If someone had told us on the morning of 30 December last year that we'd be looking to beat St Mirren at Celtic Park on Saturday 7 March to go 16 (SIXTEEN!) points clear at the top of the Premiership from nearest rivals the Rangers, we'd have thought that they were off their head. The bookies that December morning, despite the lead at the top having been reduced to 2 points having played a game more, still had Celtic as favourites.
Yet our last three results and performances suggest its a tougher period for Celtic than the mood among the support currently suggests. A stock defeat to Copenhagen at Celtic Park ended our Europa League ambitions, A narrow win at Perth in the Scottish Cup in awful conditions had Tommy Wright cursing his luck in not getting a reply and on Wednesday night it ultimately took a late Tom Rogic effort to win Celtic a point at Livingston.
Of course Hamilton were doing us a favour and on the way into the Tony Macaroni Arena the other night I said to young Lubo98 that Hamilton would win at Ibrox, in response to Hearts beating Hibs to put Hamilton bottom. Remember, I told him, they nearly got air against us at Parkhead in December before Scott Brown late into stoppage time winner.
So St Mirren are of a same frame of mind. Desperate to survive in the league they will do everything they can to frustrate Celtic.
As far as the team goes, the advantage of the 3-5-2 is that it gets two strikers in the team. But the negative is that neither James Forrest on the right or Greg Taylor on the left are wing-backs. One is a right winger, the other a left back.
In a 3-5-2 the best wing backs would be Frimpong and Hayes - the two that can attack and defend. That means dropping players that Neil Lennon doesn't want to drop and it is the reason why we have struggled to get fluency and results over the last three games.
If you want to play 3-5-2 - play Frimpong and Hayes and bench Forrest and Taylor.
If you go 4-2-3-1 of 4-4 (diamond) 2 then Forrest can play right or left as an attacker and Taylor can do the left back job fine.
Not sure who Lenny will play so here's who I'd play tomorrow...
Forster
Jullien, Ajer, Bitton
Frimpong, Christie, Brown, McGregor, Hayes
Griffiths, Edouard
But that won't be the team as James Forrest will start.
Prediction? If we got one, we'll probably get three or four, so I'll go for Celtic 4 St Mirren 0...
Yet our last three results and performances suggest its a tougher period for Celtic than the mood among the support currently suggests. A stock defeat to Copenhagen at Celtic Park ended our Europa League ambitions, A narrow win at Perth in the Scottish Cup in awful conditions had Tommy Wright cursing his luck in not getting a reply and on Wednesday night it ultimately took a late Tom Rogic effort to win Celtic a point at Livingston.
Of course Hamilton were doing us a favour and on the way into the Tony Macaroni Arena the other night I said to young Lubo98 that Hamilton would win at Ibrox, in response to Hearts beating Hibs to put Hamilton bottom. Remember, I told him, they nearly got air against us at Parkhead in December before Scott Brown late into stoppage time winner.
So St Mirren are of a same frame of mind. Desperate to survive in the league they will do everything they can to frustrate Celtic.
As far as the team goes, the advantage of the 3-5-2 is that it gets two strikers in the team. But the negative is that neither James Forrest on the right or Greg Taylor on the left are wing-backs. One is a right winger, the other a left back.
In a 3-5-2 the best wing backs would be Frimpong and Hayes - the two that can attack and defend. That means dropping players that Neil Lennon doesn't want to drop and it is the reason why we have struggled to get fluency and results over the last three games.
If you want to play 3-5-2 - play Frimpong and Hayes and bench Forrest and Taylor.
If you go 4-2-3-1 of 4-4 (diamond) 2 then Forrest can play right or left as an attacker and Taylor can do the left back job fine.
Not sure who Lenny will play so here's who I'd play tomorrow...
Forster
Jullien, Ajer, Bitton
Frimpong, Christie, Brown, McGregor, Hayes
Griffiths, Edouard
But that won't be the team as James Forrest will start.
Prediction? If we got one, we'll probably get three or four, so I'll go for Celtic 4 St Mirren 0...