New summer signings have improved the Celtic squad in more ways than one and Brendan Rodgers can now field two top quality sides…
The summer transfer window seen us recruit Kasper Schmeichel, Viljami Sinisalo, Adam Idah, Paulo Bernardo, Auston Trusty, Luke McCowan, Arne Engels, and secure a season long loan move for Alex Valle. So it’s fair to say that we have massively improved our squad, but in more ways than one.
Every single player we signed can be considered first team ready, and that’s what we required to make strides in moving forward.
Only two of those players started the win against theRangers with three appearing from the bench, proving how difficult it will be for the new boys to be guaranteed an automatic start in Brendan’s starting XI.
The likes of record signing Arne Engels will be expected to be an automatic starter, as will Auston Trusty at £6 million and Adam Idah at £9.5 million, but you can’t just cast aside Liam Scales, Paulo Bernardo or Kyogo after the ability and commitment they showed in yesterday’s Glasgow Derby emphatic victory.
That’s the good thing about signing quality players, it also ups the performance levels of those already in possession of a jersey. That strength and depth can only be considered a good thing as we head into a long, demanding campaign which will include eight exciting matches in the Champions League which will give us a detailed assessment on where this Celtic squad stands in terms of competing in the toughest club competition on the planet.
Yesterday we started with this team:
Schmeichel; Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Scales, Taylor; McGregor, Bernardo, Hatate; Kuhn, Kyogo and Maeda.
And we could also have a decent alternative team with those squad players not starting yesterday…
Sinisalo, Ralston, Welsh, Trusty, Valle; McCowan, Engels, Holm: Forrest, Idah and Palma.
Would be interesting to see which side would win in a bounce match at Lennoxtown. I reckon that this alternative starting eleven would also have comfortably beaten theRangers yesterday. What do you think?
The talk after the game yesterday was that none of theRangers players would make it into the Celtic team. However would any of them merit a place in the second Celtic first team listed above? Struggling to think of any potential candidates…
Callum McGregor On Luke McCowan. “I Just Said To Him, ‘Go And Play, You’ve Got Massive Quality, Just Go And Run About, I’ll Be With You, So Let’s Just Go’. He Was Fantastic When He Came On. To Be Thrown Into A Game Like That, Big Expectation, Big Pressure, He Was Excellent.🍀💚 pic.twitter.com/pBRtARuhV2
— Declan Blair (@DeclanBlair1967) September 2, 2024
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
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Yes they looked good yesterday let’s not get to far ahead of ourselves big tests coming up as for rangers pure and utter rubbish