The headline should be sung to the tune of “lions, tigers and bears” from the Wizard of Oz 
After a quick January which had very few fixtures, February 2013 was the opposite with plenty of them.
But as the headline suggests, it was a month blighted by injury, suspensions and fatigue.
Champions League (Last 16, Leg 1)
Playing at home against Arsenal I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was regarded as slight favourites. While I had most of my squad available to me, I was without Beram Kayal who is out for 8-9 months with damaged cruciate ligaments – ouch 
This was significant as he is my normal defensive midfielder in the 451 Counter I setup to play against Arsenals 4231.
In addition to the modified midfield 3, Lustig had to play at right back instead of the injured Matthews while Forrest was at right wing instead of the injured Stokes.
We started the game very much second best and a swift change to 451 Control brought our first goal. I’ve often changed to this formation as it stops inviting the opposition onto us quite so much.
Anyway the real turning point was Wanyama’s red card. We went from gaining control of the match to being right on the back foot again.
I started the second half without changes, which left a gap between defence and midfield (where Wanyama played). It was unfortunate that I noticed this just moments before Arsenal scored and my substitution, taking right winger Forrest off for defensive midfielder Ambrose, was too late. That said, some dodgy marking from Izaguirre was the root cause of the goal.
In the end, I felt unfortunate to have drawn, after playing the whole 2nd half with 10 men. We should have capitalized on Arsenals own injury and suspension worries to win this match.
Domestic
As you can see from the results, we sailed through to the 6th Round (Quarter Final) of the Scottish Cup by beating Ross County and I was able to rest some players and still get a result against Inverness.
But it’s after the Arsenal game that things went pear-shaped.
The Dundee United game (injury list: Matthews, Kayal, Stokes) bore witness to some shocking defending from Lustig, and also resulted in injuries to Forrest and Commons.
Then going into the Dundee game, I had to play without an established right back (would you play Lustig after that horror show?) nor right winger (Stokes and Forrest injured).
As if matters could not get worse, Miku and Nouioui got injured during the Dundee game!
And then they got much, much worse. Fraser Forster got injured, spraining his ankle and leaving him out for 3-4 weeks.
The shaky form from a squad decimated by injuries continued but at least we managed a win against 2nd place Motherwell to leave us top of the SPL, 13 points clear of 2nd.
Players
In the Champions League, I’ve nothing but praise for my players.
And overall we look great too.
Injury, suspension and fatigue
But here’s where we don’t look so good.
- Kayal, first choice DMC, is out of 7-8 months.
- Forster, first choice GK, is out for 3-4 weeks.
- Miki, first choice FC, is out for 2-3 weeks.
- Kris Commons is out for 5-10 days.
In addition
- Izaguirre, first choice DL, is showing the strain of playing so many games.
- Generally speaking, the team is struggling to keep up with the hectic schedule.
And if you add the suspension of Wanyama for the Arsenal game, I’m missing the core of my team (Kayal, Wanyama, Forster, Miku) for the return Arsenal game. I’d say Commons is unlikely to play too.
It’s not looking good!
Contract
I did, however get a new contract agreed with Hooper.
He’s on £21k p/w (up from £12k p/w) ‘til 2017. I hope that he earns this next season, when Miku returns to Getafe.
Reserves/U19s
The reserves are still top of their league, though since they are on equal points to Hibernian with worse goal difference, I can only assume that’s because they’ve been better over the two games between them.
The U19s are in the semi-final of the U19s Scottish Cup. Tony Watt, Lewis Kidd, Bahrudin Atajic, Paddy McNally and Stuart Findley are still the top performers.
Finances
Another month, another loss, this time of £1.6m. Wages, Tax and Match Day Expenses are the biggest expenses with Gate Receipts the biggest income.
As always, projected profit is down again. This time from £22.64m to £19.26m which is quite a large drop.
And it should be noted that while I have £8.16m transfer budget left, I am now slightly over-spent on wages, due to Hooper’s wage rise.
Summary
March will be a huge month for us but it’s looking ropey due to the amount of injuries, a suspension and fatigue throughout the team. Other than reducing the training intensity and increasing the rest and rotation of the squad, I don’t think there’s much I can do.
Hey celticman, caught up with your recent blog entries and congrats on the last 16! looking forward to reading about the return leg of the arsenal tie!
I’m currently in my 3rd season with Celtic in my own save and find myself in a similar situation with regards to tony watt…yes I want him to be a key figure within the celtic team – at some point – but i feel hooper and my other signing vossen are too strong to dislodge at this moment in time and I think a season long loan in the championship would be the best thing for him as he would do a job for every team in that division, and I dont want him to play a bit part sub for another season which is only going to hinder his development.
Also, Interestingly enough I noted that you were unsure as to whether Hooper deserved the pay rise that he bargained for and also that another fm crowd member suggested that hidden attributes such as game time accumulated can affect a player’s development etc and I must say that I played Hooper a lot in the first and second seasons and he just got better and better for me. I know every save game pans out a little differently but in the second season where we had one hell of a journey in europe he was banging them in for fun and at that point he was on about 18k p/w and he bagged 26 goals in 29 games in the league and about 11 in the champions league. (the fact that I sent miku home after a month or two because he could not hit a barn door with a banjo probably aided his development also ha!)
good stuff with the blog – keep it going!
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Also, as Dan mentioned below about resting the team, I always give the players at least a one day rest after every game and i’ve found this to help out a lot – especially during the fixture congestion when the european games are thrown into the mix!
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Thanks Reacher. Do you blog your own Celtic story – I’m sure it’d be interesting to read.
Yes young players need to play a lot to develop (~15 games a season) and it’s possible Tony Watt might benefit from a loan. As for other players, well playing regularly helps them too, if only from a point of consistency.
I’m pretty sure Hooper will come good once he has had a run in the team. And as for the wage rise, I don’t mind giving him ~£20k p/w but over £30k p/w after one international appearance is not on!
Miku has been sensational for me – he leads the Champions League scoring charts at the moment. But as you say, different games, different results.
I’ve always rested my players after games.
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Hey Celticman,
Another month with some great results. You’ve pushed yourself way ahead in the SPL department and that result against Arsenal is a good one! As for the fatigue issue I’m not great at dealing with it myself, all I would say is give your players a rest before matches as well as after if you’re not already and lower match prep a little?
Anyway, well done and continued good luck!
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Thanks Dan. I haven’t been giving players a rest before matches – it seems an odd idea to me as I’d want them working, albeit more on mental preparation, tactics etc.
I’m pretty pleased with the Arsenal result, as I said, I didn’t expect anything from the game so a draw was good.
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I think gary hooper will justify the pay raise, 19 apps 8 goals and 4 assists, how many were from starting and coming on has a sub?
it is even worse when you have to rely on 19yr olds.
great result against arsenal shame about the away goal but you just to match the number of goals they score and you are through unless it is 1-1 at full time.
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Hooper had 9 starts, with 10 of his appearances coming from the bench. So I think you are right, a return of 8 goals is good.
Before the Arsenal game, I’d have bit your hand off for 1-1 but as we played so well, I was disappointed to lose. You’ll see shortly how I got on in the return leg
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Guess its time for young Tony Watt to step up! He could play in Miku’s place.
Meanwhile, for the Arsenal game, I suggest you try playing Scott Brown in the DMC as a deep lying playmaker. He’s a senior player and the DM role is good for him to dictate tempo and play.
Hope I helped!
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Oh and about your scouting bit in the last post, don’t set up any age restrictions for scouts. Just put them to scouting new talent all over the world and it should suffice. I got some really good players through that system in my Shakhtar save.
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Tony Watt will indeed be the main striker at some point. Timing is the key though – he needs to play lots of games now to progress, but too many and it can equally hamper him, particularly if they are games outwith his depth.
Brown isn’t very good as a DMC. But I’ve played the match now, you’ll see soon.
As for scouts, that is a good idea, getting them all over the world for new talent. I’m focussing on young players because those are the kind I have most success with.
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Oh and about me saying Miku not being good enough in the beginning of your career, I guess I was a bit off on that one.
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