Brendan Rodgers will have to make some tough calls on his Celtic starting eleven for tomorrow night’s top of the table clash away to Aberdeen. We reckon he will make five changes…
The Celtic manager made half a dozen changes to his side at the weekend for the match against Ross County at Celtic Park with two changes each in defence, midfield and attack, from the side that started in the UEFA Champions League match against Club Brugge last midweek.
Aberdeen have actually dropped seven points from their last three matches after only dropping two points all season before that and that was fighting back from 2-0 down at Celtic Park to share the points with a 2-2 draw. That has been the only two points Celtic has slipped all season. The Champions therefore head to Pittodrie with a four points lead and a game in hand so realistically a win in the North East tomorrow night would see football betting sites starting to pay out early on yet another title win for Celtic.
Into the Celtic back four came Ireland international Liam Scales and Barcelona loanee Alex Valle and both were outstanding, with Scales scoring the opener in a 5-0 Celtic victory and also getting awarded Sandman’s Man of the Match. Valle meanwhile looks like a player that the Celtic support would love to see signed on a permanent basis after his season long loan with the Catalan giants comes to an end. Those two replaced Auston Trusty and Greg Taylor as Rodgers looked at rotation to keep legs fresh.
In the middle of the park both number 8s dropped to the bench, the club’s record signing Arne Engels and fans favourite Reo Hatate both had been away on international duty with Belgium and Japan respectively and both were given a well earned rest. Their replacements Paulo Bernardo and Luke Cowan both scored and there’s an argument as to who should have got the official Man of the Match between these two. It went to McCowan for a goal and three assists but Bernardo is a class act.
Then up top Rodgers rested star-man Nicolas Kuhn and striker Kyogo, bringing in James Forrest and Adam Idah. The irishman led the line better than ever before, scored his first goal from outside the box for the club and hit the woodwork twice. It was probably his best performance in a Celtic jersey. “Jamesy was just Jamesy,” Rodgers said afterwards as he knows what he is going to get from the ever-green Celtic winger.
So tomorrow night Brendan Rodgers has the following big calls to make
- Alex Valle or Greg Taylor at left back. Youthful enthusiasm over experience, Valle looked the real deal at the weekend but that was at home against Ross County. Expect Taylor to get the nod.
- Trusty or Scales or both? Cameron Carter-Vickers could perhaps sit this one out and allow a return to the early season partnership of Trusty and Scales who after all shined in Bergamo keeping the scoreline blank against Atalanta in the Champions League. CCV has had injury concerns over the past year and maybe he’ll be kept on the bench for this one.
- Callum McGregor, the Celtic captain starts but it’s two from four contenders. Gut feeling is that Paul Bernardo will get a game alongside Reo Hatate with Luke McCowan and Arne Engels being listed as substitutes.
- Who will be the front three? Nicolas Kuhn will return and Daizen Maeda will start so it’s either Adam Idah or Kyogo and after that performance at the weekend and also the extra physicality the Irishman offers, he might just edge Kyogo out.
So our predicted Celtic team to play Aberdeen at Pittodrie is as follows:
Schmeichel; Johnston, Trusty, Scales, Taylor; McGregor (c), Bernardo, Hatate; Kuhn, Idah and Maeda (4-3-3)
Celtic Substitutes
Sinisalo, Valle, Carter-Vickers, Kyogo, Forrest, Yang, Engels, McCowan and Ralston
Brendan Rodgers will hold his pre-match media conference shortly so we might get some clues in there. Hopefully the Celtic manager has no injury problems to report.
As far as a scoreline prediction for tomorrow night goes, I reckon that it will end up as Aberdeen 0 Celtic 1 with Adam Idah scoring the all important winner.
COYBIG!
