The Celtic match action rumbles on at pace this evening with the Bhoys taking on Hibernian at home in the Scottish Premiership.
Celtic were far from at their best on Sunday away to St Johnstone but still managed to come through with a 3-1 win and will be looking to extend their unbeaten league run tonight.
Brendan Rodgers has no new injury concerns to contend with, despite Luis Palma looking fatigued towards the end of the weekend’s match.
However, it’s still too early for wingers such as Daizen Maeda and Liel Abada to return to the starting line-up as they recover from issues. Reo Hatate is expected to be out until the end of January.
What team will the manager go with? Here’s our best effort.
Potential Celtic team vs Hibernian
Joe Hart will continue in goal. He isn’t having as impressive a season as in previous years at Celtic but remains clear of Scott Bain and Benjamin Siegrist in the manager’s thinking.
Defensively, Celtic have not hit the heights over the last month but the reality is that the current starters are still the best options available to Rodgers. Alistair Johnston and Greg Taylor are both expected to feature alongside Cameron Carter-Vickers.
Liam Scales is likely to start too despite a clamouring to see Maik Nawrocki and Gustaf Lagerbielke in the line-up, who still haven’t managed to convince Rodgers they deserve a spot ahead of the Irish international.
Midfield is where we could see the biggest change. Callum McGregor and Matt O’Riley will surely feature but that third midfield slot is still up for grabs and none of David Turnbull, Odin Holm or Paulo Bernardo have managed to really convince they’re worthy of more starts.
That leaves Tomoki Iwata, who has looked busy off the bench. He’s the only one currently in the manager’s plans who hasn’t been given a starting chance and tonight would be a good test environment to do that.
With Hyunjun Yang so poor on Sunday, too, there could be a starting opportunity for Mikey Johnston. The winger was bright as a half-time substitute at the weekend and help open up space for Celtic to exploit and get themselves the win in Perth.
Johnston hasn’t started for Celtic for a massive 22 months – since February 2022 in a Scottish Cup win over Raith Rovers – so it’d be a big step forward for him to feature.
The attack should be rounded off by Luis Palma and Kyogo Furuhashi, both of whom remain primary goal threats for the Bhoys.
Your Predicted XI in full is: Hart, A Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Scales, Taylor, McGregor, Iwata, O’Riley, M Johnston, Palma, Kyogo.
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