Celtic v Livingston Match Preview: Time To Hunt Some Lions

So we also have to be prepared for this all-action, elbow flying Livi side that make no serious attempt to play classy football, tend to enjoy very little possession in most of their games and are hellbent on disrupting the flow of play without a care in the world as to how many fouls they give away or how many yellows they receive. Oh well, at least we don’t have to suffer the plastic macaroni shit this time round. They don’t score a great deal of goals but their defensive record has held up quite well, although so far it’s not as good as last season’s at this time of the year. Defenders such as Alan Lithgow, Ricki Lamie and recent signing Jon Guthrie have been dependable enough while Steven Lawless has made a decent contribution to the West Lothian outfit’s goal tally. They depend on long balls, lucky breaks, physical combat and set pieces for their goals. I’ve honestly got nothing against the club or their fans but I would absolutely love to see them relegated at the end of the season and then get relegated again the following one. I prefered them when they were Meadowbank Thistle.

What have Livingston achieved since their shock horror win against us on their artificial turf? Not a lot actually, 2 draws (against Hearts and Hibs) and 3 defeats, including a piss poor performance, even by their standards, against the orcs a couple of weeks ago. The dark side had done their homework, matched the Lions’ physical aggression, kept cool heads and simply played them off the park. It’s worth mentioning that in the last few games Livingston have had to mess about with their defence quite a lot due to injuries while other players haven’t been looking very sharp as they’ve also been out for a while nad aren’t up to speed yet. Taylor-Sinclair (sounds like two of our own players rolled into one) has been rather shaky but, being a new acquisition, he probably needs time to settle in while 21 year old English defender Hakeem Odoffin was absolutely honking against the mankies. Completely lacking in positional sense, he was all over the place and was largely to blame for both their goals. The only guy who gave a good account of himself in that game, in fact he was practically world class, was their goalie Matija Sarkic, who is proving to be an adequate replacement for Liam Kelly, who excelled for the Lions last season before moving to QPR. The Aston Villa loanee pulled off some unbelievable stops that day to keep the score down. Half English and Half Montenegrin, the Montenegrin U21 international shotstopper has an identical twin brother called Oliver who playes as a forward in League 1 for Burton Albion and has also been capped a similar number of times for Montenegro at U21 level. Oddly enough, their dad is currently the Montenegrin ambassador to the European Union and was previously their ambassador to both the UK and Belgium (although not simultaneously).

My final point of reference to this mob will be their manager, who has pulled off quite a feat by taking this minnow club so far in such a short time by playing his very own brand of anti-football. Gary Holt, the man with a head resembling a boiled testicle, is most definitely a hothead who is under fire from his own support (how ungrateful is that?), Even with the wee teams that punch well above their weight, poor quality coupled with poor recent results will always take its toll. We all know about the ‘player protection’ spat he had with Slippy but he was also fuming at his own team after the game, claiming that he had just witnessed their worst performance of the season and that his side was totally ‘disjointed’. Maybe they didn’t commit enough fouls for his liking.

To give you an idea of the chopping and changing that has been going on recently in defence and attack, here are their line-ups for their last 3 league games, beginning with the most recent:

Livingston 0 Sevco 2

Sarkic; Odoffin (Taylor-Sinclair 60′), Guthrie, Lamie, McMillan; Bartley, Crawford (Jacobs 70′), Lawless, Pittman. Lawson (Souda 60′); Dykes

Motherwell 2 Livingston 1

Sarkic; Odoffin, Lithgow, Guthrie, Lamie; Bartley, Crawford, Lawson, Pittman; Jacobs (Lawless 59′), Tiffoney

Livingston 0 Hearts 0

Sarkic; Devlin (Lamie 40′), Lithgow, Guthrie, McMillan (Tiffoney 91′); Bartley, Crawford, Lawless, Jacobs; Souda*, Robinson (Odoffin 72′).

*Souda was red-carded after 49 mins.

At the time of writing I’m unable to give the final word as to the availability of two or three of our players who’ve been injured recently. Lenny will probably reveal some interesting stuff on this during his customary Friday press conference. The likes of Mo Elyounoussi and Mikey Johnston are unlikely to be risked so we’ll probably be in for a change to cover the wide left area. Lewis Morgan has spent a lot of time benchwarming lateley, even for Scotland, so is maybe due some minutes on the field although I don’t expect him to start. During his time with St Mirren 2 or 3 years ago he seemed to be blessed with no short amount of football wizardry but his impact at Celtic has been disappointing for the most part. His decision making, final ball and efficiency in front of goal have let him down quite badly on the few occasions he’s played for us but it’s worth stating that his attitude and work rate have always been top drawer. Out of all our wingers, in my opinion he’s the one with the best defensive qualities – he’s always prepared to track back to help the defence and never afraid to put in a tackle. As far as I know, he doesn’t wish to go to Hibs or any other club on loan but the winter period could well indicate what lies ahead for him.

It’s obviously a huge blow to have Hatem Elhamed ruled out for another month or so although it does open the door for our young flying Dutchman Frimpy to hit new heights. I fancy he’ll be in the starting line-up against Livi with Bauer being saved for the Europa League clash against Rennes bearing in mind that both Jeremy and full Irish international Lee O’Connor will be ineligible for European competition until February. It’s comforting to know that Lee can play CB as well as RB so, if any of our remaining central defenders were to suffer any mishaps, he could provide emergency cover at the back. His two recent succesful outings for Ireland will have given his confidence a huge boost so, if the worst came to the worst, I think I’d stick him in there before Hendry, who featured the other night for the reserves.

With Bolingoli still a doubt I’d like to see Greg Taylor, who looked solid and delivered some great balls into the box when playing for Scotland the other night, given a starting place to freshen things up. Both Calmac and James Forrest lasted the 90 mins in both recent international matches and might finally be given a rest while I won’t be holding my about Griff making the bench. It’s encouraging to see that he showed up well for the reserves the other night, bagging a quickfire brace against Stenhousemuir, but the next three months will be crucial for him and it goes without saying that he badly needs not only to feature but also to impress during the congested league fixture period of December. I suppose we’ll have a clearer picture as regards his future with us at the end of January and much will depend on how he performs over the next month or so (if selected) and whether or not Lenny signs up a quality striker during the January window. Afolabi got a 45 minute run-out in that reserve game but is unlikely to be called upon just yet although he might well get a sniff of the action too for at least a couple of games in December, especially if Bayo hasn’t recovered by then.

My guess is that Lenny will go with quite a familiar line-up against Livi on Saturday even though I’d like to see something a bit different and see a couple of our international stars rested. I’m up for a robust but highly mobile 4-4-2 formation featuring players who should easily cope with the physical demands of playing against such a primitive team of hatchetmen who will do everything in their power to stifle, frustrate and even physically harm our players. The important thing is to lay down a marker from the very start and not take any crap from them, bossing the midfield and varying play to create openings. I’d have Christie coming in from the right flank and Rogic given a free role playing just behind the main striker. Our lads must ignore their mind games and not be drawn into any kind of a brawl with them. Just keep a firm grip of things and let our vastly superior quality do the rest. Much as I’d love to see us run up a cricket score against these animals, it would be ideal just to grab two or three goals and then wind down by passing them off the park, thus conserving energy and avoiding too much physical contact. Revenge is a dish best enjoyed when consumed cold.

I’m pretty sure this won’t be Lenny’s selection but I’m going for a strong-looking Spanish style 4-4-2 deploying wide midfielders rather than wingers and I’m sure it’s a side that wouldn’t let themselves get pushed around.

Forster

Frimpong Jullien Ajer Taylor

Brown Bitton

Christie Ntcham

Rogic

Edouard

Subs: Gordon, O’Connor, Hayes, McGregor, Forrest, Morgan, Griffiths

Prediction: Celtic 3 Livingston 0 (Christie, Rogic, Edouard)

GET INTAE THEM!!!!!