Celtic begin their defence of the League Cup – now sponsored by Premier Sports – with a potentially tricky trip to Dingwall. Malky Mackay’s Ross County are the opponents in this evening’s match, just weeks after the Scottish Champions recorded an impressive 3-1 victory in the Highlands on cinch Premiership business.
Fresh after Sunday’s 9-0 thrashing of Dundee United at Tannadice, Ange Postecoglou takes his side to The Global Energy Stadium as he looks to book his team’s place in the next round draw which will be made after tonight’s match in Dingwall.
Team News
In goals, Joe Hart is the number one and you’d expect that to continue. Despite taking a nasty knock to the head on Sunday and the arrival of Benjamin Siegrist from Dundee United, Ange hasn’t appeared too keen on shuffling his pack more than necessary.
Tony Ralston will hope for some game time but Josip Juranovic is a hard man to displace. Likewise, Alexandro Bernabei is unlikely to get the nod ahead of Greg Taylor. In the centre of defence, we may see some rotation with Stephen Welsh and Moritz Jenz looking for game time. The manager will have Saturday (v theRangers) and Tuesday (v Real Madrid) in mind when deciding who plays at the back.
In midfield, you’d expect the preferred trio of skipper Callum McGregor, Matt O’Riley and Reo Hatate to be in from the start. However, both David Turnbull and Aaron Mooy will want to stake a claim and tonight could present an opportunity to get minutes under their belts.
In attack, Georgios Giakoumakis missed the trip to Tannadice through illness. He is back training and should be back and should get his first start of the season in Dingwall. Liel Abada was frightening on Sunday, he would look to start and potentially with James Forrest, who has been talked up by the manager, on the other wing. Naturally, having Maeda, Kyogo and Jota on the bench would allow firepower if goals were needed.
And watch out for new signing Sead Hakšabanović making his debut this evening coming off the bench. His media conference this week with the Celtic Fan Media, including The Celtic Star can be viewed below.
Predicted XI: Hart; Taylor, Starfelt, Jenz, Juranovic; McGregor, Hatate, O’Riley; Forrest, Giakoumakis & Abada.
Kick Off Time
The game kicks off at 7:45pm (Celtic Park Time).
Where to Watch
The game will be shown on Premier Sports 1 with coverage starting at 7:30pm. The game will also be available on BBC Radio Scotland as well as Celtic TV for those outside Britain & Ireland.
COYBIG
We progress in this cup tournament we will have a game every 3/4 days for the foreseeable future, bar international breaks and one midweek in December.
*If any of our international players make it to the World Cup semis and/or final, we will be short of player(s) for the Aberdeen game on 17th December.
If we go all the way in this cup, a couple of our fixtures in the new year will have to be moved to accommodate cup ties, leading to a potential fixture pile up later in the season.
This is great for supporters, more games more entertainment, and depending on which way you look at it, could be good or bad for the squad; more fixtures tightly packed together gives opportunities for every squad member to play, but can also lead to fatigue for those players used more often than others and present more opportunities for injuries and/or suspensions.
In a season where we’re competing in Europes premier competition, maybe dropping out of this cup wouldn’t be a bad thing, though there’s no harm in giving it a go now and weighing up our options later in the season once we know where we stand in Europe.
Obviously as fans we want to see the club win every game, but sometimes you have to pick your battles strategically.