Celtic Team News – Trusty to return?
Brendan Rodgers will be without Kasper Schmeichel and Liam Scales for the trip to Perth but will have Auston Trusty available after not being risked last weekend in the win over Hearts. Viljami Silisalo, who yesterday spoke to The Celtic Star, will have the gloves for the next month or so. He certainly looked competent and assured in his Scottish Premiership debut against Hearts last week.
One change expected in the back for with Maik Nawrocki dropping to the bench to make way for Auston Trusty to return to play alongside Cameron Carter-Vickers with Alistair Johnston at right-back and Jeffrey Schlupp on the left.
Same again in midfield with a three of Callum McGregor, Arne Engels and Reo Hatate and up front Celtic will have Nicolas Kuhn and Jota on the wings and two in a row Scottish Premiership Player of the Month Daizen Maeda through the middle Daizen scored twice against Hearts and jokingly promised to bag a hat-trick in the next game. St Johnstone can’t say they weren’t warned!
Brendan’s thoughts on St Johnstone v Celtic
Brendan Rodgers has had a full week to prepare as the relentless schedule of a match every midweek has ended. “It’s a good feeling because obviously we get a chance to train, we get a chance to figure out maybe any issues that we’ve had in any of the games, and then we can then go into the weekend and look to perform. The feeling’s really good,” the Celtic manager said at his media conference at Lennoxtown on Friday afternoon.
He added: “The players have been brilliant this week in training, I have to say, watching the level. It’s very easy, especially when we’ve had a few days’ sunshine up here, it can feel relaxed. But it’s anything but that at this stage of the season, it’s really about your focus, and then training with a big heart every single day in your training, and then you look to take that into the game at the weekend. So, yeah, the boys have been really good this week.”
Brendan was asked this question yesterday: I think the last time up at Perth was one of the top performances of the season, 6-0. The one before that was the one you took the paint off the wall at half-time. Contrasting emotions in those games, the more recent one is the one you’re going for this weekend?
He replied: “Hopefully, that would be nice. That game that you mentioned, we were waiting on the game and I don’t like the team to wait. We were disappointed in that first half, second half. We were outstanding. Obviously, the performance early in the season up there was so good. The level of the game, the goals, we had a goal disallowed as well, which I felt was a goal. But the focus on the team and the level of the football was at a high level. We’re at the point of the season now where it’s one game a week. We have to be really intense. We have to really go and show our authority in the game. That’s what we aim to do.”
