5 of these players are out injured.

i wasn't suggesting this is the team we play next game. just giving my op about our best team and formation.

IAM

Agree this to me is Celtic s strongest team when there all fit

Just hope Lennon see this

to be fair to lennon we've had a horrid start to the season with injuries,so he's not really had any option other than to chop and change the squad to suit.I'm pretty sure he does have a best 11 in mind,but the amount of injurys we've had this season already is a joke and this has hampered our start to the season,once we get everyone back there will be a more settled first 11 i reckon,till then everones going to have to chip in and play there part.

I haven't been impressed with Wilson at CB in his recent games and would say Rogne is a better long term prospect at this stage. I've gave up on Dan & Loovens and with our recent luck in this department, I'm not confident at all about Wanyama changing positions and doing a job for us at this stage. This whole CB situation is a nightmare. The only one I would give pass marks to is Mulgrew.

We could always try Mulgrew and Mark Wilson in the centre, they couldn't be any worse than those two.

that's very true blacksod. after watching the keystone cops defending on saturday Lenny should be wary of putting either player in the team never mind both at the same time.

if maj starts on thday we'll get severely pumped,loovens is just as bad but we dont have anymore choices,Rogne maybe a better option but he has hardly kicked a ball all season,what do you guys reckon the team should be on thday ?

........................... Forster......................

wilson.......loovens/Rogne............mulgrew.................Mathews

Forrest................ki...................kayal................Ledley

...................... Bangura.................Stokes ...................

looks decent Tim. Would prefer to see Ledley at CM tho.

Aye the only reason i'd have Ledley on the left is because he would help mathews as thats not his natural side and i reckon they two would work well together ,we would be left wide open there if Mccourt played imo we don't really have many options on the left at the minute with commons out,so i reckon ledley is our best bet.

yeah you're probably right. I think I would stick Wanyama at CM to support Kayal. Solidify the centre of the team and give Ki (who has been pretty poor recently) something to think about.

yeah true ki has been letting the games pass him by since sion,maybe a perfect game for wanyama to show what he's all about,plus he's a big powerful guy and wont get outmuscled like ki will

Exactly, give our patch work defence a bit of help. If Lenny starts with Loovens, Dan and Sammy (which isn't inconceivable) then my belief in him as our manager will have taken a serious if not fatal blow. Please don't do it son!!!

i agree if i see they 3 dumplins in the line up on thday i will be seriously unhappy and it will clearly show he is just not upto it
if stokes doesn't start this game i could see him becoming unsettled as it will prove lenny doesn't trust him in the big games,especially with hooper out.

Apparently we are still in line to sign Baba Diawara in a £4+m deal come jan. Hopefully another CB and Craig Gordon will give us some welcome late Crimbo prezzies.

Tbh I do like the look of our team and I think it is shaping up nicely if a little slowly. But with injuries, players out of form and that gaping hole in the middle of our defence we are a sitting target for any team with an ounce of ability.

I thought Diawara was available for around £2mill?
Can't see the board forking out £4mill on a striker tbh,and frankly if that kind of money is available i'd rather we spent that on 2 solid CB's.I agree about Craig Gordan that would be great if we could get him,tho his wages may be a problem,Fraser Forster is not the answer at all so we definitely need to get that sorted out and not leave ourselves in the same situation like we did at the start of the season.

injurys have killed us so far this season and it seems to have had a real effect on the rest of the squad,but if we canget good results in the next couple of game we will gain momentum and we will come good although as you say our defence is a severe weakness at the minute so we will have to be alert,Chuck has to start at the back from now on as it seems he's the only cb we have with a brain.

we know the team is good and playing far below par atm. last season we were fantastic during the 2nd half of the season and if we could find that form then we would be able to give the likes of madrid and udinese a real game. We have a better squad now also, so hopefully we can recapture form and start to apply some pressure on rangers in the league.

we can all see our problems lie at the heart of our defence - just as they did last season. But it is so frustrating watching the club take so long to sort the defence out, especially when we imo pretty close to having a damn good team. Probably by the time we sort it our better players will be offski and we will be in a rebuilding period again.

we have played some great stuff already this season,it's just about getting consistency,once we get the majority of our players back and fit we will be a lot stronger,we cant afford anymore slip ups and tynecastle on sunday will be tricky especially after europe so lets hope the bhoys get a good result on thursday and give them confidence going into sunday.The defence need to get their act together asap.I just read that Ledley got attacked on saturday night when he was out on the town wi his dad,he got jumped by 3 dafties,fecking whankers,apparently he's ok just a little shook up,hopefully he'll be ok fur thday.

Ledley attacked after his home was raided in a seperate incident last week? Those Chelsea fans must really have it in for him. Great goal by the boy on Sat btw.

I doubt Loovens or Majstorovic have the ability to get their act together. Big Maj is just too slow and lacks any real presence despite his physique and Glenda (my son claims he actually heard Forrest call him this during the quietness of the first half on Sat) is a bag of nerves without a brain. It is not their fault but both simply dont have it in them to be good enough to play for us.

yeah those pesky chelsea fans up to no good again eh I think his house was raided earlier in the year when him and his family were away from home tho.

i don't doubt i know for a fact they two donkeys don't have the ability to play for us but unfortunately the board and management have left us in this situation so we will just have to get on with it,hopefully they can cut out the stupid errors or more realisticly limit how many stupid errors they do in a game asking them to cut them out altogether is a task too much for this pair it seems,nervy times ahead if we have to rely on them from now until christmas.

(my son claims he actually heard Forrest call him this during the quietness of the first half on Sat)
===============================
I hope thats true

Loovens has been with us for 4 years he's only played 53 times,and evertime i reckon he's had me very near hiding behind my couch at least twice everygame he's played,surely one of the biggest duds we've had in the last 10 years.

he's poor but you can't blame an ass for being an ass. Our squad is pretty good and has reasonable competition in most positions. Our CB position despite having numbers lacks quality. It says it all when Mulgrew is our most consistent player in that position. im not having a pop at Charlie, I like him as a player and definitely has a future at the club as a valuable squad member imo, but he is not a CB to trade.

So anyway what is our team for Udinese.

-----------------Forster
Wilson--Loovens--Mulgrew--Matthews
Forrest--Kayal--Wanyama--Ledley
-----------Bangura--Stokes

Looks like a pretty solid if uninspiring team

I think that's the best we could go with mate
but knowing Lenny he'll probably put a completely different team out..

I'm off to bed noo mate,G'night