Balogun & Helander

Not quite relevant to this thread I know, but all we seem to hear about just now is the number of injuries impacting Celtic. They are missing, from their first 11, Jota and Furuhashi, the rest apart from maybe Forrest are backup players. We have played every game Gio has managed minus a combination of Helander, Balogun, Barisic, Jack and Davis and today, after the first few minutes, had a LB at CB and a RB at LB. Never seen it mentioned once in the press how we've continued to win minus key players.
 
Do not understand using Simpson on the bench as I think if it came to it today and we had to use a sub at heart of our defence I think King would have been called upon before Simpson
 
Interesting to see who will play the old firm.

Leon would be coming in from the cold to a certain degree but then he’s a natural centre half and has played great against that mob before.

Bassey has the run of the fixtures in that position - including against Lyon - but naturally a risk putting him in that fixture ahead of a fit balogun.
 
Manhattan_Loyalist said:
Bassey had been good but I still think there’s big mistakes in him it’s not felt like he’s been under any great pressure in any of the games.

I like how he passes the ball quickly out of defence though to get us moving.

It’s just a shame you never really know which Balogun you’re gonna get he’s either man of the match or has a stinker
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Parkhead will be the interesting one to see who gets the nod.
 
If Leon is only just approaching availability for Rangers how on Earth is he going to the ACON?

He could well be off there without having played for us since coming back which seems mad.
 
If Celtic played with a out and out centre forward I’d be more concerned, the fact it’s a player like kyogo who is nippy, and all about movement etc I think Bassey and his pace could be very useful together.
 
The Goalie said:
Not a tough call, the answer is no.
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I agree it’s not a tough call, but the answer is yes. As much as Bassey has played well in that position over the last few games it’s not his natural one and you can see in games he does get caught out a few times. For that reason Balogun should come straight back into the team as he has played more and better in the CB position

If Barisic isn’t fit I’m more than happy to have Bassey at left back
 
Bassey and Balogun are remarkably similar, they both go wondering, both get dragged out of position and both have the pace and power to get back in.

On Bassey, i think he has done really well but Helander comes back in when he’s fit. Balogun would be my 4th choice and Bassey 3rd.

If Goldson gets injured, it will be Balogun that slots in though for balance.

One thing is for sure, a CH will either be coming in Jan or the summer, maybe even 2
 
If Balogun is fit he should play. Bassey is showing more promise at CB than I expected but still gets caught positionally and is prone to a long ball getting round the side of him. Kyogo is all about movement and I'd much rather a natural centre back there than one who may get dragged where he shouldn't.
 
When Helander is fit he plays as he is by far our best CH if we can keep him fit, he doesn’t like playing on Astro and has had his only bad games for us on it
 
Madjid Moments said:
If Celtic played with a out and out centre forward I’d be more concerned, the fact it’s a player like kyogo who is nippy, and all about movement etc I think Bassey and his pace could be very useful together.
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If Bassey plays, expect Kyogo to just sit on him & look to run in behind constantly. A massive weakness in Bassey's game at CB
 
Talktalk said:
When Helander is fit he plays as he is by far our best CH if we can keep him fit, he doesn’t like playing on Astro and has had his only bad games for us on it
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There is not much between Goldson, Helander and Balogun. Different players, horses for courses. Not one is "far better" than any of the others.

FF prone to gross exaggeration as always.
 
Tailwind said:
There is not much between Goldson, Helander and Balogun. Different players, horses for courses. Not one is "far better" than any of the others.

FF prone to gross exaggeration as always.
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I’m not exaggerating in any way Mate as Helander is our best CH with Goldson next in line but he is bombproof and doesn’t get injured which makes him first choice.
 
I'm not convinced that Helander will be available for many games thus season. After such a long lay off and his track record, it's inevitable he'll pick up further knocks than keep him out.

We can't afford to carry guys like Helander, Roofe, Jack who are injured more often than not. You could see yesterday the problems caused by having players injured.
 
Talktalk said:
I’m not exaggerating in any way Mate as Helander is our best CH with Goldson next in line but he is bombproof and doesn’t get injured which makes him first choice.
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"By far" is the exaggeration. Its nonsense. Is he better, perhaps. If he was better by far he wouldn't get bombed out the team often when we played old firms and top European teams.
 
scottie59 said:
Do not understand using Simpson on the bench as I think if it came to it today and we had to use a sub at heart of our defence I think King would have been called upon before Simpson
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If King signs a new deal he will be our 4th choice centre back in 22/23
 
Truffle Shuffle said:
I think Helander is our best by a distance, there’s a reason we were not in the champions league and that’s Gerrard dropping Helander.
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You may be right re the CL.

But Goldson + any other of our centre backs is a better pairing than any other combination of the rest, incl Balogun + Helander.
 
Tailwind said:
"By far" is the exaggeration. Its nonsense. Is he better, perhaps. If he was better by far he wouldn't get bombed out the team often when we played old firms and top European teams.
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It’s to do with fitness and managing him rather than dropping, any big match and he was fit under SG he played
 
ForGodForCountryForever said:
If Leon is only just approaching availability for Rangers how on Earth is he going to the ACON?

He could well be off there without having played for us since coming back which seems mad.
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Players have been known to rush themselves back from injury to try and make tournaments for their national team then they make their injuries worse.

Let's hope that doesn't happen with Leon as we are short of defensive cover.
 
I want to see what Gio and coaches can get out of Big Leon.
I almost believe Gerrard could be accussed, (especially according to what Scott Arfield has hinted since he left)...of having a dereliction of duty. When it came to our first part of the season.
Definitely, especially after the Malmo games... his mind was elsewhere, and it seems he didn't hide it from the players either.
Anyway he is yesterday's news.

I hope to see a re emergence in form regarding Big Leon.
Like we have seen with the many of the others.
Since Gio and Co came in the building.
 
Talktalk said:
It’s to do with fitness and managing him rather than dropping, any big match and he was fit under SG he played
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Na, if one defender is miles ahead of the other two you don’t rest him for fitness in Old Firm games, key European games etc.

Some fans on here just can’t deal with the fact that Helander is not miles ahead of Balogun and Goldson. There is a very strong question mark he’s ahead of them at all.
 
Tailwind said:
Na, if one defender is miles ahead of the other two you don’t rest him for fitness in Old Firm games, key European games etc.

Some fans on here just can’t deal with the fact that Helander is not miles ahead of Balogun and Goldson. There is a very strong question mark he’s ahead of them at all.
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It’s all about opinions and your opinion is different from others
 
Tailwind said:
There is not much between Goldson, Helander and Balogun. Different players, horses for courses. Not one is "far better" than any of the others.

FF prone to gross exaggeration as always.
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I normally agree with you mate but Balogun is far worse than the other 2
 
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