A Case for the Attack by Brian53
With Timdom not sure what to make of Teemu Pukki I thought I would look back in time to another striker who struggled to make an immediate impact, Big John Hartson. In a similar fashion John was a player that many had doubts about when he arrived. I have based the comparison on 17 games as that is the number that Teemu has featured in to date.
As you know, Big Bad John signed for us in August 2001 and made his debut against Kilmarnock a few days later. As Jon West from PA Sport recorded in his match review, “Joos Valgaeren teed Hartson up right in front of goal yet the Welshman somehow blazed over.” “Lambert played a defence splitting pass to Hartson’s feet an opener could have been expected to follow. But Gordon Marshall, the former Celtic goalkeeper, blocked superbly.”
John’s next appearance was as a late substitute in that fabulous win over the mighty Ajax in Amsterdam where we recorded a rare European away win. John played his first full 90 minutes in the hoops and made his home debut in a game against Hearts. He was still having trouble in front of goal though as Sporting Life reported “Lubo Moravcik was also looking to impress on his first start of the season for Celtic and he almost created the opener in the 13th minute. He found Lennon in the box and the Irishman squared to Hartson, but the fiery red-head slipped as he shaped up to shoot and fired over the bar.” Later in the game “Hartson spurned another glorious chance a minute later to mark his full debut with a goal. Moravcik swung in a deep cross to the back post and with the whole goal at his mercy he somehow managed to head wide.” “Hartson spurned another guilt-edged opportunity when he glanced Petta’s cross just wide of the mark.” All was not lost however as John supplied the assist for Henrik to wrap up the game.
John was to make 12 appearances before he broke his duck with 2 goals against Stirling Albion in the League cup and went on to score 6 goals in those first 17 appearances.
Teemu promised much when he scored on his debut against Hearts after coming on as a late sub for Kris Commons. He scored again on his first start for the club when he made his home debut against St Johnstone in September. After a good first half, he tailed off in the second. He was replaced late in the game by the work in progress that is Amido Balde. Since then Teemu has struggled and although providing 3 assists and having approx. 7 attempts on target he has not been able to add to his tally.
Personally, I think he will come good, as I’ve said elsewhere he’s no No9, but should develop into a good No10. In the majority of the games when he has struggled it has been in part due to poor service from the midfield. His first touch has at times been poor in these games but that is down to confidence. BBJ struggled to settle when he first came, even though we had a fabulous team with the likes of Henrik, Chris, Stan, Paul, Lubo and some guy called Neil Francis Lennon.
Given time, Teemu will settle into the team, I see a player in him as he displayed during the game against Motherwell. His movement both on and off the ball during that game was excellent, he provided two great crosses into the sweet spot of the penalty area both resulting in goals. I hope you all give the lad a chance.
Comparison
| Pukki | Hartson | |
| Mins Played | 959 | 1033 |
| Time Subbed | 677 | 70 |
| Sub On | 102 | 33 |
| Goals | 2 | 6 |
| Assists | 3 | 2 |
| Shot On | 7 | 4 |
| League Mins | 638 | 736 |
| LC Mins | 90 | 90 |
| S-Cup Mins | 31 | 0 |
| Europe Mins | 160 | 207 |
| Games Played | 17 | 17 |
| Subbed | 9 | 1 |
| Sub On | 6 | 7 |
| Games Scored In | 2 | 3 |
| Games Assists In | 2 | 2 |
| No. Games Shots On | 6 | 3 |
| L. Games Played | 10 | 11 |
| LC Games Played | 1 | 1 |
| SC Games Played | 1 | 0 |
| E. Games Played | 5 | 5 |
Pukki
Hartson
My Thanks to The Celtic Wiki site, www.thecelticwiki.com for the use of their archive of Celtic history, which is of course free for anyone to use. Any errors or omissions in the article are entirely my fault and likely to be due to bad eyesight, senior moments and alcohol.
Brian53
You should go get Finnbogasons stats Brian.
I agree. Give the guy a chance, but we still need a STRIKER.
What is so difficult to understand about that?
I’m feeling like victor Meldrew tonight so forgive me please, If you think of the money spent on Bangura, Pukki & Balde, we could have spent all of that money on Finbogasson!
IMO we only have 1 decent forward in Stokes & he isn’t prolific.
We spent £2.5 for Pukki, now we could have got Johnny Russell & Jon Daly for £1m!
Now I ask you, would you rather see Pukki in a Celtic shirt or Russell or Daly?
This is Scottish football, the standard is woeful & Pukki Can’t score, again IMO a Celtic striker should be scoring a goal a game at this level,Russell, Griffiths & Daly would have been good additions I believe.
A CELTIC STRIKER SHOULD BE JUDGED ON GOALS ALONE!
Brought up with, McCluskey, McGarvey, McClair, le petit merde,Nicholas, McAvennie,Larsson, Hartson & Sutton, I expect goals,goals,goals!
By the way, who is our striking coach?……exactly! HH!
Monti, I’ve had this discussion with a good many, about the signing policy or the Strachan Vs O’Neill debate as I call it. Would you rather have a quality player or five decent players for the same price. I, personally, would always go for quality over quantity, surely the under 20s aren’t there just to make the numbers up. As for Stokes; 10 CL games, 0 goals (he’s not helped by some of the pish we’ve had to witnss recently). Must do better.
Hi Monti
Sorry for the late reply been in command of a trolley all morning. Now to answer your comments.
I would rather see Teemu than the two you mentioned.
I agree that our strikers should be scoring more and hopefully if we stick with the formation/tactics that we employed in the last two games we will see some inprovement.
A striker should be judged on goals but over a season not a few games.
Our striking coach? listening to Kris over the last couple days I think he should be given the job as player/coach.
Just out of genuine interest, would we as Celtic fans accept Kris Boyd at Celtic?
Why not?
Kris Boyd or Amido Balde?
No, no and no again. Boyd could only do it against the wee teams and we need CL players, rangers got rid of him for a reason and it wasn’t because he was sighted within 100 yards of Rosary Beads. I think Matthews looks the same, good against the wee teams but when the big boys apply pressure on him he makes simple mistakes. But then again, I used to say Forster wasn’t good enough and now he looks world class.
I would rather Tony Watt was at Celtic as he is a natural finisher.
Yes he has had his issues off the Park but I dont see the rush to send Forrest to some no mark Belgian outfit for his off the field antics?
I actually think Henrik would score more goals now than our current strikers 🙂
Just shoot & mean it FFS!!!!
look at how Mark Hughes & Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink hit the ball! Never mind flicking it or trying a wee curly tippy tappy…..Teemu put your head down, knee over the ball & try & burst it, starting tomorrow!
” Never mind flicking it or trying a wee curly tippy tappy….”
Like Henrik you mean 🙂
Jon Daly? Seriously? Your opinion of pukki must be mighty low!
I take your point about Russell, his scoring rate was decent, but the Jon Daly thing I just don’t see. Scoring goals in whatever league 2nd rangers are in isn’t Celtic class.
Pukki is still young, why is balde a ” project” but pukki getting slaughtered, they are roughly the same age? I think the sleepy Finn had some good movement and a decent first touch. Don’t think he is a no 9, but could still do very well.for the hoops. And no, I wouldn’t want Boyd either, not cause of who he played for, just don’t think he’s that good.
Haven’t seen much of him, but Stevie May at St Johnstone is scoring a lot in a poor team, young and can still get better. Just by cutting his hair would do it
Agreed!
I find it difficult to believe some of the comments, firstly Pukki is a young guy, who I am willing to bet will turn out to be a great buy for the club, his movement is really good, please take the time to watch him, he has a football brain, he has work rate (for the team) which is more important. Yes I believe we need a striker, but the names some of you guys mention shows a distinct lack of ambition. Give Lennon a chance he has identified the people he wants or wanted but our board would or could not reach agreement. We are trying to compete way way above our budget. If you think for one minute about the money Martin Oneil was allowed to spend and also think the players he had when he arrived, Henrik, Lubo ,Lambert. Then think what Lennon has done in the CL(apart from recent results, this is a transition period)we will continue to improve. We will have a great run next year.
HH Keep the faith
Good post Daviebhoy
We will continue to improve
Onwards and Upwards :-d
A good article (would expect nothing less on this site) and as Daviebhoy points out, above, Pukki is a youngish guy while Hartson was a seasoned international. I was never a major fan of Hartson at the start, I thought he was too wasteful and would only convert a fifth of his chances. He only became a favourite of mine after Larsson and Sutton went and I seen how much we realy relied on him.
Thanks Doc.
I think most people thought that about John, me included but he turned out ok 🙂 The Liverpool goal will long reside in my memory.
PUKKI ,HARTSON COME ON
WHAT NEXT BALDE ,LARSSON
BANGURA ,SUTTON.
WORK IN PROGRESS
FAIR ENOUGH IF IT WAS TEENAGERS
WHAT U SEE IS WHAT WE’VE GOT
YOU CAN’T TURN A DONKEY!
INTO A DERBY WINNER.
Doc & Daviebhoy,
Morning guys, With regard to Kris Boyd I don’t want Celtic to go for him, my point was would we consider him as a support? His goalscoring record speaks for itself & personally would have him up front before Pukki or Balde.
Guys Jon Daly was another who scored freely in the Spl, what we have to keep in mind is, Celtic don’t have a striker who scores freely in the SPFL, I’m not interested in what Jon Daly has done for the the second rangers in the lower leagues, my judgement about Daly was what he has done in the top league with Dundee utd.
better players than Pukki have taken time to settle in Scotland i agree & hope he comes good,but with each passing, scoreless game my faith diminishes, should a Celtic striker be at the top of the scoring charts in Scotland? Yes.
The guys i have mentioned in previous posts are not the ceiling of my ambition for Celtic guys, i just feel all of them would be better than what we have at the moment.
Celtic IMO need 2 goalscorers of Champions league quality, supported by 2 Strikers from the development squad.
HH!
Monti, thanks for taking the time to reply. I still stand by my comments that Celtic need a Cl level striker, not just an SPFL player, surely our youth team can give a non-exhaustive supply of, at least, SPFL players.
Doc
Now that is the standard I am talking about in my comment on the previous blog. An example to us all. Thank you.
H H
“2 goalscorers of Champions league quality”
Something that you’re not telling us Monti?
You have surely won last nights Euro Lotto!
The young Bhoy just looks scared every-time he plays. I believe he would benefit with playing along side a big strong target man like Big Bad John. I also think the clique in the first team squad doesn’t help.
Am I old fashioned or just bloody old? I fail to see how any striker, good, bad, indifferent, young, over the hill, big, small, robust, frail or a mixture of all of these, can possibly score goals when we play our football from sideline to sideline. We have set our sights on the goalposts only twice this season and it was like watching a completely different team. If the strikers underscored or did not score at all on those days, might it be because they were taken by surprised by the passes going forward, an experience they are not particularly used to? Would any of the outstanding goalscorers mentioned in several comments have done any better, if they had been starved of good service like today’s regularly are? Just saying, but then, with the raging rain storm, my sawdust might be damp.
H H
Kris Boyd or Jon Daly ? Is that post a p**s take >
The Dubliner,
Good morning.
My point regarding Boyd & Daly is they would score more goals for Celtic than anyone we have just now.
I’m also judging Daly on his Dundee Utd form, not since he joined the the second rangers!
I stand by my point HH
For what it’s worth….
Balde – should be loaned out preferably back to Portuguese team for him to develope. You can just imagine he is in some kind of footballing trauma as he is a young guy having moved to the west of Scotland, maybe not speaking too much English whilst trying to hone the finer points of the strikers role in the driving pissing rain from coaches none if whom were strikers!
Pukki – will come on to a game just needs the pressure taken off him. Don’t think he is a guy that has a lot of self confidence and strikes me as being very similar in temperament to Brattbak! Needs a Henrik beside him hahaha
Bangura – I think he should be brought back into the team. The way he played against us showed he has balls as he wasn’t shy about chasing the ball and making tackles. Definitely one to being back into the fold
Stokes – should never have been handed a renewed contract as he has done absolutely eff all since. In my opinion the only reason he is popular with some sections of the support is because he gets a very occasional run out for the Republic! If he didn’t then I am sorry he would have been hounded out long ago
I have seen a real difference in the performances of Lustig Matthews and Izzy this season ( the other night aside) and it is all down to the specialist coaching of Danny McGrain, now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that perhaps employing Sutton, BBJ or even Macca to help these guys could help in their development
The answer currently resides in Heerenveen and if we don’t go back in for Finnbogason we will miss out on a quality finisher.