Duffy, Edouard dropped, Ajer, Ajeti start – Motherwell v Celtic Match Preview

Neil Lennon has dropped Shane Duffy and Odsonne Edouard and neither can have any complaints after dreadfully poor performances against Sparta Prague. Kris Ajer returns to the centre of the defence after receiving a kick in the groin in Lille and Ajeti is preferred to Edouard. Full team is below…

🟢 #CelticFC team news ⚪️

Here's how the Bhoys line up for #MOTCEL 🍀 pic.twitter.com/z7uWhBxEXk

— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) November 8, 2020

Celtic head in to today’s lunchtime kick off, live on Sky Sports with a weight of expectation on their shoulders. In times gone by when under pressure they have responded strongly, the most recent of those after 29 December last year.

Following a chastening defeat at the hands of theRangers, Neil Lennon and his men regrouped and turned a premature title celebration from Steven Gerrard and his charges into and unbeaten run for the remainder of the season. Only two points were dropped between January and March.

By the time Celtic defeated St Mirren, in what was to be the last league came of the season on 7 March, Celtic had turned media predicted celebration of red white and blue ribbons on a Premiership trophy back to the traditional Green and white and 9-in-a-row. That 5-0 win and a Leigh Griffiths hat-trick culminated in an unassailable 13-point lead at the top of the table.

Even prior to the Covid-19 shutdown our opponents had publicly announced the league was over. That was to be revised as they fought an administrative and media supported battle during the summer for a null and void season. But such revisionism was never countered by the Celtic support, or indeed their own in their more contemplative moments.

This season Celtic reach the second week of November trailing their opponents by nine points. They have once again lost at home to their challengers and now have been written off. Celtic have now lost three home games on the spin for the first time since the 1989/90 season. We’ve won a single match from our last six and we are conceding goals at a frightening rate, 14 in those six games.

Yet Celtic have hope.

They have evidenced genuine mental resilience in the past and delivered results. They may be nine points behind in the title race but they have two games in hand, they also have three head to heads remaining against their challengers where this deficit can be overturned.

Yet you can’t help but think today’s game at Fir Park needs to be the moment where not only a victory is achieved but from it this team slips out of this coma of sluggishness and inconsistency and puts down the first winning step to towards the sustained winning run that will be required to battle for their title and the most historic for the club.

That burden may weigh heavy on some, players perhaps not used to such scrutiny and expectation, but the senior players and the coaching staff have to get it across that when such negative results result in such anger and pressure, that a winning run will have these players celebrated and lauded like they will have never experienced anywhere else. This is the double-edged sword of playing for Celtic, titles are won and lost on fine margins and such there is room for error but not a lot.

Defeat today could have a genuine psychological impact on the club. Should they slip 12 points behind in the title race, even with the two games in hand, it could be seen as a mountain to climb. Celtic have come back from worse of course, Neil Lennon himself has come back from a greater deficit in the 2011/12 campaign, when it was fifteen points and two games in hand, but it’s not something any of us would wish to revisit.

As such, if Celtic want to get a foothold back in this title race and begin a comeback that leads to a historic tenth consecutive title, it has to start with a win at Fir Park today, there really is no further margin for error.

Neil Lennon said this week that he needed to see his team get back to basics. That starts with defending our box at set pieces, being organised when facing counter attacks, paying attention to the little details. We need to do our work out of possession that allows us to deny the opposition and give us the springboard to impose our game. The players need to have each other’s backs, individual errors need to be minimal and of course we need to take our chances.

This season can turn on a sixpence and it could happen today.

Today we can win and build up momentum for the challenge ahead. We have players in the attacking areas that can put this team on a sustained winning run, but as a team we need to start defending better and give these guys the knowledge that sometimes one goal or two will be enough to win. They need that assurance.

I’m not sure any of us would have thought Celtic would be facing a crossroads in their season on the 8^th of November at Fir Par against Motherwell but that is what we are facing. This has become Celtic’s most important game of the season so far and we must deliver today. Celtic are at a crossroads, choose the right path and a tenth consecutive title remains within our grasp.

Niall J