Strachan salutes Petrov
04/03/2006 - 18:29:10Celtic manager Gordon Strachan paid tribute to midfielder Stilian Petrov after the Bulgarian’s second-half stint as a striker set the Hoops’ on the way to their 3-0 victory over Aberdeen in the Bank of Premier League at Celtic Park.
The Parkhead side had dominated but could not get the breakthrough against a Dons side inspired by keeper Jamie Langfield and in the 62nd minute an exasperated Strachan replaced John Hartson with Shunsuke Nakamura and moved Petrov up to play alongside Maciej Zurawski.
Three minutes later Petrov drove the home side into the lead with a wonderful strike and further goals from Shaun Maloney and Zurawski put the shine on a good display by the Glasgow giants.
Afterwards Strachan said: “We changed it a bit in the second half and I thought we were exceptional, really exceptional for the last half hour.
“But Stilian can play anywhere and we’ve tried him up front at training in the last month.
“There is time when you have to move a back four about and he is the kind of guy to do it.
“We had the option of Dion Dublin but we thought he was similar to John so we tried Stilian.
“We thought that because Aberdeen had worked so hard we needed fresh legs up there would give them a problem as well as wanting to move them around. Nakamura coming on gave us someone else who would beat people.
“But you don’t expect the player to play that well.
“It doesn’t give me a selection headache, it makes me feel a lot better because it’s a good option for us.”
Petrov revealed he has taken some tips from former and current Hoops strikers but claims he wants to retain his midfield berth in the long run.
He said: “I’ve played a few times up front in training recently which was a surprise.
“But when you’ve been playing with players like Henrik Larsson, Chris Sutton and John Hartson you always try to learn from them.
“I don’t want to play up there permanently. We have good enough strikers to do the job.
“John and Maciej are first choice. This was just a one-off and I’m glad it paid off.”
Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood insists Petrov made all the difference when he moved out of the midfield.
He said: “Petrov caused us a lot of problems up front.
“He caused us a lot of problems in midfield also but Kevin McNaughton’s pace cancelled that out a little bit but when he was through the centre he was brilliant.
“But the lad could play anywhere in Britain, that’s how good he is.
“I don’t know if Gordon has got him signed up for the next few years or whatever but if he has then it’s a great piece of business.
“But I hope he hasn’t. I hope we’ll see the end of him!”
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