Jim Jeffries has today shocked the nation, nay the world in his first positive comment about Celtic ever! The man who hardly has a positive word to say about anything has today mentioned that playing against Celtic, and one player in particular, leaves feeling that he doesn’t know what the question is, let alone have any answer to it!
Smile a lifetime Manager Jim Jefferies yesterday described Celtic midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura, whom his players will attempt to subdue tomorrow, as "a genius", and admitted that it's next to impossible to prevent him scoring from set-pieces.
Naka has scored 6 times against the Ayrshire Farmers 11, the most impressive goal being the high-pressure free kick, which clinched the league in injury time at Rugby Park.
Of the Japanese genius unique experience Jeffries said. "I'll bet every manager has this discussion before they play Celtic," "I remember being up at Gleneagles for a coaching conference and John Collins said he'd tried various theories with his goalkeepers.
"Someone even asked if there was any point in putting up a defensive wall at all, but if you didn't then someone else would take the free-kick and just blast it.
"Nakamura has a fantastic ability to get the ball up and down and into the postage stamp. He's done it against better teams than us, too: don't forget that he scored twice against Manchester United and they have a top-class, 6ft 5in goalkeeper in Edwin van der Saar. You have to give him credit. We've tried one or two things and we once spent an entire week working on stopping him scoring from set pieces.
"Alan Combe [the Kilmarnock goalkeeper] had a few ideas he thought might help, but he ended up putting the ball in an area we never even thought of.
"Even when you put a player on the post he still scores. Ultimately, you can only hope that you get the breaks and he has an off day.
"You'll save yourself an awful lot of trouble by not giving away daft free-kicks on the edge of the box, but that's easier said than done in the heat of the battle. Gordon Strachan thinks he's a genius when it comes to free-kicks and I'd go along with that."
Reports that Jim went on to crack his first smile of the new millennium are as yet unconfirmed!
Yours in Celtic
Clydebuilt