Celtic have a rare weekend off.
There are only two Scottish Premiership fixtures this afternoon, giving John Kennedy and the squad a breather in the midst of a frantic and almost non-stop season.
Given some of the fixture congestion this term, it may seem strange that there’s no match today. However, it’s the knock-on effect of this season’s troubled Scottish Cup tournament.
This would have been the weekend that the quarter-finals of the national cup competition would have been played.
However, after new lockdown measures postponed lower league football, that stage of the Scottish Cup is now due to be played on April 24th.
With the Scottish Premiership split looming, today gives the SPFL time to have all top-flight teams caught up on 32 fixtures each ahead of next weekend.
Weekend off for Celtic could be a benefit
Since Neil Lennon’s exit, Kennedy has been talking up the benefits of contact time with the players on the training pitch.
This two week period is the perfect opportunity to continue to make the tweaks and adjustments necessary to put up a strong fight against Rangers.
Having the interim boss and new first-team coach Stephen McManus on the training pitch daily has surely allowed them to work through different scenarios and close in on a gameplan to face Steven Gerrard’s side.
Although Rangers also have a weekend off, they have a potentially energy-sapping fixture against Slavia Prague on Thursday night, just days before a derby with nothing at stake but pride.
Clearly, we’d rather be involved in knockout European football too, but the circumstances being what they are, we have a chance to really take the battle to Rangers next weekend.
If we can start aggressively, with structure and purpose, we could catch the Ibrox side cold and set the tone for the remainder of the derby.
It all sounds so easy writing it out, but make no mistake, this will be a tough test.
The coaching staff and players have to show they are capable of passing it. There are no excuses this time.
In other news, Gordon Strachan has been talking up a Celtic formation change.
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