Celtic return to Scottish Premiership action on Wednesday night when they host St Mirren at Celtic Park.
It’s a small-scale game, but three points here are imperative for the Hoops. Shrugging off the disastrous Rangers performance will be done through a convincing victory over the Buddies at Parkhead.
Incredibly, however, Oran Kearney is one of the few managers in Scotland yet to be beaten by Rodgers. Sure, he’s lost to just about everyone else, but he picked up a 0-0 draw against Celtic in Paisley in his first match in charge. Celtic, quite simply, can’t underestimate them.
And that will likely be reflected in the starting XI. Despite that, be prepared for two decisions you’re likely not to agree with, including the goalkeeper.
Scott Bain has been highly-praised for his five saves in-a-row against Airdrie. It backed up a string of impressive performances through the cup competitions and solidified Bain as a contender for the number one slot.
But Rodgers’ liking towards Craig Gordon will likely prove too strong. It’s not a popular opinion, but we’re going for Gordon to start given how much Rodgers adores him.
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Anthony Ralston appears to be struggling with an ankle knock. It seems 50/50, so we’ll keep our hopes up and say he’ll start on Wednesday night. Emilio Izaguirre will play down the left with a centre-back partnership of Dedryck Boyata and Filip Benkovic in between them.
Brown back consistently
Scott Brown was given another outing against Airdrie, and it appears that Rodgers is back to selecting his captain consistently. He looked in good spirits against the League One side, despite Western Melbourne’s offer being the elephant in the room. He’ll start, however, alongside Callum McGregor once again.
Our shock decision of this XI is to say that Oliver Burke will be given a run-out ahead of James Forrest. Burke’s natural position is down the right, and Forrest has struggled to perform for a while now. He hasn’t scored in any of his last seven games.
Ryan Christie also can’t be dropped, and he’ll play in the number 10 position with Scott Sinclair down the left looking to add to his brace against Airdrie.
Yes, that means no Odsonne Edouard/Timothy Weah partnership. The duo are going to get their chance soon by the sounds of things, with both players itching to give it a go.
For us, Weah will get the nod to try and build on his goal against Airdrie – especially given Edouard’s only just back from injury.
It should be routine enough on Wednesday, but we can’t take anything for granted.
Below is our full predicted starting XI: