In Reserve
Koki Mizuno could become one of the best players to play for Celtic in years. And could genuinely feel he could make a real impact in this seasons remaining games. He has everything that the current first team is lacking. Imagination, invention, ability, confidence. Okay, this maybe was shown in a game against Gretna reserves, but his range and mix of passing, and delivery was quite something to behold. I understand Celtic are allowing him to settle and I completely understand that. But the flatness and almost a fear that looks to have creeped into more than one or two Celtic players is completely harming there ability to construct fluent football and attacking moves with the type of verve and pace that the players are capable of. Mizuno set up one with an exquisite left footed pass to Caddis when all seemed expecting a cross field ball on his right, another when he ghosted into the box causing enough concern to leave Killen unmarked giving him an easy header. And for Killen to complete his hat trick, Mizuno swung in the sort of cross with his right foot that his countryman Nakamura would have been proud of with his left from a free kick 40 yards from goal.
Mark Millar in the middle of the park looks to be progressing very well too, however he isn’t the first central midfielder to have done so and never made an impact at first team level. Paul Lawson, Teddy Bjarnnson, Simon Ferry, and Charlie Grant have all excelled in youth and reserve level but never been given the belief by Celtic that they can shoe themselves in the most difficult position to break into a football team at. The game is won and lost in the middle of the park and anyone watching recent Celtic reserve fixtures would have seen Mark Millar doing exactly that. Sorry, winning I should have said. Tackles, possession, passing, and even goal scoring, he certainly hasn’t been doing much losing of late.
With the undoubted craft of Mizuno, the power of Chris Killen, the ability of Riordan, and the explosive nature of Ben Hutchison in full flow around him, it is no doubt young Millar is able to fuse his skill into such a winning midfield.
Killen’s impact isn’t just in his great reserve goal scoring record; Cillian Sheridan looks to have been learning from the giant Kiwi striker and finding the net pretty regularly too.
Current results and performances aside, I am a tad concerned about the make up of the Celtic reserve squad.
It is made up of several first team squad who are and have been struggling to get into the starting X1 for sometime (Balde, Sno, Riordan, Brown, even Killen), new signings who are young enough to justify holding them back (Mizuno, and Hutchison), then reserve players who have been there for a while and have no real chance of pushing the first team players (Cuthbert, Conroy, McGlinchey, McGowan). Since O'Dea made his debut in December 2006, has any player broken into the first team squad on a regular basis?
McGowan was on the bench a couple of games (to justify knocking back the bid from Morton), out with that, Id say only Caddis has looked likely to not only have the ability, but to get the chance to play in the Celtic starting X1. And even then, how much was Caddis' push was plainly down to injuries to other players. I wouldn’t count Sheridan as he is still featuring heavily at u19 level, and regardless of his goal scoring for the reserves is clearly being given a thorough education before his first team exposure.
I suppose the make up of the reserves should bode well for the current squad Celtic have at the moment, but certainly not for long term progression. However, the fact that the first team are underperforming in terms of their level of performance, results, and league placing, show that we could perhaps do with seeing some potential on the horizon....
Celtic reserves are currently on course for 7 in a row this year
Mark Millar in the middle of the park looks to be progressing very well too, however he isn’t the first central midfielder to have done so and never made an impact at first team level. Paul Lawson, Teddy Bjarnnson, Simon Ferry, and Charlie Grant have all excelled in youth and reserve level but never been given the belief by Celtic that they can shoe themselves in the most difficult position to break into a football team at. The game is won and lost in the middle of the park and anyone watching recent Celtic reserve fixtures would have seen Mark Millar doing exactly that. Sorry, winning I should have said. Tackles, possession, passing, and even goal scoring, he certainly hasn’t been doing much losing of late.
With the undoubted craft of Mizuno, the power of Chris Killen, the ability of Riordan, and the explosive nature of Ben Hutchison in full flow around him, it is no doubt young Millar is able to fuse his skill into such a winning midfield.
Killen’s impact isn’t just in his great reserve goal scoring record; Cillian Sheridan looks to have been learning from the giant Kiwi striker and finding the net pretty regularly too.
Current results and performances aside, I am a tad concerned about the make up of the Celtic reserve squad.
It is made up of several first team squad who are and have been struggling to get into the starting X1 for sometime (Balde, Sno, Riordan, Brown, even Killen), new signings who are young enough to justify holding them back (Mizuno, and Hutchison), then reserve players who have been there for a while and have no real chance of pushing the first team players (Cuthbert, Conroy, McGlinchey, McGowan). Since O'Dea made his debut in December 2006, has any player broken into the first team squad on a regular basis?
McGowan was on the bench a couple of games (to justify knocking back the bid from Morton), out with that, Id say only Caddis has looked likely to not only have the ability, but to get the chance to play in the Celtic starting X1. And even then, how much was Caddis' push was plainly down to injuries to other players. I wouldn’t count Sheridan as he is still featuring heavily at u19 level, and regardless of his goal scoring for the reserves is clearly being given a thorough education before his first team exposure.
I suppose the make up of the reserves should bode well for the current squad Celtic have at the moment, but certainly not for long term progression. However, the fact that the first team are underperforming in terms of their level of performance, results, and league placing, show that we could perhaps do with seeing some potential on the horizon....
Celtic reserves are currently on course for 7 in a row this year
posted by Michael__67 at 8:35 AM
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