Boyd V Celtic

[Danny 0]

This really is a curious tale. Boyd is without a doubt the best predator in the SPL. He could do it in the EPL against plenty of decent teams, and his all round game has improved vastly this season.

 

Instead of only being a penalty box striker, he's coming deeper, holding up the ball, using his strength to fend off defenders, and showing some creative class - his through ball for Miller's chance has barely been mentioned yet I felt it was as good as Buffel's for Lovenkrands V Inter in 2006.

 

His value has increased massively and he's unquestionably one of our biggest assets - I for one sincerely hope we can hold onto him because he'll leave for free if we can't.

 

However, despite the fact he has scored against the best the SPL offers - such as Hibs, Hearts, Motherwell, Utd...he really does seem to have a severe mental block against Celtic.

 

Outwith the box he looks composed, solid, creative, and robust. Give him a chance in the box against them, however, and his legs turn to jelly, you can see him panicking, and he looks beyond desperate to score which seems to ruin any ounce of composure. He seems to lose his natural goalscoring instinct against them.

 

Take our winner yesterday - against any other team the scorer of that goal was Boyd - he's done it a million times before (Motherwell for example recently and St Mirren too); right place, right time. But against Celtic it abandons him and his predatory instincts desert him.

 

We can't even use the excuse that timmy have a great defence, because they really don't - defence is one of the reasons why they're so poor this season - so it has to be a psychological block on his part.

 

Boyd doesn't seem to really believe he can score against them - he can do the rest and play just as well as anyone else - but sticking the ball in the back of the net seems to be something, against Celtic, that Boyd seriously struggles to do.

 

Just my opinion.

[ian1964 10,431]

Agree with a lot of that,Boruc did excellent to stop him scoring just before Edu scored the winner,the other chance he had when he went round Boruc was a tight angle,down to Boruc doing well again.Maybe he's just unlucky against them as he seems to play well enough as you pointed out with the terrific through ball he played to Miller

[Zappa 0]

Part of Boyd's problem is that people keep writing articles like this pointing out that he can't seem to score against them. Take away all the added pressure being put on him to score against Celtic and he'd do it no problem. There is also another factor here, which is that Boyd doesn't score in every single game he plays anyway. He scores a lot of goals over a season, but he doesn't score in every game.

[ian1964 10,431]

It could also be the fact that that mob are shit scared of him and therefore he gets closer attention, as I said I thought he was unlucky yesterday and played well

[Zappa 0]

Aye, he was a bit unlucky. It was just one of those days. That's why I pointed out that he doesn't score in every single game anyway because strikers just have those sort of days where it doesn't happen for them. On another day Boyd will score 2 or 3 against that mob.

[Dr Preston Burke 0]

Yesterday was easily his best performance against Celtic but yet again his goal touch abandons him

[calscot 0]

It did take a lot of last gasp defending to deny him, and that O'Dea tackle was amazing.

[Gers4Life 0]

The celtic defence were throwing everything bar the kitchen sink at our strikers to keep them out.

[Whosthedado 1,519]

Who cares. Maurice Edu DID score and that's all that bothers me:spl: