Old Firm derby

By: j | August 30th, 2008

Regardless of position in the table you can count on the Old Firm clash to be quite a spirited affair. However with both clubs sitting at the top of the Scottish Premier League this six point clash will have doubly importance. From Ranger supporters, in consideration of the ridiculously inept Champions League qualifying charade, it will have a significantly greater value as European glory has been erased from the equation.

First and foremost Celtic Park will be a roaring cauldron tomorrow and I think you can safely say, Celtic fans would delight in pounding another nail in the Rangers season. Make no mistake about it, while early results have been “fine” the same warm and fuzzy feeling that existed around last season UEFA Cup is long gone. The disarray that existed after FBK Kaunas situation might be out of the attention deficit disorder suffering public but it isn’t from the Footballing world. The cost of that loss wasn’t simply SPL’s player of the year Carlos Cuéllar but a budget to compete on the world stage and shaken player confidence. The gift-arrival of Pedro Mendes aside, the Rangers are far from healthy and many decisions since have left you scratching your head of what and who this club represents. That aside, the most heated rival of Celtic, in what is one of the greatest rivalries in all of sport, is bloodied and like any good manager I respect, Gordon Strachan must be telling his troops to go forward and devour their spirit.

In last campaigns Old Firm clashes, home squads won and it’ll take quite a bit from the Rangers to reverse this trend. Again, I’ll return to the loss of Carlos Cuéllar because now and including the absence of Barry Ferguson, they will need to summon up defensive control to manage Celtic’s attack. Madjid Bougherra and David Weir have massive weight on their shoulders and they must be at their best to hold Celtic at bay. While they have many weapons at their disposal, Shaun Maloney looks in particularly good form and you can count on the Scottish international looking to make a hearty return to the Old Firm derby.

At this stage of the SPL season, the Rangers smash and grab style attack has gotten away with weaker opposition but won’t be the case tomorrow, especially as they face the human wall, Artur Boruc. Rangers must establish a defensive net, to dictate Celtic’s tactics and the react accordingly. I haven’t seen that yet this year and not given any indication this is in the offing.

In this match, Walter Smith is likely to stack and pack the midfield with a 4-5-1 with any you-pick the lone striker up top. At this stage, none of the strikers have shown an ability to put the ball in the back of the net and while I’d suggest Kris Boyd, I expect the force-feeding Kenny Miller to continue. This could naturally change with a 4-4-2 but in the last two encounters, the Rangers midfield were picked apart by the Bhoys so that is likely to be heavily considered. Repeating my above statement, the Gers must establish a defensive net that will dictate Celtic’s tactics and then react accordingly to expose their weakness if they are to be successful.

It goes without saying this will be an exciting match that you don’t want to miss. I will follow-up with a summary as the match concludes.