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Sunday Papers; 02/11/08
Topic Started: Nov 1 2008, 10:42 PM (77 Views)
Jinty
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Sunday Times


Time for Shunsuke Nakamura to leave Gordon Strachan’s limited Celtic

Craig Burley

It is time for new ideas, for Celtic to freshen up, and for the board to invest and try to improve the quality of the team

HOW MANY of the current Celtic team would make the Manchester United one they meet next Wednesday? Zero. Nobody could play in this United side, but it is more than that. A more serious question is how many of those same Celtic players are even English Premier League quality? Perhaps the goalkeeper, Artur Boruc, could be if he got his head right. Scott Brown, if he continues to sort himself out. The jury is still out on Aiden McGeady. Apart from that, none, and I am talking mid-table mediocrity teams not the top ones. The fact is there is no-one at Celtic who the big teams in England are sniffing around.

Celtic have moved backwards since they beat United at Parkhead two seasons ago. We are not really talking about a Battle of Britain in midweek. Manchester United against Celtic is the equivalent of United playing Blackburn, a mid-table English team. Some people have said Celtic did quite well at Old Trafford, but only in terms of containment, nothing more. The best case scenario in midweek is they repeat the kind of smash and grab of 2006 when Shunsuke Nakamura’s free-kick claimed a 1-0 home victory.

I listened to Strachan saying, after the 3-0 Old Trafford defeat, it was the greatest performance from any team they have played against in Europe. A load of nonsense. United by their standards were average. I have watched them a lot, and if they had played against Celtic the way they did against West Brom a few days earlier they would have got five or six. Strachan has talked up the opposition to camouflage his own team’s failings. Celtic fans are pulling the wool over their eyes if they think otherwise. It is accepted by certain people that containing United is a decent evening. If that is where the club is at, if that is the limit of their ambition, then it is a sorry day.

This Celtic team is limited. They have not got a Lubomir Moravcik who can do something different. They have not got a Henrik Larsson who they can go to when in trouble. They have not even got a great leader in the side. They are not quite a team of journeymen, but they are average at best. They hustled their way to the last 16 of the Champions League last season, but that papered over the cracks in a big way. There is a real lack of quality.

Nakamura typifies this. A hero to some, but a second-rate one compared to those who have preceded him at Celtic. When he was sold by Reggina in Italy, it was because he couldn’t produce over there. I have not seen too many clubs in England or Spain looking to pluck him out of the SPL. He has produced some magic moments, and people will talk about his free-kicks, but the game is about 90 minutes. I have looked at him in the big games and he is no more than okay. Being okay is not good enough.

Nakamura is very peripheral. He doesn’t do enough when the chips are down. If the money is right for Celtic in January from Yokohama Marinos in Japan, they should take it and move on. Losing him would not be a major drama. He is a flat-track bully, only performing against the weaker teams. Now and again he strikes a good free-kick, but so what? Whenever I see him in the Champions League or against Rangers, more often than not he underperforms.

McGeady has more ability, but he is getting bogged down trying to do too much as he thinks he has to overimpress his manager. The lad is overcomplicating things. Maloney had a shot with Aston Villa, but didn’t settle. There is more to playing in England than having the ability. You have got to have the physical presence to go with it, the mentality. Too many come down south and say they are homesick. It is a 40-minute flight.

The bottom line is not enough of them are capable of playing at a sustained level week in, week out. That is the question mark over McGeady and Brown. You look at those two and think they have half a chance of making it, but only that. They would not grab the English game by the scruff of the neck and say, ‘I’m the guy’.

These players seem to be happy with their lot. They have won the SPL against a very ordinary Rangers team. Strachan has done a good job, but his timing has been impeccable. He has got the best out of certain players, but that is wearing a bit thin now. He gives the impression of somebody who doesn’t really want to be there. The criticism irks him, the spotlight irks him, and not having the money to spend that he thinks he should have irks him, too. It is only a matter of time before he goes.

It is time for new ideas, for Celtic to freshen it up, even with a new manager, and for the board to invest and try to improve the quality. Celtic have enough of that to keep ahead of most in the SPL, but it won’t take them further. Something has to change for that to happen.

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Sunday Times


Small mercies as Celtic get ready for United

Simon Buckland

Scott McDonald insists Celtic can humble Manchester United after criticism of previous performance was taken to heart

When Scott McDonald was taking flak for allegedly being overweight earlier this season he lifted his Celtic jersey after scoring against Hamilton and pointed to a trimmer middle than his detractors had inched towards. Last Friday at Lennoxtown, he again chose to make his point with a body of evidence, only this time it was some hard facts about Manchester United. What McDonald really cannot stomach is the criticism of how Celtic were overwhelmed at Old Trafford.

He isn’t denying what happened, he accepts his team were outplayed, he just wants to explain why. He is bemused how little is taken into account of a financial reality check. Not least summer transfer activity. “With the money they spent on Dimitar Berbatov [from Tottenham], you could probably buy a whole team for that,” said McDonald. “We’ve got to be realistic. People say, ‘What can you do to match it?’ Well, give us £30m and then we’ll improve. Clubs in this country can’t afford to do that, but we do pretty damn well with what we have got. To get to the last 16 of the Champions League two years running and win three titles in a row isn’t such a bad position.

“We’ve got to be realistic. How many teams have won there in the past decade? We weren’t happy with the way they dominated against us and that’s something we’d like to put right at home on Wednesday, get a bit more amongst it, but they are the best team in the world. By far. They’re not European champions for nothing. And they’ve added Berbatov since. It’s unbelievable. We’ve got to be in their faces and try to stop them from playing, but they have got a magnificent squad.”

His manager concurs. Gordon Strachan believes the “whole thing’s been blown out of proportion” in the aftermath of the 3-0 loss. “West Brom lost four goals and they’ve spent £20m-plus. West Ham got turned over last midweek and it could have been six or seven. Their average goals per game in the English Premier League is 2.8. And two of those against us were offside so we’ll keep believing in what we’re doing,” said Strachan. “When you take on most sides you think you can beat them in a square go, but United are different. There’s nothing new you can do to stop them playing. Unless I go back to Jim Leishman’s 5-5-0 formation when he came here with Dunfermline once. That was absolutely fantastic. No strikers. Jim said he just stumbled across that one.”

Celtic are not far off having zero available strikers, though, with injuries to Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Georgios Samaras and Chris Killen. McDonald is likely to be Celtic’s lone forward in midweek. At 5ft 8in, the Australian international is not a target man in the traditional sense, apart from when it comes to receiving abuse, anyway. He was clearly hurt earlier this term when a slow return to fitness from a groin strain was instead presented as him being off the pace. He has set himself a standard with 31 goals in his first season at Celtic last time around, so is going to suffer by his own comparisons. By this time last year he was already into double figures. Ahead of today’s game at Hearts, his tally is four and that isn’t the only debate concerning a slim figure.

“I needed games,” he said. “I was injured. Everyone is trying to get sharpness in the opening part of the season, but I didn’t get that chance after my injury. I came back and didn’t do myself any favours by playing really well against Motherwell, but then disappointing in the next couple of games due to a lack of match fitness. You hear stuff said to you, but it’s a load of nonsense, it’s important you block it out and just get on with the football. After that, I’ve been getting my head down and working hard and now that I’ve had a good run of games, you’re seeing the old Scott McDonald again.”

McDonald has played as a single striker in Europe before, against AC Milan. He was the only Celtic forward to score more than once in Europe last term. Against Kilmarnock in Wednesday’s Cooperative Insurance Cup quarter-finals, he was effectively supported by four attacking midfielders: Shaun Maloney, Aiden McGeady, Shunsuke Nakamura and Scott Brown in the opening half. The final goal of the 3-1 win at Rugby Park demonstrated what McDonald can do in the role, holding up play before turning the ball onto Brown during the smart move which set up McGeady’s late strike. There were two clever assists against Hibernian last weekend, too, so he is intelligent enough to adapt. “We try to keep it on the deck and use our pace and movement to cause problems,” he added. “Movement is part of my game anyway, I can’t just stand up there and expect the ball to come to me.”

Was McDonald really able to take anything positive away from the 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford? “It was enjoyable as an experience,” he insisted.

“You’ve got to come out and think, ‘How many people get the chance to do this?’ There were lessons learned. You’ve got class players all over the park. It’s going to be tough to stop these players, but we’ll try our hardest. We’ll stick to our gameplan.

“We’ve played a lot of good teams at home, especially last year when we played Milan and Barcelona. They give you a chance to regroup, Barcelona, because they like to keep the ball and play little passing triangles. United are different, when they go forward they go direct with pace. As soon as Manchester United go, they go, players like [Cristiano] Ron-aldo running full pelt 60 or 70 yards. Gary Neville even did that the other night. Their strikers drop off which makes them difficult to mark. [Wayne] Rooney, you sometimes see at the halfway line when play is further up the park. He’s collecting the ball. It’s, ‘Hold on a minute, why’s he doing that?’ but he’s fantastic at what he does. He’ll play a 60-yard diagonal pass and then turn up at the end of the move.”

A pause follows as if to consider Celtic’s lot. “These players are all there for a reason, aren’t they,” McDonald added. Money not least among them.

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Sunday Herald


Nakamura headed east of 'Paradise'

ON THE SPOT: Michael Grant

THERE IS a line in a recent book about Shunsuke Nakamura which amounts to an understated but perceptive tribute to what the Japanese midfielder has come to mean to Celtic. Amid the waterfall of praise and adulation which washes over him - some of it over the top - Jim Divers, vice-president of the Celtic Supporters' Association, said simply this: "When Nakamura is not playing there is something missing." Nine words which nail his value to Celtic while sparing us any guff about him being some sort of Pele of the Far East.

He's right. This is the fourth season in which Nakamura has owned the right side of Celtic's midfield. Without him the team feels incomplete. He is an automatic first pick and has been since day one, which is quite a compliment given that he was only a £1.4 million signing (the purchase of his image rights brought the deal to £2.7m, still cheaper than Massimo Donati). Since he arrived in the summer of 2005 he has been a signature player of Gordon Strachan's Celtic. More than that, he has been the boss's pride and joy.

Now the clock is running down on Nakamura and Celtic. His thoughts are straying to the day when he rejoins the club where his career began, Yokohama F Marinos in Japan. This will happen either in January or at the end of the season when he can leave for free. Celtic must insist on the latter option. They ought to be putting football before finance and keeping Nakamura around to help them win the league.

So what is Nakamura? A great? A legend? An underachiever? The most over-rated player in the SPL? Strachan will be among the minority to describe him as "a genius". No player has been more protected, more praised, more appreciated by the Celtic manager. It will pain him to have to pick teams without Nakamura around.

He looks at Nakamura and sees someone with a level of touch, technique and vision probably beyond anyone else in the country. In that Nakamura book, the enjoyable "The Zen of Naka" by Herald journalist Martin Greig, Strachan writes in the foreword: "For pure ability Shunsuke Nakamura is the best footballer I have worked with, in both my playing and management careers." That means better than Kenny Dalglish and Eric Cantona in terms of natural talent. Strachan sees a wee man who contributes despite being roughed up in some games. He sees a professional who still stays behind to practise an already sublime talent for set-pieces. He sees someone who would run a mile rather than take a drink or hit a nightclub.

All of that, given the price Celtic paid for him,, means that the first thing to acknowledge about the 2007 Scottish footballer of the year is that he has been an extremely successful signing, not least because 140,000 Celtic shirts have been sold in the Far East since he moved to Glasgow.

There has been the privilege of watching one of the world's best free-kick specialists. Few will forget the strike which brought Manchester United to their knees at Parkhead.

But Nakamura was good enough to beat Manchester United, not play for them. Free-kicks aside, genius is far too generous a description of his entire output. A genius would wreak havoc in the SPL week in, week out and provide far, far more memorable moments. This Wednesday's rematch against United at Parkhead will illustrate how - even if he scores another free-kick against them - he lacks the pace and physical strength to play for the European Cup holders.

Nakamura will eventually leave to a mixture of acclaim from his own club's fans and a shrug of the shoulders from others (except Kilmarnock's, who are sick of the sight of him). There will be Rangers supporters who sneer that he never hurt them. That is not strictly true. He has created a handful of goals against them and his swerving long-range strike in April hurt Rangers plenty: it set Celtic on their way to a 2-1 win which changed the course of the championship.

Old Firm games have often passed him by, though, as did the Manchester United and Villarreal matches in this season's Champions League and many previous games in that tournament. Nakamura does not frighten opponents the way Henrik Larsson, Brian Laudrup or Paul Gascoigne did. He can seem an isolated, fragile figure who goes down easily (although he is also brave in wanting the ball even after fouls). Even his many admirers accept that in open play he usually disappears against truly accomplished opponents.

For all that, Celtic and Scottish football will be worse off without him. Think about what we want to watch in the SPL. Whether you think him a genius or a one-trick pony, how many others can place a football on the ground and do what Nakamura does?

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The Scotsman


Nakamura going nowhere, says Lawwell as Celtic plan January spend

By Andrew Smith

CELTIC chief executive Peter Lawwell has given the clearest indication yet that Shunsuke Nakamura will not be allowed to leave in January.

The Japanese midfielder's immediate future at the club has been cast into doubt after the player admitted five weeks ago that there was "a possibility" he could leave during the next transfer window for family reasons and to cut down on travelling to international fixtures. This has been followed by reports claiming former club Yokohama Marinos were awaiting approval from main backers Nissan to lodge a bid for the player, believed to be around the £1m mark but in some quarters quoted as high as £5m.

But Lawwell has batted down suggestions that the club could be willing to bank a fee for the player at a critical point in the season, even if it means him moving on for no return.

"We are in the business of winning championships, not cashing in on players," Lawwell told Scotland on Sunday. "It is our intention to strengthen our squad in January as we focus on retaining the title. That means Shunsuke Nakamura still being with us."

Although Nakamura, 31 in June, has stated the time may have come to return to his homeland and that he wants to do so while still in good physical condition, he has always added the caveat that he will only leave "when Peter says he no longer needs me". Lawwell, and Celtic manager Gordon Strachan – who has described the player as "the best I have ever worked with" – have both now made plain that time will not arrive this season. A fee of £1m would not been tempting since in each of the past two January transfer windows precisely that sum has been laid out to sign midfielders Paul Hartley and Barry Robson.

With Nakamura providing a reminder of his game-changing free-kick prowess in midweek in the Co-operative Insurance Cup victory over Kilmarnock – his 13th dead-ball goal for Celtic – his worth to the club in the second half of the season appears to be rated higher than the price placed on him by suitors Yokohama Marinos.

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The Scotsman


Class war has Celtic fired up


Scots are paupers compared to Manchester United but are determined to stay in Europe, finds Andrew Smith

THE THEMES recur when it comes to Celtic's ability – or inability – to compete with Manchester United in the Champions League. So it proved when Scott McDonald was asked what lessons he and his team-mates could learn from their 3-0 outclassing at Old Trafford in order to make a difference when the sides contest the Glasgow return on Wednesday.

"Did any of you see the West Ham game the other night?" said the Celtic striker of the 2-0 home win for the English champions in midweek. "No offence, but in the first 30 minutes of that game it could have been more than 2-0. They had class players all over the pitch and (Wayne] Rooney was still on the bench. Watch the 90 minutes of any team that have gone to Old Trafford in the past decade and beyond and see how many have won. It is very, very difficult."

Gordon Strachan chipped in by pointing out that, in the past year, United have averaged 2.8 goals in home games, making his team's beating a pretty standard one. Indeed, with two offside goals bringing up the triple for a United in "top gear", the Celtic manager claims the defeat in fact had been "blown out of all proportion". And for good measure, both he and McDonald reiterated that they were up against the best side in the world.

All of which is fine and well, but accepting that Celtic have no right to threaten United has to be set to one side as strategy is set out for the midweek encounter. Even if McDonald is entitled to his grumble about Paul Ince's – embarrassing in itself – line about Celtic being embarrassed: "The money they spent on Dimitar Berbatov, you could probably buy a whole team for that. You probably would. We've got to be realistic. People have said: what can you do to match it? Well, give us £30m and we'll see. Celtic and the like can't afford to do that and we do pretty damn well with what we've got, that's for sure. To get to the last 16 of the Champions League for two years running and win three titles in a row isn't a bad position."

Strachan might be privately cursing the Champions League predicament he finds himself in. His team are producing more fluid football than at any previous stage of his Celtic tenure. In the absence of Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Georgios Samaras, they have been doing so lately with pace and movement enhanced by playing all their "dwarves" who just happen to represent a band of performers Alex Ferguson's men will relish facing down.

There has been some rot peddled about Celtic's standards slipping from their previous two seasons in Europe's blue riband tournament. In reality, their performances away to United and Villarreal were more together than when they faced AC Milan and Shakhtar Donetsk on the road last year. The difference is that, in this campaign, the bar has been raised considerably. It is no coincidence that the three occasions Scottish teams have made the Champions League knock-out stages, they have nudged out a Portuguese team to finish group runners-up, rather than a side from one of Europe's top leagues.

Now, the chief objective for Celtic is to ensure they claim a UEFA Cup spot by finishing third behind United and Villarreal, with McDonald admitting they put themselves "behind the eight ball" right from the moment they opened Group E with a home draw that remains the only point they and Aalborg have gleaned. "It is a must we stay in Europe after Christmas," he said.

In the bid to do that, Strachan appreciates that, unlike with most sides, the bottom line is Celtic cannot beat United in a "square go". It means not "taking them on", yet he does not possess the sort of obdurate performers to allow them to hang tough. That has been the key to Celtic beating more accomplished sides at home over recent years. The home players have been carried along by a force of will transmitted by a hyped-up support in a stadium energised in remarkable fashion.

"We've played a lot of good teams at home in the Champions League with Milan and Barcelona but United are different," McDonald said. "They are British and when they go forward, they go direct with pace and drop off at times. Ronaldo will run 60, 70 yards at full pelt, and even Gary Neville ran 60 yards for a ball the other night. Their strikers drop off and that makes them difficult to mark and they have other players like Anderson and Nani who are starting to mature. Sometimes you see Rooney at the halfway line to collect the ball when play is further up and you're like: 'hold on a minute, why's he doing that?'. Then he'll pop a 60-yard pass diagonally and be on the end of the return.

"But it is more about what we do on the night than worrying about what they've got. If we can get in amongst them, in their faces, and have the fans behind us, a similar performance to what we had against Milan will be needed to give us a chance."

Famously, McDonald netted a late winner in that encounter. But little more than a month ago, there was a rush to reassess the worth of the £650,000 signing from Motherwell who had been gushed over following that 31-goal debut term. Debate then raged over the body shape of the squat Australian with the ample backside. It overlooked one salient fact.

"I needed games. I was out injured for three weeks (with a groin problem]," he responded coldly to the question over why he had taken until recent weeks to get his "sharpness back". "I didn't do myself any favours by playing really well against Motherwell on coming back and then disappointing in the next couple of games down to my fitness. Now I have had a run of games you are seeing the Scott McDonald of old."

The old cockiness is certainly back and that will make the striker a natural target when Celtic tackle their most important assignment of the week with a league visit to Tynecastle this afternoon.

"It can be an eye-opener (playing there] because everyone is so much closer to you, so you can hear what is going on," he said. "But it is important that you block that stuff out. It is a load of nonsense you are used to hearing week in, week out. Whether you are 20 yards or a yard away, it shouldn't be a problem."

Blocking out problems on the pitch come Wednesday will be a different matter altogether.

The full article contains 1154 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
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