the opposition-too often,it seems to inspire them.

In Warsaw,we came up against a young but very confident and driven Shakhtar. Their country is at war and they played as if all the pride and aspiration of their nation was carried in their shirts that night. Again though,we had the chances to win the game comfortably,but they were a side who were happy to go gung-ho and play the game with a carefree abandon. It was a terrific match,but while the draw may have been considered a fair result,there could have been few complaints had we taken the three points. In their next “home” match in Warsaw,they were unfortunate not to beat Real,so these players are no-one’s fools.

Leipzig went into R3 at home to us on the back of two previous defeats,to Shakhtar at home and then in Madrid. Their domestic form was also poor by their standards,and once again we took the game to the opposition. Missing CCV,we soon lost CalMac too to a bad injury when they hit us on the break. Hitting us on the break became a pattern over the two legs as they played around our press and put us under heavy pressure in much of the 180 minutes.

I felt we came up short in Germany but that the game could have gone either way in Glasgow-until it went theirs late on in the second half. Small margins,but that is our European campaign over for this season. Down among the big boys,but far from down and out. We can hold our heads high-and concentrate now on the domestic campaign.

Beginning with a home match against Hibs. They are currently lying third in the table,a clear improvement on last season already under new head coach,Lee Johnson. Johnson is a fairly decent coach of some repute in the sub-EPL layers of English football,and the addition of the talents and experience of David Marshall and the returning Martin Boyle,as well as some younger though already established players like Ryan Porteous,have given him the foundations to build on.

Their run of four successive victories came to a shuddering halt in midweek at Tannadice,so they will be smarting somewhat about that one,but really,while there are no guarantees in football,we should be looking at the three points here.

There are of course some caveats involved though. CalMac,as we know,is out till at least post-World Cup. There is still no sign of Starfelt even returning to training-although he is being capably deputised by Jenz-no updates on Jota and we lost Abada in midweek. Additionally,I still feel that our forward line in particular is misfiring,and we are still playing a number of players through a poor run of form.

Sometimes,this works. Sometimes it saps the player’s confidence even further. “My manager has faith in me,but I’m making things worse.” So,what to do,how to deal with these absences through injury? How to deal with certain players struggling for form?

We could just say-bugger it-and go out and do what we do best. But we haven’t been doing that for a good few weeks now. The team is set up to play a certain way,and when some of our front six aren’t cutting it,it soon becomes a difficult watch and a difficult ninety minutes for the rest of the side. Play breaks down,the fans and players get frustrated and our defence is under heavier pressure than they are sometimes capable of withstanding.

On the other hand,I agree with Ange-that these players haven’t become bad players overnight,eventually everything will click and we are back in the groove. I genuinely believe that is all it will take to get our mojo back-just finding it! Light the blue touchpaper and stand back!

Is tomorrow when it all comes flooding back,everything clicks back into place? Well,I can’t answer that. Only the players can answer that. And they won’t know either until all of a sudden they find themselves back to doing what comes naturally-and that it works!

Even though we have had a difficult month,we still have that clear advantage at the top of the table. When we get the football flowing again as we had previously,we can all relax-the players included. Tomorrow is as good a day as any to make a start on that.

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Above article by BMCUWP