35 days on from their last competitive outing, Celtic are back today with Aberdeen the opponents.
With our rivals across the city having cut our lead to six points on Thursday night, a win would be very welcome to stretch the gap back to nine just a fortnight out from the big derby at Ibrox.
Ange has pretty much a full-strength squad to chose from with Josip Juranovic, Stephen Welsh and James McCarthy the only registered absentees. Alistair Johnston and Yuki Kobayashi are not eligible to play yet.
This is the team we’re backing to do the business in the Granite City.
Joe Hart will start the match in goal like he has done in all 15 of our league games so far this season.
Anthony Ralston is the only real right-back option with Juranovic and Johnston not available. In the centre, we’re tipping the big partnership from last season – Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt – to make a return. Greg Taylor is the strong choice at left-back.
In midfield, our influential skipper Callum McGregor is back and almost certain to start. His reintroduction should allow Matt O’Riley and Reo Hatate to flourish in front.
At the top end of the pitch, we reckon our best counter-attacking trio of Liel Abada, Kyogo Furuhasi and Jota could do the damage should Aberdeen over-commit.
That’s the original Ange front three who scored so many goals in the first-half of last season.
That’s a total of five changes from our last competitive outing with Moritz Jenz, Alexandro Bernabei, David Turnbull, Daizen Maeda and Sead Haksabanovic dropping out of the side.
In other news, Ange Postecoglou has picked out two leaders who “stood up” during Callum McGregor’s absence
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