Celtic Predicted XI vs St Mirren: Leigh Griffiths to return in a 3-5-2

Add as preferred source on Google

Celtic vs St Mirren may look routine on paper, but there are no guarantees in football ahead of tomorrow’s meeting between the sides.

Neil Lennon’s men are closing in on nine-in-a-row thanks to our 2-2 draw with Livingston on Wednesday night coupled with Rangers’ shock 1-0 home loss to Hamilton. It was a result that, should Rangers win their game in-hand, still requires a four-game swing for our rivals to overtake us in the space of nine fixtures.

And Celtic can keep the ball rolling nicely with another victory to make it 10 straight games unbeaten in the Premiership against the Buddies this weekend.

Jim Goodwin is likely to park the bus tomorrow. In fact, he’s likely to “park two buses” given the way his team set up at Ibrox back in January in a 1-0 defeat (Evening Express). St Mirren proved stubborn opposition on both occasions when we’ve played them this term too. A 2-0 win at Parkhead was followed up with another 2-1 success in Paisley back in December.

But with the new 3-5-2 system still reaping rewards when utilised, expect Lennon to hit Saints with that for the first time this season. The Buddies are likely to be so defensive that it allows Lennon to go all out in this one.

Same again in defence

At the back, we expect Nir Bitton to retain his place given his previous performances against Copenhagen and Livingston respectively. Christopher Jullien and Kris Ajer will be given the chance to get Livi out of their systems too.

Given we have a free week coming up, we’re only going to go with one change to the line-up given the fact that the players will have a rest before the Rangers game next Sunday. It’ll be the first time since returning from the winter break that we have that luxury.

That change will see Mohamed Elyounoussi come out of the 3-5-2 to make room for Leigh Griffiths to hop back in. Griff and Odsonne Edouard haven’t had too many opportunities recently to get their partnership going again, but this fixture reads like a great opportunity to do just that, with Griffiths looking to add to his eight goals this season (Transfermarkt).

That means it’s the same midfield five once again. James Forrest, Scott Brown, Ryan Christie, Callum McGregor, and Greg Taylor will all start. There’s no place for Jeremie Frimpong, Tom Rogic, or Hatem Elhamed is our predicted XI for now.

But irrespective of whether Lenny makes more changes to the side or not, Celtic should have enough to breeze past the struggling Saints.

Your predicted XI in full is:

GK – Fraser Forster

RCB – Nir Bitton

CB – Christopher Jullien

LCB – Kristoffer Ajer

RWB – James Forrest

CM – Scott Brown

CM – Ryan Christie

CM – Callum McGregor

LWB – Greg Taylor

ST – Leigh Griffiths

ST – Odsonne Edouard