Celtic take on Hibernian in the Scottish Premiership today, hoping to pick up three points and put serious pressure on second-placed Rangers, who travel away to Motherwell tomorrow.
Celtic’s form has been under question in recent weeks, but the truth is we’ve still only had one damaging off-day in the league, and everyone will be expecting us to get back to winning ways against Lee Johnson’s side.
In the midst of a very busy schedule, will we see significant changes to the line-up today? Here’s our best go at Ange Postecoglou’s potential XI today…
Joe Hart is certain to be between the sticks as always. Despite a recent error against Motherwell he’s actually popped up with some big saves over the last couple of weeks and can be relied upon again.
My theory on today’s match is that we won’t see too many changes to the line-up today, with the mid-week League Cup clash looking like the optimal time to rotate a few players out of the team.
A defence of Josip Juranovic, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Moritz Jenz and Greg Taylor doesn’t seem too out of the question, especially since our last game was on Tuesday and not Wednesday.
In midfield is where I think we may see a slight reshuffle. I fancy Oliver Abildgaard to get his first start in Celtic colours today, with Matt O’Riley again given a more attacking role alongside Reo Hatate.
That would allow Sead Haksabanovic to move on to the right wing to replace Liel Abada who, although again training, did limp off against RB Leipzig.
There is a clamouring to see alternative options at left wing and centre-forward right, but I can envision the manager sticking with Daizen Maeda and Kyogo Furuhashi, allowing Giorgos Giakoumakis to make his mark from the bench again, with a starting berth given to him in the upcoming visit to Fir Park.
Your predicted starting XI in full is: Hart, Juranovic, Carter-Vickers, Jenz, Taylor, Abildgaard, O’Riley, Hatate, Haksabanovic, Maeda, Kyogo.
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