Fortune favours the brave?

Celtic's dismal away form in Europe continued this week as they were humbled by the excellent Shakhtar Donetsk. The blame on this occasion must lie with Strachan whose starting formation suggested he had never seen the Ukranians play before. By starting with two wide men and just two in the middle of the park, his team were flooded by the diamond formation employed by Shakhtar, and it was only when Hartley was moved into a holding role that the tide was partially stemmed. This sort of naivety is inexcusable at Champions League level, particularly when Strachan's been culpable before, as in Benfica, Artmedia, Copenhagen. Interesting to note this was a point not put to Strachan by any Scottish journalists after the match. Yet again they seem reluctant to ask the difficult questions, for fear of falling foul of Strachan's particularly precious nature. This is surely doing the readers/listeners/viewers/fans a dis-service?
While Strachan's tactics could be considered bold while ultimately foolish, over at Ibrox, Walter Smith's starting line-up against Stutgart was met with with groans of disappointment by the home support who viewed it as negative in the extreme. A 4-5-1 formation at home in the opening match of the Champions League, with no recognised wide men and very little pace, did little to instill excitement. I was actually at the match and the delight of hearing the Champions theme was soon replaced with exasperation as Rangers failed to do anything for the first hour. Then Stuttgart scored and Rangers finally came to life. Some inspiration from a few individuals, notably Hutton, earned Rangers the win and I would say the victory was earned despite Smith's defensive tactics. Stuttgart were poor and if Rangers had a second striker I'm sure they would have scored earlier. I can't imagine any team at home in the Champions League on opening week went out so defensively, but some would argue that Smith's ploy was vindicated with the win. Again, the media went predictably overboard, citing this as a night of glory at Ibrox. Certainly the result and its nature were exhilarating and Rangers are off to a great start, but for two thirds of this match they looked devoid of ideas, mainly due to the manager's methods.

And another thing....
Aberdeen fans are a disgrace. I may be biased, but the fact the club had to cancel a chatered flght for the vital away game in Ukraine against Dnipro due to lack of interest from the so-called Red Army, gives me justification. They think they deserve better than third or fourth place each year in the SPL yet can't even fill a plane for a rare European adventure. Pathetic.

Let the games begin....

Tonight sees the start of this year's Champions League and Celtic have a tough game in Donetsk. I had a dream last night that they would lose 4-1 and, as unrealistic as this sounds, I had to put a wager on it as the dream was so vivid. The bookies must love it when folk like me dream about football.
As for Rangers tomorrow, Ferguson's fitness is crucial as the team look devoid of ideas without him, as Saturday's embarrassing defeat to Hearts showed. The Old Firm need to win their home games if they are to progress to the last 16 so Rangers need to go out and be positive as anything less than a victory will be met with disappointment.
For anyone who was wondering, the reason I haven't blogged in a fortnight or so is that I've been in France on holiday. It felt gloriously surreal to be sat in a Brittany gite with my old man watching Scotland beat France on their equivalent of BBC 1. Magnifique.
What made it even sweeter for me was that days earlier I had stumbled into a pub in the village I was staying in to buy pizzas and was met with the Gallic glare of about ten seriously pished Frenchmen of various ages. There were two boys who looked about 16 slumped over a table with goblets of luminous green liquid in front of them. I thought for a minute I was back in East Kilbride.
Anyway, the pub soon ascertained I was Ecosse and were only too happy to tell me how France would destroy us and laughed mockingly as I hastily left with pizzas in hand.
Oh what a grin I had on my face on the Thursday night walking by that same pub.