In a move that would delight The Celtic support, Ange Postecoglou could be edging ever closer to naming Kyogo in his starting line-up to play theRangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden this afternoon.
“With Kyogo now, the conservative approach has gone,” Ange admitted. “I was concerned about how we integrated him back into the team in training more than anything else. With him being out for so long and the team doing well, we didn’t need to rush him back. He’s trained fully the last two weeks and he trains really hard, so he’s ready to play.
“Can he last 90 or 120 minutes? No, because he’s not had much football, but he’s ready to play. I’m not worried about him in any sense. He’s now available for selection and I’ll make that decision on the day of the game.”
With Giorgos Giakoumakis sitting this one out the main decision that Ange has to make is who comes into to the side to replace the Greek striker who clearly has enjoyed playing against theRangers and has a 100% success rate in these Glasgow Derbies.
The Celtic defence is currently very settled and picks itself really, Joe Hart, Josip Juranovic, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Carl Starfelt and Greg Taylor, who we have featured this morning talking about today’s semi-final.
There are plenty of options in the middle of the park and Ange is likely to repeat his recent tactic of utilising the five substitutes available to provide a second wave of attacking threats. Tom Rogic was replaced at half-time last week, presumably with today’s match in mind and he is likely to start alongside Callum McGregor and Reo Hatate but expect on the captain to play the vast majority of the match, with David Turnbull and Matt O’Riley both likely to make a significant input from the bench.
That leave the front three and with Jota and Daizen Maeda both set to start that leaves us back at the dilemma of replacing Giakoumakis.
The options appear to be, play Maeda through the middle and bring in either Liel Abada or maybe James Forrest or maybe the more likely option on the Easter morn is to give Kyogo his first start since Boxing Day then replace him maybe after an hour.
So where does that leave us in terms of the predicted Celtic team for today? Here’s what we think…
Hart, Juranovic, Carter-Vickers, Starfelt, Taylor, McGregor, Hatate, Rogic, Maeda, Kyogo and Jota with O’Riley, Turnbull and Abada among the subs who will get on.
Score prediction? Celtic 2 theRangers 0.
COYBIG
