DMAA

A couple self isolating it seems too, "As a precaution, Damjan Pavlovic and Abdoul Fessal Tapsoba, both tested negative, who cohabit and spent the evening yesterday with Moussa Sissako, are also excluded from the group pending the results of a new test." Looked them up, both fringe youth players. Raskin is a big one though. Balikwisha looks like a significant miss for them too but as Frankie says it seems he is injured anyway.

I looked these guys up. Raskin is a huge miss for them, the others are irrelevant, they don't play. But Raskin plays every game is an assist king. They seem to get most of their assists from full back (2 each), and in midfield Raskin has 4 assists and only one other player in the whole midfield has an assist.

There is no reason to be worried. They have tough fixtures coming up and it’s come at a bad time. We have the opposite, except Killie, all I’ve said is that it’s an opportunity because it is, we have to use it to put real pressure on them if they do slip up. Not to mention to take advantage of getting a second game in hand.

Really big test that one.

We both have 10 games in 42 days coming up. They have 3 league games, all away. 1 cup game at Hampden. 5 European games, 3 away. The Scottish Cup draw hasn't been done yet, but if they are drawn away that will be only 2 home games in their next 10 fixtures. We have 4 league games, 3 at home. We have 5 European games, 2 away. If we are drawing at home in the cup, we will have only 7 home games in our next 10 games. After Saturday, the timing of this couldn't be worse for them and couldn't be better for us. This a big test for them and it's an opportunity for us to press home our advantage. Their Fixtures Our Fixtures Thu AC Milan Home Standard L Away Sun Aberdeen Away Livingston Home Thu Lille Away Lech Poznan Home Sun Aberdeen Neutral Kilmarnock Away Thu Sparta Prague Home Benfica Away Sun Motherwell Away Hamilton Home Sat Hibernian Away Aberdeen Home Thu Sparta Prague Away Benfica Home Sun Scottish Cup 2nd Round - Draw not yet done Thu Milan Away Standard L Home

And Aribo and Zungu both to come in ?

If the season can't be finished the only fair way to award the title is to use the supercomputer. Celtic will be lobbying hard to award the title now after Saturday's performance, the supercomputer still has them winning it by a point (due to last season's form). https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18804976.celtic-tipped-win-premiership-just-one-point-rangers-defeat-supercomputer-predicts-season-2020-21/

Brian Laudrup has his say, “I thought (Glen) Kamara was the best player on the park in the Old Firm game. Just outstanding. He was crucial to the control Rangers had,” Laudrup said. “That control left Celtic looking clueless at points in their attempts to produce an attacking threat. “Kamara’s decision-making sets him apart. It is exceptional when he is at his best. On Saturday, his footballing brain was in top gear to run beside his technical qualities. Kamara’s value will only rise if he impresses for Finland at Euro 2020 next summer.” Really interesting to see him specify his decision-making and his footballing brain. Really encouraging, because add those things to his obvious technical ability and you have some player on your hands.

Standard Liege 1-1 Rangers Hagi

Mo Farah would be jealous of Tavernier’s fitness levels

I think we have played harder games so far too. The only games that really matter are the away ones, and they have had, Kilmarnock, Dundee United, Ross County, St Mirren, St Johnstone. We have had, Aberdeen, Livingston, Hamilton, Hibs, Motherwell Now for me, we have had far harder away games. Hamilton is the only gimme there. Kilmarnock is the only tough one they have had, the others are all strong bottom 6 candidates and don't have the track record Livginston have for taking points off us. Another good sign.

Haha. And here’s the proof on xG for the whole team. This is very significant. It’s not exaggeration, they really have been as poor as we have been hearing.

Wow, look at this one. Open play only. Suddenly Celtic’s main creators disappear! This is crazy. Even Barker is well up there.

Yes, but what I mean is they have scored about the same as us but according to this, their expected goals must be lower than ours. As I understand it, if you are outperforming your expected goals and assists you are probably getting a bit lucky, and it will eventually even itself out. Conversely, our actual goals probably don’t do us justice. Which makes sense given Morelos and others have wasted very good chances. All that to say, it is very good to see that our expected assists and goals are higher than theirs (at least for their main men, it bodes well.

I am actually really surprised how much we are dominating this graph. This really shows the luck Celtic have had in terms of points because their key men are below ours on every metric.

Thanks I hadn’t seen that. That account is brilliant for these stats. Hagi’s stats are quite incredible. And more recently I’ve felt he has been more consistent throughout the game, against Galatasaray he was really good throughout whereas in many league games he actually hasn’t been very impressive but then pops up with an assist.

The rest of the league have far too much respect for Celtic. Surely they will smell blood after that display at the weekend.

I can see the rationale for dropping Hagi at Celtic park but for most games Morelos is the one who deserves to be dropped for Itten or Roofe, not Hagi. Hagi leads the league in assists, from far less game time than our other creative players. He has proven end product.

They must have one of the best negotiators in the world.

I had a post on this a few weeks ago. The expected goals stats tell the same story, which proves it is no fluke. These are very good signs. And you have to give a bit of credit to Hibs, they have a go on their own ground unlike others. I don't know what Celtic's stats are like, but I know they broke their record for the lowest ever expected goals when they dropped points to Kilmarnock.

Most will disagree but I think Itten should get a run in the team. We haven’t seen a huge amount of him, but he’s been better than Morelos in his last few appearances and deserves a chance before he is competing with Roofe too.

He has to stick by him because he has only just signed him. I’m sure he is decent technically but they will be far more vulnerable away from home with this guy playing than Taylor, who for all the stick he gets is actually a good defender.

So many good performances. I actually thought the back four were all brilliant. Davis made loads of interceptions and controlled things. Arfield made that second goal. Yet again he provides a real creativity from midfield which is just great to see. We play some great stuff at times when Arfield is involved, he loves a quick one two. Kent played his role very well in the system, when the opposition have the ball he is second to none, works his socks off and defends from the front. The impact of that can easily be underestimated. On the ball I thought he lacked end product. Man of the match though is Kamara. Imperious. And the best thing is that this wasn't a one off, he has looked outstanding in all our big games this season. Fantastic to see after his stock fell badly among the support at the beginning of this year.

Letting them have the ball in that area actually compounds their frustration and, imo, has a big impact psyhcologically. As soon as you saw them pinging passes out of play under next to no pressure you knew their heads were gone and we were winning the game.