St. Johnstone Review | Rangers Preview

[@tobagostreetpolicestationc561]

‘The Crowd are revolting’ You’re telling me!

[@marknugent9851]

🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮😜

[@benjaminlynch9958]

Great pod, as always guys (and gal!). You wouldn’t have known this when it was recorded, but Tavernier is now out a few weeks. Their back line is an absolute mess. One Propper center back, and the emergency CB they’ve been relying on is now their only fit RB. They’re going to have to do one of the following on Thursday: 1) put Sterling back at RB and put Leon King in at CB 😃, 2) keep Sterling at CB and put Adam Devine at RB 😃, or 3) put both of their fit LB on at once (Yilmaz & Jefte) and play one of them out on the right with Sterling continuing in CB. There are no good options for them - just a collection of really unenviable choices. I’ll be surprised if Celtic don’t score at least 4-5 with that makeshift backline. The other thing which you guys touched on at the end is the state of the Rangers’ fans at the moment. I haven’t seen their fans this despondent in my lifetime. This feels like a tinderbox ready to go up in flames, and it could be a very toxic atmosphere for Rangers players (rather than Celtic) if Celtic go up early or get a 2 goal lead. This is not the game to bed in a youth / B-team player at the heart of your defense, but Clement has no choice because of injuries. This has the potential to snowball out of control if their players don’t respond well to the inevitable abuse that’s going to come their way when Celtic score. Lastly, you didn’t mention it, but might we see a surprise in the lineup on Thursday with the transfer window opening on Wednesday? If Tierney is motivated to return this window, there’s no reason why that deal can’t or won’t happen on Wednesday morning… and less likely, though possible, there’s been murmurs of Jota coming back. I think both of these guys could be thrust into action (KT for a start; Jota probably from the bench) if the deals are finalized tomorrow.

[@frankbrennan1619]

Happy New Year & all that & I just wish I could get all interested in what's happening, or not happening doon Ibrokes way & who Clementine picks, or doesn't pick, to start with on Thursday, or how 50,000 zombies are going to react, or not react, as events unfold over the 90 minutes & so now to what I really am interested in & all this very silly talk aboot the noo sadly, completely injury prone, now in his 28th year Tierney, returning to Celtic Park & for me most hopefully, all the Gods in Heaven combine to ensure that such a happening is just a complete non starter for all sorts of reasons & the same with Jota too, leave their respective pasts at Celtic Park where they now ONLY should ever be, in the past....

[@McChill67]

😂Laura looking much more settled in after her transfer to the huddle breakdown and now firing on all cylinders, the Khun of the Celtic podcast world. Some great one liners and acting as the translator for the Data geek lingo. Great podcast.

[@johnsteel9781]

Parked the bus in the wrong place - excellent Laura😂

[@JohnCl]

I have a theory that James is actually from Easterhoose and Alan and James live together like Oscar and Felix in the Odd Couple. Not sure who is Walter Matthau and who is Jack Lemmon?

[@henrydale8783]

Hey! Hey! When you're looking for a podcast..one pops up!! That'll do me...

[@bhoy67cfc97]

Excelent chat,L ooking forward to going through 2025 listening to you peeps, HAIL HAIL 🍀💚🍀

[@Michael19841]

Yang strikes me as a player who has very little experience of playing football from a young age therefore he isn’t streetwise and lacks game intelligence. He’s been here a long time, won’t get any better despite top level coaching and needs to be moved on. Keeping players for no apparent reason is like a fetish gone awry.

[@bhoy67cfc97]

My biggest concern for Thursdays game is injuries to our players

[@mahaishraja5449]

great chat , the only charitable verb i could use , is that all fans are eccentric , and they turn faster than milk left out in the midday sun. not a rational mind amongst the lot of them , present company excepted ;) clement will press the mid 5 of celtic but by how much . the problems that creates for him containing celtics transition on khuns flank will be interesting. if rangers are going to get picked off in general play it will be on khuns flank, so does clement sit back to keep shape and deny space . first law of pressing , the harder you press the less time you have to react defensively against quality , rangers could consider themselves unlucky in the league cup final , variance went celtics way 3 goals to 1 . celtic the beneficiary of one penalty not given , one deflection from a shot outside the box, and one defensive error which maeda pounced on, rangers the beneficiary of a taylor howler, bajrami, hagi and cerny get rangers closer to celtics level , net xg home and away form suggest a rangers win , if they turn up, home and away goal diff predicting a very tight contest with celtic having a net 2 goal advantage . the bookies have rangers at 33% win probability , celtic at 45%, which i think is mis priced , rangers should be slight favorites followed by a draw based on the xg data

[@frankbrennan1619]

Well for sure & I said the same immediately post match of the League Cup Final, that it really could have gone either way & of course, the extra time penalty they never got & if they had done & scored, that surely wid have been the Cup Final winner & so then they would be pulsatingly Ibrokes buoyant going into this particular Glasgow derby with the full expectation of the 50,000 present on Thursday that Clementine wid once more mark Wee Callum oot of the game, but they didn't win the Cup & went from nine points behinds to noo fourteen points behind & so their expectations for Thursday are noo understandably on the Ibrokes flair & if they manage to get a draw, they'll celebrate as if they'd won the Champions League....

[@kevinmckenna7261]

Merry Christmas and Happy New year guys. HH and have a blast in 2025

[@Lupi33z]

new opening music reminds me of second season of 70's TV action shows when they're bigger and better

[@Derryglas1]

Welcome back Laura. Enda is ok but not as good as the real thing haha. Happy new year

[@seamusmckenna-y2h]

Gonna be like Aberdeen semi. BR saw what they did in 2 2 game and adjusted. He knows what Rangers will try to do. Always learning. 5 0 Celtic

[@Justashambles]

Embarrassing

[@seamusmckenna-y2h]

Big diff was because Calmac didn’t start. It confused St Johnstone. They didn’t know what midfielder to man mark. And when engels starts to beef up a bit, he’s gonna be a hell of a player.

[@frankbrennan1619]

Does £11 million Engels really NEED to ''beef up a bit?''

[@J.D.1.]

​@@frankbrennan1619He does yes. Physical strength definitely needs improving still.

[@frankbrennan1619]

@@J.D.1. When £11 million Engels walks into Lennoxtown every day, I'm almost completely certain that one of the very last things oor current Manager is thinking is that his £11 million ''statement'' signing NEEDS to improve his physical strength, but instead more of a case of thinking of the late great Tommy Docherty & his comment to a certain player that ''you only lack one thing as a footballer son & that's ability'' & as I've said on previous occasions, we've already had one footballing Damascene conversion with Kuhn & it really is asking too much to have a second one with £11 million Engels & no matter how much oor current Manger NEEDs his ''statement'' signing to be doing far, far, better than he is.

[@jamesdaly4040]

The eye test is that Celtic will win. But we have to take into consideration fan pressure, so they have a chance. If both teams play to their best Celtic win. Add referees to the mix it's a score draw with a penalty to ranjers.

[@frankbrennan1619]

For me, the 50,000 ''fan pressure'' at the home of The Forces Of Darkness & Evil or the ''fan pressure'' of 60,000 at Celtic Park has proved to be blown oot of all proportion & so only adds even more substance to the fact that fans just DON'T win games, players on the park do, BUT what can & did happen most vividly in one particular instance, was when we beat them 1-0 at Ibrokes with a make shift Liam Scales type defence & we beat them NOT because of 50,000 Huns baying fur oor Fenian blood, but rather these 50,000 basically turned on their ain after ONLY twenty minutes or so because of both Mickey The Mole's inane ''tactics'' & how inept their players were & something of the same could happen with Clementine on Thursday

[@Anna-fp3bk]

Yang reminds me of a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing. He spins and twirls and pirouettes and it looks very pretty. Unfortunately he then gives the ball away or falls over or something.

[@frankbrennan1619]

I would have Chris McCausland oot on the left before Yang ANY day of the Strictly Come Dancing week....

[@jamesdaly4040]

Enjoy Laura, but there are no score predictions. 1-1

[@keynoteFlyer]

I thought Yang was definitely better on the left . If his delivery can be improved he might be useful.

[@frankbrennan1619]

I've also said the same aboot my postman, but to date his delivery has failed to improve....

[@keynoteFlyer]

@ 😂

[@tunnakeech1702]

i hope celtic do not HAND OUT THE CIGARS B4 THE START OF THE GAME ......

[@Dargonhalfchest]

3-0 😂😂😂

[@John-qy9nw]

Yang and Valle linked up very well down the left. Hatate benefited greatly by having players to pass and move with. Anyone who still thinks Greg Taylor is the better left back must change their mind after this. I am a better left back than Taylor and I am not even left footed.

[@Dargonhalfchest]

You are too much

[@marknugent9851]

Happy new year! HH

[@frankbrennan1619]

Indeed & yet another domestic Treble for the world famous Celtic Football Club & also a second domestic Invincible season that oor current Manager should also be delivering of us....

[@marknugent9851]

@@frankbrennan1619 Happy 2025 Frank :D HH

[@frankbrennan1619]

@@marknugent9851 And a healthy, safe & peaceful 2025 to you & all yours Mark & as for Ibrokes this afternoon, I just can't see us losing no matter what Clementine & his players do or don't do, but that is NOT to say it won't be hard and/or difficult, of course it will be in whatever shape or form they make it hard and/or difficult for us & there is the small matter too of them having to throw in at the Ibrokes deep end, someone going by the name of Liam Kelly for his Glasgow derby debut & whatever we think or don't think aboot him, for sure, something very serious went wrong in the childhood of someone calling himself Liam Kelly & him noo running out at Ibrokes to play in goal for the zombies.....

[@marknugent9851]

@@frankbrennan1619 😂