Celtic need to stand up to bully boys in Madrid – Gordon Strachan…
Former Celtic boss Gordon Strachan has come out and urged the Hoops to stand up tall and strong against the antics of Atletico Madrid tonight. The two teams finish off their double-header tonight in the Spanish capital and the ex-Scotland manager has encouraged his old side to meet the challenge head on when they clash with Diego Simeone and his team.
The Spanish side are well-known for their exploits and the adopted use of “the dark arts”, as is often referred to in football parlance. Always keen to put the opposition team off using methods that aren’t necessarily in within the remits of game, Simeone and his squad have developed a penchant for these types of tactics on a consistent basis over a number of years at both domestic and European level.
We saw it in action a fortnight ago at Celtic Park, when the rolling around on the deck and feigning injury concerns were rife from Antoinne Greizmann and Co., alongside various other sneaky challenge and kicking and shirt pulling in secrecy from the officials too. Tonight will be even worse no doubt, as they are on home territory and will have a raucous crowd behind them right from the start of kick-off.
Nevertheless, Strachan has insisted the away side mustn’t let that get the better of them on the night and meet the Atleti bully boys straight on.
Speaking to ICE36, he said: “Don’t rush. I don’t think that they need to make any drastic changes to how they would approach this game and, sometimes, if you make too many changes as a manager in terms of tactics or personnel, players get spooked.
“You don’t want to create doubts in the players’ minds where they start to think that the manager doesn’t trust them to play their normal game – I’ve done that before as a manager in Europe.
“You then realise, actually, if we play our game, on occasions the opponent isn’t that good and that gives everyone even more confidence because you played the game on your terms. It’s like standing up to a bully at school. You have to put your own mark on it – sometimes you’ll have to take a couple of hits.”
The man who steered the club to three successive league titles is worried that Atletico could be dangerous since they have been on the receiving end of humbling results both at home and abroad of late.
He added: “The horrible thing about this game is that Atletico were beaten at the weekend in La Liga. They don’t often lose two games in a row – they will want to respond. They are a team that are masters of the dark arts. Beelzebub! Even at the end of the Celtic match where all their players just walked off – they’re the embodiment of their manager.”
Paul Gillespie
