Celtic will look to close the gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership today to two points with a win over Motherwell at Fir Park this lunchtime.
Brendan Rodgers knows that three points are vital if he aims to win the league title this season as he looks to get a tune out of his flailing team.
With Cameron Carter-Vickers returning from injury as well as Odin Thiago Holm available for selection, the Celtic manager is now starting to get more options available to him as this injury list decreases.
Motherwell will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2-0 defeat to Hearts last week as Stuart Kettlewell looks to get more consistency from his side.
With only one win in their last six Scottish Premiership fixtures, Rodgers should be looking to take advantage of a ‘Well side who will be lacking in confidence.
How will the Celtic manager do that? Well, here is how we think he will line up this afternoon to take all three points back to Paradise…
Potential Celtic team vs Motherwell
Rodgers will play a 4-2-3-1 with the retiring Joe Hart will be the man between the sticks at Fir Park this afternoon and he will be looking to Anthony Ralston, Greg Taylor and Liam Scales to help keep the Motherwell attack at bay.
Cameron Carter-Vickers will return to the starting lineup in place of Stephen Welsh as the US defender returns from injury.
In the heart of the midfield, Callum McGregor will resume his usual captaincy role and will be assisted by Tomoki Iwata who gets his first start since the 2-1 defeat against Kilmarnock back in December.
Celtic are lacking bite and aggressiveness in the middle of the park and Iwata can offer that for Rodgers in what will be a battle at Fir Park this afternoon.
Rodgers’ attacking options up top will be led by Matt O’Riley in the number 10 role just behind Kyogo Furuhashi as the lone striker with Adam Idah dropping to the bench.
On the wings, the electric Daizen Maeda will play on the left as the disappointing Luis Palma drops out with £3m new Bhoy Nicolas Kuhn being despatched on the right.
The bench will need to be called upon at some stage this afternoon and Palma, Rocco Vata, and Idah will offer that with Bernardo, Odin Holm and Welsh also offering support to the midfield and defence.
Predicted Celtic XI vs Motherwell is; Hart, Ralston, Carter-Vickers, Scales, Taylor, McGregor, Iwata, Maeda, O’Riley, Khun, Kyogo
In other news, ‘Looked the part’… Brendan Rodgers told he must play £6m rated Celtic summer signing vs Motherwell
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
