When it comes to the Celtic team against Hamilton, the side pretty much picks itself.
There now appears to be a core of performers that Brendan Rodgers is putting his trust in these days. Soon, these predicted XIs could become a real formality.
But fortunately that isn’t quite the case yet, and we have one or two of our own little tweaks we think Rodgers could make (even though he’s not one for many surprises).
Celtic are kicking on nicely at the start of the second half of the season too. Victories over Airdrie and St Mirren has some confidence growing again. But it’s been more the standard of performance as opposed to the actual results that have Hoops fans pleased.
And Rodgers will likely keep the good feeling around the club going by agreeing with the fans about the goalkeeper. The Hoops manager has already confirmed he’s going to give Scott Bain a run in the team. He’ll be looking to make it eight clean sheets in a row this weekend.
Anthony Ralston’s injury opened up the debate on who would start at right-back. Would it be the likely departing Mikael Lustig or the even more likely departing Cristian Gamboa? Against St Mirren, it was the former, with Gamboa not even in the squad. Expect similar once again.
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Emilio Izaguirre will be back down the left as he continues his run in the team thanks to Kieran Tierney’s injury.
Dedryck Boyata to return this Saturday
Belgium international Dedryck Boyata was missing from the win over St Mirren. it was a shock omission from the squad, but Rodgers revealed it was down to a groin knock. He should be back for Saturday, and he’ll play alongside Filip Benkovic.
Scott Brown’s move to Australia appears to be on the back burner for now. He’ll start alongside his partner in crime Callum McGregor – who’ll be itching to put THAT miss against St Mirren out of his system.
We went for this last time and it didn’t come to fruition. Call it stupidity or insanity, but we’re once again going to say Oli Burke starts down the right ahead of James Forrest. Jimmy hasn’t been his usual explosive self recently. Whilst his pace continues to be a real asset, it’s really time to see what Burke can do in his natural position.
Scott Sinclair has six goal in four games, and he’ll likely add to it this weekend. Ryan Christie will play as a number 10, with Timothy Weah looking to make it three goals in three games up top.
Below is our full predicted starting XI in list form: