Celtic feel they have grown since they last faced Manchester United at Old
Trafford, yet Sir Alex Ferguson’s team have hardly been standing still in
the meantime. Both clubs have won successive domestic titles since the minor
classic - a 3-2 victory for United - they served up in September 2006. Yet
United have also scaled the highest peak in club football by taking the
European Cup last May and added Dimitar Berbatov, a £30.75m centre-forward,
to an attacking arsenal which already contained three of the most coveted
players in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez.
Rooney’s recent displays for United and England have suggested a return to the
explosive talent he unveiled when bursting onto the international stage at
Euro 2004, while Ronaldo has returned from injury and his protracted
flirting with Real Madrid as though neither ever happened. Berbatov is
starting to settle, providing a focal point of flawless touch for those
around him, while Tevez has selflessly sacrificed his own scoring rate.
Gary Caldwell would require the peripheral vision of an owl to take in all the
movement which will flow around him on Tuesday night, yet he has become an
unlikely bulwark for Celtic. Previously a target for supporters’ criticism,
despite, or perhaps because of the unstinting faith Gordon Strachan has in
him, there are few who now demur from the opinion he was the club’s
outstanding defender in last season’s late run past Rangers to the title,
form which the 26-year-old has largely maintained into the current campaign.
Celtic’s first-choice defence is precisely the same as it was two years ago, a
sign of the continuity Strachan prefers in those positions but also of how
players such as Caldwell, Stephen McManus and Mark Wilson, the right-back,
have resisted the upgrades envisaged by fans and, perhaps, also their
manager. For example, Strachan returned to Wilson after Andreas Hinkel, the
German international signed for £2m from Sevilla, proved less reliable.
There may be hyperbole in the £8m Celtic’s manager estimates he would
require to find a better option than Caldwell, yet increasingly the player’s
value moves toward that figure from the zero, he was a Bosman signing from
Hibs, he cost in 2006.
Talking at Lennoxtown last week, on a day when Celtic’s training ground was
blessed with some glowing autumnal sunshine on its’ leafy surrounds,
Caldwell cut a calm, confident figure, as he recalled the last visit to Old
Trafford and indicated his relish for a return. “The last time, a lot of us
had our debuts in the Champions League. It was a great night, a great
occasion and we acquitted ourselves well only to lose by the odd goal in
five. The goals we gave away that night were when we had the ball. These
teams are very sharp and can punish you quickly.
“Keeping the ball is very important and the longer you can do that, the less
chance they have of scoring. We’re looking forward to it again and hopefully
to getting a positive result. That was over two years ago now. We’re more
experienced, we have improved a lot and hopefully we can show that because
on the night we made mistakes that were a bit naive for that level and we
got punished. The pace of the game and the pace United had in their team and
the way they moved the ball was something that me and a lot of others hadn’t
come up against. You realised what it takes to play at that level. I think
we’ve stood up to that test since then as a group of players and shown we
are good enough.”
The two goals Celtic conceded from open play that night, were the direct
result of careless passes from Thomas Gravesen to the ginger menace known as
Paul Scholes, which rather ignored the rule that red usually spells imminent
danger. The Dane’s Celtic career never really recovered from this tendency
to self-harm. There was also impulsiveness in Artur Boruc’s dash out to meet
Ryan Giggs, with the winger still well wide of goal, and a soft penalty
resulted. Nevertheless, it was one of the more creditable defeats in
Celtic’s woeful away record in the competition, they have taken one point
from a possible 48 in the group stages, as was last month’s 1-0 loss to
Villarreal.
“Our problem in the last game (against United) was keeping possession about 40
yards out,” said Strachan. “It’s a huge thing keeping the ball at this
level. I was very happy with the performance in Villarreal in terms of
keeping possession and being able to go forward and be a threat. The more
you keep the ball, the less you have to rely on fitness and stamina but I
imagine we’ll be tired at the end of the game.”
Martin Ferguson, Sir Alex’s brother, has been at Celtic Park regularly
scouting and Strachan agrees there are few surprises either side can spring,
although he mused that his former Aberdeen manager might field all of his
fantastic four. He also dismissed an inquiry as to the status of their
well-documented feud, conducted via their autobigraphies. “Alex and myself
think it is tedious now. It’s finished. I get bored with it and he gets
bored with it - and the reason I know that is because we speak to each
other.”
That woeful away record is almost as tiresome a topic for Celtic’s players.
“We’re trying our very best to put it right,” stressed Caldwell.
“Against Villarreal we were very close to getting a good result and
unfortunate in the end to lose the goal. We are getting closer and hopefully
Man United will be that time when we get the result. It gets to us as
players that we can’t get it right. We are professional and it hurts us when
we get beaten. We want to win that game away from home more than anything.”
While the performance in Spain offered encouragement, Caldwell did not find
much when he watched England on television last Wednesday night. “ Rooney is
on fire at the moment”, he acknowledged. “Ber-batov has come in and scored,
Ronaldo has come back to form, but it’s where you want to play football, to
be tested against the best and these guys are the best in Europe, if not the
world, at the moment. So let’s see how good we are.” He is certain Celtic
are better than two years ago. “Experience is massive in football,” he
explained. “When you are younger you don’t appreciate it. When you get older
you play in more games and you understand certain situations. As a team we
have all got that now.
“We are more fluid at moving the ball and getting forward. We have more pace
in the team than when I first came and it shows. We are scoring a lot of
goals in league games and hopefully we can take that into the Champions
League.”
His own improvement is linked to the partnership he has formed with Stephen
McManus. Celtic’s captain was previously perceived as the senior partner,
yet now Caldwell is less likely to step aside should Strachan turn to Glenn
Loov-ens, whose arrival from Cardiff in August he believes “put the fear of
death” into his established pairing.
Caldwell, as you would expect, stresses the benefits of leaving it intact. “I
think playing as a partnership for the last couple of years has brought us
on. I think the best centre-halves have been partners. Over the years, it’s
very rare that you talk about one centre-half being excellent, it’s always
as partners you seem to remember them. We’ve had a long run now and played a
lot of games together.
“To be remembered, we have to achieve things. We want to get out of the
Champions League Group again this year, we’ve done it the last two years and
we want to progress further and be remembered as a top pairing.”
They also have an off-field friendship. “We play golf together,” adds
Caldwell. “In saying that, we got beaten last week as a pairing so we’re not
as good at that. We’re close off pitch, as is everyone in the team. We’ve
got a good dressing-room, mostly of similar age, we get on well as a group
of players.”
Celtic, though, are not getting on well in Group E of the Champions League.
“It’s going to be difficult with the Man United double-header and Villarreal
playing Aalborg,” concludes Caldwell. “You’d expect them to get six points
against Aalborg so we’re going to need at least four against Man United.
That’s the challenge for us and it’s one we look forward to.”
FAMOUS FIVE
Scottish clubs have crossed the border in European competition 28 times and
returned victorious on only five occasions:
West Brom 0, Dunfermline Athletic 1 (Gardner) European Cup Winners’ Cup
quarter final, 1968-69
Leeds United 0, Celtic 1 (Connelly) European Cup semi-final, 1969-70
Leeds United 1, Rangers 2 (Hateley, McCoist) Champions League qualifier,
1992-93
Blackburn Rovers 0, Celtic 2 (Larsson, Sutton) Uefa Cup second round, 2002-03
Liverpool 0, Celtic 2 (Thompson, Hartson) Uefa Cup quarter-final, 2002-03
Fright night: Fergie’s fearsome front men
ARCHIE KNOX, the Blackburn Rovers coach, runs the rule over Manchester
United’s four strikers, a deadly attacking force Celtic must try to contain
on Tuesday
We came up against them recently at EwoodPark with Wayne Rooney, inset,
Dimitar Berbatov and Cristiano Ronaldo starting and Carlos Tevez coming on
later. I don’t think Sir Alex Ferguson will play all four together against
Celtic, but you never know. They are such good players, who can all play in
each other’s positions, it is possible.
They are each worth £30m, or more, and for that you get just about the
complete package. The golden rule for defenders is to make sure you have
your body positioned so you have them in your sights at all times, yet that
is a very difficult thing to do. You can make plans for one special player,
but when you are facing three or four it becomes much harder to stop them
all.
Rooney, whom I worked with in his early days at Everton, stands alongside Ryan
Giggs as the only two players I have seen at the age of 13 who you could be
certain would definitely make it – barring injuries.
Celtic will face him at the top of his game; he seems likely to score in every
match he plays just now. When I was with Walter Smith at Everton we wanted
to play him in the first team at 15, but the rules prevented it.
Rooney this season Starts: 8 Sub: 1 Goals: 3 United career Starts: 179 Sub: 19
Goals 80
Berbatov has a little bit of Eric Cantona about him. People said Cantona
didn’t work hard for the team but he most certainly did, by always moving to
find space to receive the ball. Also like Cantona, a calmness seems to come
to his game when he has the ball. You can be sure of one thing: he will be
working harder at United than at any of his previous clubs.
Berbatov this season Starts: 5 Sub: 0 Goals 2
When Ronaldo is really in the mood, he can paralyse you. He has just about
everything you could want in a front player. He has pace, he can go past
people on either side and score with either foot or with a header. I pointed
out to our players at Blackburn that in the 92nd minute against us he chased
a ball right through to the goalkeeper hoping for a miskick.
Ronaldo this season Starts: 4 Sub: 2 Goals: 2 United career Starts: 200 Sub:
45 Goals: 94
Tevez has admitted his scoring rate has dropped because of the demands of the
Premier League, but he is such a good team player who fights for every ball
and makes such clever runs. Rooney, Berbatov and Ronaldo all do this . They
know, automatically, which positions to move into to cause the opposition
problems and make things easier for their teammates.
Tevez this season Starts: 6 Sub: 3 Goals: 1 United career Starts: 45 Sub: 12
Goals: 20
