Ange Postecoglou has referenced the significance of the players he expects to return from injury after this international break and that means that he’ll have closer to his best team available to play for the first time really.
Players like James Forrest, Christopher Jullien and even Mikey Johnston will add to the depth and quality and certainly the first two add to the quality of the starting eleven.
There’s seven games to be played in this gap between the International breaks and – whisper it – there’s actually a realistic opportunity of Celtic going on wee run and achieving a magnificent seven wins which will put is in a much better position for the rest of the season.
That’s not to say that these Celtic fixtures are anything but easy – having already played Hearts, theRangers, Livingston and Aberdeen away from home we have to go to Fir Park and Easter Road for our next two away-day assignments. The flip side is that once we’ve played all the sides in the Scottish Premiership things flip and we have these teams all having to come to Celtic Park.
And if we can make progress in the Scottish Premiership, remarkably we are currently behind both Motherwell and Hibs in the league table, we can also get our chances of progressing in European football beyond Christmas back on track.
The Celtic support understandably took the 4-0 home defeat to Bayer Leverkusen very badly. UEFA released a video of the saves that their keeper made that night and they were pretty remarkable. That game could have just as easily ended in a 3-3 draw similar to our Champions League game with Manchester City as opposed to what actually happened. But it was a freakish result, as even their manager conceded afterwards.
In Seville Jota had a chance to put Celtic 3-0 ahead against Real Betis and Celtic thereafter starting handing out gift-goals but with the return of Jullien that might be a thing of the past.
These seven games are as follows. Motherwell away on Saturday before we play Ferencvaros on Tuesday afternoon in very strange conditions, the crowd is expected to be smaller due to the mental 3.30pm afternoon kick-off plus there will be vaccination checks at this game. Celtic are more than capable of winning both these games and certainly need to do so if we are looking to win the league and play in Europe after Christmas.
After Ferencvaros, the Scottish and League Cup holders St Johnstone are the visitors to Celtic Park a week on Saturday then the following midweek we travelling through to Edinburgh for the second time this season, this time to play Hibs. Then it’s the start of the second phase of games with Livingston visiting Celtic Park on 30 October.
There are two games at the start of November ahead of the final International break of the season starting with the trip to Hungary to play Ferencvaros – without any Celtic fans being there. The last game in this window is against Dundee at Dens Park on Sunday 7 November.
And if you look further ahead to the fixtures up to and including the Glasgow Derby at Celtic Park on 2 January then we have home games in the Scottish Premiership against Aberdeen, Hearts, Motherwell, Hibs and of course theRangers. Our away games are against Dundee United, Ross County, St Mirren and St Johnstone.
Then of course the January window opens and the players that Ange Postecoglou has been working on to bring in early doors in the New Year should be arriving.
Reasons to be optimistic? Perhaps it’s still unclear but if we are going to have a successful season then this window between international breaks could be the most crucial part of the season. Three points at Fir Park tomorrow gets things started. COYBIG.
