Celtic star Nir Bitton looks set to come straight back into Ange Postecoglou’s starting eleven after suspension.
Bitton badly let the team and supporters down with a moment of madness in the first leg against Midtjylland. He needlessly clashed with an opponent despite already being on a yellow card.
The eventual red ruled the defender out of the trip to Denmark. But Postecoglou is apparently ready to welcome him back into the fold against Hearts tonight.
Speaking to media yesterday, he said [Celtic YouTube]: “It’s good to get Carl [Starfelt] here, even to get Nir Bitton back available also helps. When you’re starting off in these challenging circumstances, you rely on the experienced ones to cope with the pressures that are around.”
The Bhoys boss would go on to suggest he’ll be rotating available players into the team after the exertions of Wednesday night, stating: “It was a massive effort the other night from some of the players, especially those who played the entire 120 minutes.
“The nature of the squad means we aren’t able to rotate as much as I’d like to, but having Carl and Nir available are at least two additions where we can look at making some changes.”
Celtic boss still trusts Nir Bitton
It sounds suspiciously like Dane Murray and Stephen Welsh could both come out of the starting lineup to make way for the new signing and the Celtic veteran.
Another option is partnering Welsh with Starfelt and having Bitton replace Ismaila Soro in his old defensive midfield role.
Either way, the Israeli looks like one of the starters at Tynecastle. We can only hope he is more switched on and shows more leadership and experience than he did against Midtjylland in the Champions League.
In Ange we trust.
In other news, Celtic officially launch Japanese Twitter account with Kyogo Furuhashi focus.
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