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Celtic FC analysis-focused The Huddle Breakdown Podcast @huddlebreakdown

Joined May 2010
Aberdeen continuing on the hamster wheel of flushing resources down the toilet. This time the mistake seems like another version of Thelin hire - i.e. a head coach whose style of play strengths don't align with seeming preferred playing style of the club.
Managerial hiring and firing decisions are not easy and can be helped materially by using a more advanced performance and attribution analytical framework. Aberdeen have been particularly poor. The manager with the best non-penalty xG post-Covid season? Stephen Glass
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Part of why the events at Dundee Utd this season are noteworthy, IMO. Goodwin seemingly shown an ability to be flexible and adjust, and use aligned recruitment coherently. At least over the time he had, Robinson did not seem able to display that at Aberdeen.
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Limited sample sizes, but Kelsy and Bouanani both experienced a factor most ignore, which involves uncontrollable randomness. A notable issue at Gers so far is conceding same level
🕵️‍♂️ "There's something missing" 😬 "Eventually that will bite Rangers in the backside" 🏆 "If you're not clinical, can you win league titles?" Do the Ibrox side lack a ruthless touch up front? 🤔
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of xG from open play as Hearts did last season under McInnes, so far. Reintroducing Shankland into a 4-4-2 is unlikely to make that better, and Kelsy offering 2 things Shankland has consistently lacked through his career- smart decision making and OOP value.
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Will find out Celtic’s staff costs £ when full annual filed, but probably be somewhere around 4 times Hearts last season. We are now living downstream from the misattribution of last season's double to MON's supposed leadership super powers.
Hearts publish 2025/26 accounts when they finished second in the Scottish Premiership.Despite the excitement on the pitch revenue ⬇️ due to lower UEFA receipts. Losses ⬆️ due to higher overheads especially amortisation and would have been over £13m had it not been for donations
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But even if the chips don't fall that way this season, the pivot in game model after 1-season may suggest a more ambitious strategic outlook than "1 in next 10 years." Seems more of a hegemony-type pivot on relative basis. With USG and Brighton, they appear setup to compete
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where as this move could suggest they think they can supplant the current hegemon while unimpressed with Rangers' direction in attempting the same.
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A different version of the movie in a Bizarro universe continues to unfold, as the "scouts" not only won, they appear to be out on a world tour now!?
The equivalent of the scouts in this scene just won the civil war - the rebels have lost and the likely pathway to Anderlecht probably secured. Thank goodness there will be no players signed with ugly girlfriends! youtu.be/0h19anH4MdE?si=FwHe…
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Sofascore appears to source some tracking data for Celtic via Opta. Players sometimes speak about the impact of being online and seeing public discourse about them. In this day and age, players getting reports on their physical data is ubiquitous. Imagine public narratives
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professionalism, etc. Imagine being a player who objectively is one of the hardest working runners having to read/listen to your own supporters criticize for the exact opposite! Football, eh?
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Palace intrigue, politics, and egos - power vacuums and ambition...stories as old as recorded history. Notable the job he was allegedly targeting, which is interesting given events of last season? Why are we reading/hearing this now?
It has been suggested that Shaun Maloney may not want to be Celtic’s assistant manager, having initially targeted the head of football operations role. @mcgowan_stephen also questioned whether Maloney and Martin O’Neill share the same ideas about how the team should play.
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Vrancken settled on a selection much more aligned with what I have been worrying he'd eventually get to. Be interesting to see if Guendouz at #10 + Braga at striker suggest Hearts will be more aggressive in their press than they have been generally so far.
📋 TEAM NEWS Today's Jambos in Glasgow 🇱🇻
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Only two games so usual grain of salt, but Hibs appear to have shifted to a more possession-centric style of play? A potential issue is that neither of the typical sitting 2 midfielders have been good passers in possession in the 2-games, increasing oppo scoring probabilities.
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Neither Mulligan nor Chaiwa's pack passing metrics over their Hibs tenures suggest they are particularly skilled in that phase of play, and particularly during buildup in defensive half. Seems like Ivezic and Kerr being asked to fill that void? Interesting ?'s may monitor
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