As ever for Celtic this season the games come thick and fast. With one trophy bagged and a view down on theRangers in the Scottish Premiership, the next week sees Celtic look to the two other trophies the Hoops remain in the hunt for.
Thursday sees Celtic face up to Norwegian Champions Bodo/Glimt in the first leg of a last 16 play off for the Europa Conference League, but first up attention turns to regaining the Scottish Cup with the visit of Raith Rovers on Sunday.
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The Hoops have already secured the League Cup this season and defeated John McGlynn’s side en-route to that success, with a 3-0 win at Celtic Park in September with goals from Jota, Liel Abada and David Turnbull.
It was a strong team put out on the night by Ange Postecoglou, however at that stage of the season there were little real options for rotation without diluting the quality of the team. Now however, Celtic do have options. As such this Scottish Cup tie may be an opportunity to see some squad rotation in evidence ahead of Thursday Night’s big European match, however a balance will have to be sought.
Raith Rovers are a team with promotion aspirations from the Championship. Currently lying fourth, they sit in the last play-off place for promotion and are sitting seven points behind surprise Championship pacesetters Arbroath, and although Celtic have scope to rotate you can’t imagine Ange Postecoglou won’t be aware of Rovers potential for an upset and will choose a competitive side.
At the back, this would be the ideal opportunity to give Scott Bain some match sharpness, and depending on fitness, this may be the long waited for time to see Christopher Jullien return to the team. There has been little chance to bring the player back to the first team fold of late, but 45 second half minutes for Jullien against Raith could go a long way to returning the defender, sidelined by a horrific knee injury for the last 13 months, to action, perhaps alongside Stephen Welsh who has been unlucky to drop out of the team of late.
Anthony Ralston is likely to continue at right back in the absence of Josip Juranovic who is recovering from illness, meanwhile at left back Liam Scales will expect to start and allow the impressive Greg Taylor to take a breather.
In midfield there is likely to be little change with the No8 positions rotating between Matt O’Riley, Reo Hatate and Tom Rogic, however there will be scope to see young Ben Doak to perhaps make another appearance from the subs bench.
Meanwhile in the No6 role this would be the ideal game for the captain to take a step back, with the possibility of Yosuke Ideguchi making his first start for the club after returning to training after injuring his ankle in the last round of the competition against Alloa, the opportunity to allow James McCarthy and Ideguchi to split the game seems a plausible alternative to risking Callum McGregor in this one.
The striker positions seem to be a straightforward choice between Daizen Maeda and Giorgos Giakoumakis and both have been amongst the goals in recent weeks, it may then be likely both see gametime on Sunday. Meanwhile the two wide attacking positions would normally see Liel Abada and Jota take up right sided and left sided roles respectively. On this occasion however James Forrest may well find he gets the nod and Abada gets a rest, and on the left Mikey Johnston who was an unused sub on Wednesday night at Pittodrie may well see a move to the starting eleven on Sunday afternoon.
That would leave a starting eleven for Raith Rovers on Sunday of –
Scott Bain in goal, a defence consisting of, Anthony Ralston, Carl Starfelt, Stephen Welsh, Liam Scales, with Yosuke Ideguchi, Tom Rogic, Reo Hatate in midfield and an attacking front three of Mikey Johnston, Giorgos Giakoumakis and James Forrest.
That would allow players to be rotated ahead of Thursday’s Europa Conference League match against Bodo Glimt and ensure Celtic field a side competitive enough to deal with the visit if Raith Rovers, whilst also showing them the respect their position in the Championship affords them.
I’m sure many will have their own thoughts on the team to face Raith Rovers in the Scottish Cup on Sunday, as such feel free to pick your own eleven and leave it in the comments below.
Niall J
