While the league title takes priority, and fans crave a long awaited European run, every competition is important at Celtic. The League Cup is no different, and it forms the first part in a trinity of domestic trophies that the club has been hoovering up at an incredible rate in recent times. A record eight trebles have been secured by Celtic, and if we want to push for nine then we will need to win tomorrow.
Given the above, Celtic can ill afford to rest too many players… not with the injury list mounting so high. We already go to Rugby Park without Carter Vickers, Reo Hatate, Stephen Welsh, Oh, Alistair Johnston and others. Therefore, I don’t believe the calls to bench Kyogo or O’Riley are correct.
I understand that further injuries could be damaging, but so could depleting the team further by resting these key players. We want to build momentum and advance in the cup. Rugby Park is a difficult venue on the plastic playing surface, so we need a strong team to give ourselves the best chance of doing that. Killie’s win on the opening day against the second best team in Scotland proves that.
One would also hope that the club are looking to bring in a few more established recruits before the end of the window, so if the worst should happen then we should have replacements arriving.
It’s very much a case of going all in, during every game for me, with a little rotation where appropriate. For example, we may be able to bring Yang into the fold in place of someone like Abada, or give Holm a run out instead of Turnbull. However, we should not compromise on our real quality stars like Kyogo, whose goalscoring can be so important to the end result. I’d prefer we started with players like him, O’Riley, McGregor et al and then make substitutions if and when the game is won.
No doubt Brendan Rodgers will be thinking similar, as he looks to bring his first trophy in since returning to Glasgow.