With just a week to go until the start of the Scottish Premiership season, today’s Celtic match against Wolves in Dublin is an important step for Brendan Rodgers’ Bhoys.
A training camp in Portugal has been completed, gruelling friendlies over in Japan are under the belt and now it’s time to put the final pieces together in the build-up to Flag Day against Ross County.
But what kind of team will the Celtic manager go with today? Who’s in line to feature and who is missing out through injury? Here’s our best go at today’s eleven…
Joe Hart is firmly in place as the team’s number one goalkeeper and that doesn’t look like changing any time soon. The Bhoys have been linked with Dominik Livakovic but he appears destined to move elsewhere and Celtic are unlikely to switch Hart out without real quality coming in. Regardless of his overall situation, it’s likely he starts today.
A back four of Tomoki Iwata at right-back, Carl Starfelt, Stephen Welsh and Greg Taylor is again on the cards today, as it was against Gamba Osaka last week.
Anthony Ralston has returned to training but a start might be too big of an ask for him, while Alistair Johnston remains sidelined. Similarly, Cameron Carter-Vickers is unlikely to be rushed back from his surgery despite taking part in group training this week.
New Bhoy Maik Nawrocki is carrying a small knock after arriving from Legia Warsaw but isn’t expected to be missing for an extended period.
Rodgers has indicated that it’s time for the core of his team to build their fitness together so we could see a strong midfield of Callum McGregor, Reo Hatate and Matt O’Riley playing together.
David Turnbull is also a contender after impressing in Japan, while new Bhoy Hyeokkyu Kwon has travelled with the squad and could get time off the bench.
In attack, it would make sense for James Forrest to be rested for his big testimonial on Tuesday night. Kyogo Furuhashi is still working his way up to full fitness too and no risks are going to be taken with his ongoing shoulder issue.
That leaves Liel Abada, Sead Haksabanovic and Daizen Maeda as a potential combination. Two of them have already impressed in pre-season, while Haksabanovic really needs to start hitting a run of form to prove himself as a viable starting eleven pick.
There’s more debut potential in Hyunjun Yang too. Like Kwon, he’s travelled to Dublin and was in the midst of his competitive season before switching to Celtic. He should be good to go off the bench at some point.
Your predicted XI in full is: Hart, Iwata, Starfelt, Welsh, Taylor, McGregor, Hatate, O’Riley, Abada, Haksabanovic, Maeda.
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