Strachan beats a tactical retreat

Much was made of Strachan's tinkering with the Hoops' side which won the Co-Operative Insurance Cup at Hampden last week.Strachan dropped his two tall, off-form strikers Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Georgios Samaras and pushed Aiden McGeady up to support the equally-diminutive Scott McDonald.Defender Gary Caldwell came in to stiffen the midfield, with Glenn Loovens playing alongside skipper Stephen McManus at the heart of the Parkhead defence.After Darren O'Dea opened the scoring with a header, the ever-dangerous McGeady scored a late penalty to give the Parkhead side a deserved 2-0 win.Asked if he would return to his usual 4-4-2 for Sunday's crucial game on Tayside, Strachan retorted: "One or two 'voices of football' - I've been told - said that we played 4-5-1."That was terrific to work out because I never worked that out."You must be better geniuses than me."I must be really ordinary because I sent out a 4-4-2."If you saw something else then that was fantastic."I was wasting my time getting my badges - I should have just joined a radio station."Aiden was on the left-hand side, the right-hand side and getting in the box, so he was everywhere."There were times when it was unorthodox and there were times when players were allowed to roam."But it's a players thing, it's not a tactical thing."If you are saying orthodox is two big strikers, which is often the ploy here, or a big strikers and small striker, then the options are there."You look at at each game you play and think, 'What weapons have I got to cause the other team most concern'."Out of the blue, Strachan also rounded on critics who denounced the abilities of Danish club Aalborg, who pipped the Hoops to a UEFA Cup place by taking four points off them in the group stages of the Champions League earlier in the season.After taking the scalp of Deportivo La Coruna, Aalborg were knocked out of the last-16 on penalties by Manchester City last night after recovering a 2-0 first-leg deficit.The Celtic boss said: "Aalborg did well for a pub team."They beat Deportivo last time and took Man City to penalties so it (Celtic's defeat and draw to Aalborg) is not as embarrassing as the season goes on."We still should have got through. We take full responsibility for that."But it looks like Aalborg are not as bad as people made out."

Source: Team_Talk