Strachan: We believe in our system

Last updated : 27 December 2008 By Mikbhoy

Gordon Strachan has won only once in six attempts at Ibrox as Celtic manager and as he prepares for the latest Glasgow derby at the home of his city rivals he says that the guarantee of still topping the SPL table after the game will mean nothing to him if his team lose. "The pain of any defeat isn't helped by looking at the table." said Strachan "It will mean nothing tomorrow night if we get beaten, I've been top of the league before and lost to Falkirk and never felt as bad."

The Celtic boss will venture across the Clyde without arguably his best player, Aiden McGeady, after their much publicised confrontation resulted in a two-week club suspension for the player. Last week's 3-0 victory over Falkirk saw Koki Mizuno make his first start for the club in McGeady's position and the Japanese star had a wonderful game but whether he is ready to be thrown into the red hot derby atmosphere is a question for the manager to ponder.

"I don't have a problem putting anyone in the squad in the team, but the derby game is different." he said "Even if you think you are prepared for it, you will be surprised by the intensity and everything else that goes with it. But Ibrox is a place where you should enjoy going to play because there is a fantastic atmosphere and, as a footballer, it's fun to go and play in places like that."

Strachan doesn't think that the derby matches have as much of a direct bearing on the destination of the title as they may have had in the past "I think the Old Firm games recently have shown you that they are not all that critical." said the gaffer "There has been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in the league and you never know when you are going to get a good run of results. They are critical to Rangers or Celtic supporters feeling happy for two or three months but there are other things to winning a title, such as winning or losing away from home. And the thing is, when you look back at these things in 10 years' time, nobody is interested in who did what - they are only interested in who won titles."

"Teams are far stronger, a lot more physical than in my day," said Strachan. "I look at Dundee United and Hearts. I mean they are two big, big teams, really physical. There was nothing like that when I left Scotland years ago. Kilmarnock, I remember, had two big lads, Armstrong and McDicken, and you needed doctors' lines to get past them. But apart from that they were all a reasonable size. But they are all big, big boys now."

"The coaches are also now putting more thought into stopping Celtic and Rangers from playing. Years ago it was just Dundee playing 4-4-2 against Celtic, and whoever had the best players on the day, that was it." he added.

But today's game won't see any drastic change in tactics from either side according to the Celtic manager "We both have systems that we like playing." he said "We believe in our players and our system and they believe in theirs as well. I don't think there will be anything tricky."