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***Official Celtic vs. Heart of Midlothian matchday thread***


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3 hours ago, No Idle Talk said:

 

The big man has his faults but I would start him before I'd start Boyce tomorrow night. Either Ginnelly or Gnanduillet at centre forward for me. If it's Gnanduillet then play Ginnelly and McKay alongside him in the 'front three'. 

 

We are going to spend most of tomorrow evening defending our own eighteen yard box. Which means we need one of two things up front. We either need a player up front who can hold up the ball until our midfield can get up the pitch to link up. Or we need to have enough pace up front that we can counter attack on Celtic and really hurt them when we do it. Liam Boyce fits neither of these criteria.

 

There will be plenty other matches where Boyce is our best option up front. But tomorrow night we need to be looking at other options. 


If you don’t think Boyce can’t do the first bit in bold but think Nando can then I would be questioning how much of either you have seen. 

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3 hours ago, flem said:

Anyone know of any supporters busses going through to Glasgow tomorrow night with space for 3 people?

Yes, DM for details pal 

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Big pitch , so we will set up defensively , allow them all the possession whilst hoping to hit them on the break or we play a high press game match them in midfield and get forward at every opportunity ... no chance this is happening 

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I have a total fear we will go full Robbie Neilson:

 

Possession - 23%

Shots on target - 0

Shots off target - 1

Corners - 0

Bookings - 6

Red Cards - 1

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On 29/11/2021 at 18:36, GinRummy said:

Unless we are playing three in the middle, I agree,  it’s Haring over McEneff in this one. 

I think haring devlin and mceneff will start.

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 I'm right up for this.  Fighting fit and raring to go.  On the telly here so that's great.

 

Key word for our boys.

 

BELIEVE.

 

You're good players.  You can do it.

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Celtic have lost 3 games this year .... we've lost 2.

 

I don't understand all the negative comments. This game is ours to lose.  Celtic are the ones who should be concerned. The pressure is all on them after the Sevco win at Fester Road.

 

C'mon the Hearts!  Git intae them!!!  :HeartsMandance:

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45 minutes ago, i8hibsh said:

Sadly this is going to be 'the usual' through there. Just can't stomach it. 

It may limit our ability to do some things but he should look at his squad and decide who’s got the guts for this game tonight.  
 

We can’t be hesitant, we need to be proactive with our minds fresh and sharp.  Too often we look a yard off the pace as we get too concerned about conceding space.  

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What I dont get on here is that if we set up defensively and cave in, people are not happy and calling for RN to have a go at them. Now Robbie is saying we will have a go at them (with one of our best teams for years) and people are saying he should shut up shop. It's maybe time for us to have some faith in the professionals (i.e. they know more about football than we do, PS: and are also true Jambo's) leading our team day in day out and be happy that there is sufficient confidence and ability in the squad to be able to get to Glasgow and get in their faces. We might not win, but then no one really expects that anyway, so then we may as well try and who knows!

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We started tentatively against St Mirren at home (as we do in most games) so there’s no way we’re taking the game to them. It will take luck and and an off night from Celtic for us to have any chance.

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1 minute ago, Cut The Crap said:

We started tentatively against St Mirren at home (as we do in most games) so there’s no way we’re taking the game to them. It will take luck and and an off night from Celtic for us to have any chance.

It's usually the case that we need them to have an off night and us to be at our best to get a result. Since the Dundee United game we haven't looked great. No idea how they are playing tbh.

 

I am pleased RN says he wants us to have a go but I am a bit worried about service to our front three (if we set up like we normally do).

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Tom Hardy’s Dug

Bizarrely of the two matches this season against Celtic we had more possession in the game at Celtic - couldn’t believe that stat myself.

 

I don’t envy Robbie trying to put the “right” team out tonight to be honest.

 

If we have trained all for-season and played all season in 3-4-3 then it is mental to not continue in that formation IMO as the players won’t be set to do so.


That being said I think we could tweak that basic formation to 3-5-2 without players having to readjust too much. I do think numbers in midfield is more important to us getting a positive result than having all the numbers in defence - I don’t really know who would be the best players for that formation but preferably not Halliday.

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20 minutes ago, TexasAndy said:

I quite like having an uglies away fixture during the week, keeps it away from ruining a weekend.  

Ibrox never ruined mine. 

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1 hour ago, sim said:

What I dont get on here is that if we set up defensively and cave in, people are not happy and calling for RN to have a go at them. Now Robbie is saying we will have a go at them (with one of our best teams for years) and people are saying he should shut up shop. It's maybe time for us to have some faith in the professionals (i.e. they know more about football than we do, PS: and are also true Jambo's) leading our team day in day out and be happy that there is sufficient confidence and ability in the squad to be able to get to Glasgow and get in their faces. We might not win, but then no one really expects that anyway, so then we may as well try and who knows!

You're kinda right you know.  It's more complicated than we think - not just the tactics etc, but how it's viewed by the likes of us fans!

 

Bit wanky this but the game is a living organism and the coaches can prepare all they want and even tell the boys to go out and press and play progressively but if they shrink, they shrink.  The LC game against Celtic and the away game at Ibrox, the home team played exceptionally well from the off and we looked shell shocked.  I didn't see players who'd been told to sit in and put 10 behind the ball, I saw players who were being overrun and not thinking straight.

 

Coaching comes 100% in to that to have your players truly believing they can beat anyone, but that's a different side of things to the formation or tactics (or linked but you know what I mean).

 

If multi-million pound squad of players are on their game and going at it, we simply might need to hang on in there and need a bit of luck.  The attitude needs to be to still get in their faces and when we get the ball, be calm, be quick and support eachother.  No hiding.  No hiding at all.

 

For me, we perhaps do need another man in midfield, but I don't see that as defensive, especially if you allow maybe CamDev to harry their defence when in possession - a 352 kinda shape with Devlin given some license essentially to mark the ball would be what I'd maybe be thinking.

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing for us fans, and I'm guilty myself of "why didn't he do this" after the fact!!  I just hope the boys are fired up and confident above anything else

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Go man for man and hope their front line have an off night. 

Our keeper is better than theirs, they're attack is better than ours, apart from that I've seen nothing consistent about either side. 

We are a threat, make no mistake about it, that's why they will come flying out of the blocks. My fear is we don't have decent cover for Beni holding position and we'll get swamped in centre midfield. Thats the area Celtic will look to dominate with Beni being out. Might see some out of the box thinking there but Bob tends to play it safe. 

 

Is it a big game for us with another game coming thick and fast, not so sure.

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Tom Hardy’s Dug
30 minutes ago, TheBigO said:

You're kinda right you know.  It's more complicated than we think - not just the tactics etc, but how it's viewed by the likes of us fans!

 

Bit wanky this but the game is a living organism and the coaches can prepare all they want and even tell the boys to go out and press and play progressively but if they shrink, they shrink.  The LC game against Celtic and the away game at Ibrox, the home team played exceptionally well from the off and we looked shell shocked.  I didn't see players who'd been told to sit in and put 10 behind the ball, I saw players who were being overrun and not thinking straight.

 

Coaching comes 100% in to that to have your players truly believing they can beat anyone, but that's a different side of things to the formation or tactics (or linked but you know what I mean).

 

If multi-million pound squad of players are on their game and going at it, we simply might need to hang on in there and need a bit of luck.  The attitude needs to be to still get in their faces and when we get the ball, be calm, be quick and support eachother.  No hiding.  No hiding at all.

 

For me, we perhaps do need another man in midfield, but I don't see that as defensive, especially if you allow maybe CamDev to harry their defence when in possession - a 352 kinda shape with Devlin given some license essentially to mark the ball would be what I'd maybe be thinking.

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing for us fans, and I'm guilty myself of "why didn't he do this" after the fact!!  I just hope the boys are fired up and confident above anything else

Totally agree with this

 

We could set up to “have a go” tonight and Celtic could be exceptional for the first 30 mins and we are blown away.

 

Doesnt mean we tried to contain them and play defensively. Doesn’t mean Robbie shat it. Just means Celtic we’re on it and with the better players etc etc 

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Too many times through there the game is done by half time. We need to stay organised and play to our strengths. We can't just shell the ball forward as it will 100% come straight back at us and they will have players running off us in all directions. We need to keep calm and believe we can actually get something through here tonight. It's not impossible but we will probably need to play as well as we have all season and get some luck. I wouldn't play Halliday, as well as being the least competent of midfielders, he gets too caught up against Celtic and it just winds the crowd up even more. I would play Haring, he had a great game against them on the opening day when he came on and that substitution helped swing the game back towards us. If we got 3 in there has to be McEneff as well. 

 

Saying all that still think we will get beat but fingers crossed!! 

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14 hours ago, flem said:

Anyone know of any supporters busses going through to Glasgow tomorrow night with space for 3 people?

Porty Hearts are

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1 minute ago, Tom Hardy’s Dug said:

Totally agree with this

 

We could set up to “have a go” tonight and Celtic could be exceptional for the first 30 mins and we are blown away.

 

Doesnt mean we tried to contain them and play defensively. Doesn’t mean Robbie shat it. Just means Celtic we’re on it and with the better players etc etc 

Agree to an extent. I get the feeling they love beating us and will probably try and come at us quickly. We need to stay composed and try and play our own game. It's imperative we get up the pitch though, the league cup game we were hemmed in all first half. 

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Tom Hardy’s Dug
18 minutes ago, PapaShango said:

Agree to an extent. I get the feeling they love beating us and will probably try and come at us quickly. We need to stay composed and try and play our own game. It's imperative we get up the pitch though, the league cup game we were hemmed in all first half. 


They rarely seem to play badly against us and that’s not because we let them. They do raise their game.

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5 minutes ago, Tom Hardy’s Dug said:


They rarely seem to play badly against us and that’s not because we let them. They do raise their game.

 

Is the correct answer. . . . 👍

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A backs to the wall performance is on the cards. All out defend but still leave loads of gaps. Sitting ducks waiting to be put out our misery. We will concede an early goal and the game plan of getting to HT at 0-0 will be out the window. RN then won't have a clue how to change it. CG will save us from an absolute tanking. I predict zero efforts on goal in the first half.

 

Negative as **** prediction but I'm going on what I have experienced there in the not too distant past. And added to that, we aren't in very good form at the moment.

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11 hours ago, Stone1992 said:


If you don’t think Boyce can’t do the first bit in bold but think Nando can then I would be questioning how much of either you have seen. 

yes.

 

despite my balanced view of Gnando from saturday - he's not the guy to hold the ball up - Boyce does this.

 

Gnando potentially more likely to be involved in a lead up to a goal  - assist or win the ball.

 

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1 minute ago, Jim Panzee said:

yes.

 

despite my balanced view of Gnando from saturday - he's not the guy to hold the ball up - Boyce does this.

 

Gnando potentially more likely to be involved in a lead up to a goal  - assist or win the ball.

 

 

He doesn't work hard enough to be on from the start. Against Celtic you need to have players that can run and chase every ball just like Devlin does.

 

My fear is that if we play the likes of Haring and Halliday that they resort to giving away silly fouls due to their lack of pace and game time of late.

 

Other than McEneff we don't have many other options though.

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14 minutes ago, wavydavy said:

 

He doesn't work hard enough to be on from the start. Against Celtic you need to have players that can run and chase every ball just like Devlin does.

 

My fear is that if we play the likes of Haring and Halliday that they resort to giving away silly fouls due to their lack of pace and game time of late.

 

Other than McEneff we don't have many other options though.

I agree with you.

 

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The Treasurer
31 minutes ago, Tom Hardy’s Dug said:


They rarely seem to play badly against us and that’s not because we let them. They do raise their game.

They know that their fans hate us and expect them to be well up for games between the two teams. 

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StirlingJambo

Think we need to go 352 with one of the strikers dropping back to help out when needed. 
 

They like to overload the middle of the park with there left and right backs pushing into that position which drives there other centre mids further up the park.

 

Let’s get in about these mutants!

 

Mon the jambos

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Our record at Parkhead is a terrible. 1 league win there since 2005. That came in 2007. Can't be many teams with a worse record than that

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1 hour ago, TheBigO said:

 

 

For me, we perhaps do need another man in midfield, but I don't see that as defensive, especially if you allow maybe CamDev to harry their defence when in possession - a 352 kinda shape with Devlin given some license essentially to mark the ball would be what I'd maybe be thinking.

 

 

This 100%! When we won at Tynie, we were being overrun at 1-1, RN took off GMS and replaced him with Haring (basically what you're saying above)... it changed the game in our favour and we were, arguably, more of a threat going forward while strengthening our midfield.

I hope this is exactly how we set up tonight.

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3 minutes ago, His name is said:

Our record at Parkhead is a terrible. 1 league win there since 2005. That came in 2007. Can't be many teams with a worse record than that

 

I would hate to check the recoreds, because our record at Parkhead is woeful. I have seen Hamilton Accies, Ross County and Livingston put up better performances there over the last few years.

 

Do they have better Players than us - No is the answer. However, our Mentality is the main problem. Usually as the bus passes Harthill, we have conceded defeat!!

 

I do not think for one moment Robbie Neilson has the ability to motivate the team to compete, but surrendering possession and territory early on is a recipe for disaster.

 

Unless we compete higher up the pitch than normal, and match them in Midfield there will only be one result........

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3 5 1 1 tonight. No point having 2 or 3 up top if we are being flattened in midfield, which is what happened at Fir Park. Let's keep the head, settle into the game and take our chance when it comes.

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5 minutes ago, gowestjambo said:

 

I would hate to check the recoreds, because our record at Parkhead is woeful. I have seen Hamilton Accies, Ross County and Livingston put up better performances there over the last few years.

 

Do they have better Players than us - No is the answer. However, our Mentality is the main problem. Usually as the bus passes Harthill, we have conceded defeat!!

 

I do not think for one moment Robbie Neilson has the ability to motivate the team to compete, but surrendering possession and territory early on is a recipe for disaster.

 

Unless we compete higher up the pitch than normal, and match them in Midfield there will only be one result........

or are those aforementioned teams more conditioned to parking the bus and trying to nick a goal - thats not our usual MO so maybe harder to adapt.

 

 

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24 minutes ago, gowestjambo said:

 

I would hate to check the recoreds, because our record at Parkhead is woeful. I have seen Hamilton Accies, Ross County and Livingston put up better performances there over the last few years.

 

Do they have better Players than us - No is the answer. However, our Mentality is the main problem. Usually as the bus passes Harthill, we have conceded defeat!!

 

I do not think for one moment Robbie Neilson has the ability to motivate the team to compete, but surrendering possession and territory early on is a recipe for disaster.

 

Unless we compete higher up the pitch than normal, and match them in Midfield there will only be one result........

 

Matching them in midfield will require 3 in centre midfield IMO. So we need to accept that if we want to thwart their threat and give ourselves a chance, we need to box clever and not 'go for it' as some naively suggest. We might still lose but solidifying the midfield gives us a chance.

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30 minutes ago, His name is said:

Our record at Parkhead is a terrible. 1 league win there since 2005. That came in 2007. Can't be many teams with a worse record than that

Very few sides have a great record at Parkhead...

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26 minutes ago, Rogue Daddy said:

This 100%! When we won at Tynie, we were being overrun at 1-1, RN took off GMS and replaced him with Haring (basically what you're saying above)... it changed the game in our favour and we were, arguably, more of a threat going forward while strengthening our midfield.

I hope this is exactly how we set up tonight.

Aye the issue I guess is Beni being out.  Haring, McEneff and Dev looks good but you've got two guys in there who no chance can be match sharp.  Mind you, the old Andy Thorn thing - a big game sometimes sharpness doesn't matter!

 

My concern is Halliday in there with the game passing him by, trying to kick folk and missing.

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We’ve won the ball in the final third more than any other team in the league - let’s get after their centre backs as they’re no great shakes 

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2 minutes ago, TheBigO said:

Aye the issue I guess is Beni being out.  Haring, McEneff and Dev looks good but you've got two guys in there who no chance can be match sharp.  Mind you, the old Andy Thorn thing - a big game sometimes sharpness doesn't matter!

 

My concern is Halliday in there with the game passing him by, trying to kick folk and missing.

True about the match sharpness.... however, I'll bet McEneff is chomping at the bit for a start and I would think it's a given that Haring will take the place of Beni. Halliday, however, I wouldn't start... I'd go with Cochrane. I agree with you, I think he would play the occasion and not the team... and probably end up getting sent off. As someone said above, cool heads and temperaments required.

If we start with this midfield, I would be quietly confident of taking something from the game, provided we also put in the effort.

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Is that diving ****** Kyogo playing tonight? 

 

Need to stay well clear of his antics, the ref will be falling over himself to award free kicks and penalties. Hopefully the defenders are aware that he will make the most of absolutely any contact. 

 

Actually, I hope Halkett absolutely ****ing smashes him good and proper. Give him something to roll about for. 

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46 minutes ago, His name is said:

Our record at Parkhead is a terrible. 1 league win there since 2005. That came in 2007. Can't be many teams with a worse record than that

How many times each team has won at Parkhead since 2007 in the league:

 

Rangers 4
Motherwell 2

St Johnstone 2

Hearts 1

Hibs 1

St Mirren 1

Dundee United 0

Dundee 0

Ross County 0

Aberdeen 0 

Livingston 0 

 

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LIAM BOYCE PRE-MATCH

https://t.co/cxCILBf6VN

Some perhaps foolish words of optimism from myself in this article…

 

Boycey chats about previous encounters with the Old Firm, both as a County player and Hearts, playing with confidence and the enjoyment of attacking Celtic and Rangers. 
 

Reads appreciated

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That's me ready to head to Scotland now, first game Watching the side play since 2020 at Laydown.

Be positive, we can go and win this game.. 

Hearts till i frazzle.

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Fozzyonthefence
4 minutes ago, King prawn said:

How many times each team has won at Parkhead since 2007 in the league:

 

Rangers 4
Motherwell 2

St Johnstone 2

Hearts 1

Hibs 1

St Mirren 1

Dundee United 0

Dundee 0

Ross County 0

Aberdeen 0 

Livingston 0 

 


Rangers’ record is also surprisingly bad, although they did have 4 seasons in the lower leagues (I think Hibs have had 3 and we’ve had 2 and obviously some of the other teams have been down there too) - Aberdeen’s is the one that really stands out though.

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Fozzyonthefence
2 minutes ago, A.JAMBO said:

That's me ready to head to Scotland now, first game Watching the side play since 2020 at Laydown.

Be positive, we can go and win this game.. 

Hearts till i frazzle.


Bloody hell, you don’t half pick your games!

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