This game will always look difficult on paper but Aberdeen haven’t really impressed too much this season. We’ve heard constant moaning about injuries and most performances have been poor.
They can’t be taken too lightly after a 3-0 win away to Motherwell, but Celtic should still be on a high from beating Lazio. You might expect a bigger reshuffle after a huge effort on Thursday night, but there’s only a couple of changes to the team.
It was known that Ryan Christie would be suspended and Tom Rogic is the obvious replacement. There were some suggestions that Olivier Ntcham might get a chance but he still has an ankle injury that forces him to miss out.
The big call comes at right back – Lenny has been talking about having three top class right back options so there might be some rotation in that spot as the season goes on. Jeremie Frimpong gets the nod today, so it will be fascinating to see how he fares here.
The rest of the starting XI is as expected:
Aberdeen’s starting XI does feature six defenders so this shouldn’t be a swashbuckling attacking effort from them. There was some talk of Greg Leigh playing in midfield but that’s new to him so that’s an obvious weakness to exploit.
If they do go five at the back then the wider areas will be open to Celtic, expect to see Frimpong and Bolingoli having tons of space to gallop into and cause problems:
Here is your Aberdeen team to play Celtic at Pittodrie this afternoon- kick off 12.15pm #COYR!#StandFree pic.twitter.com/AybIQxmHii
— Aberdeen FC (@AberdeenFC) October 27, 2019
Their obvious threat is Sam Cosgrove, but his height should be matched by Jullien so they should be able to keep him quiet. If it starts to go wrong, this seems exactly the kind of game where Jonny Hayes can come on and get a late goal !
Kick of is at 12:15pm and the game is live on BT Sport.
