After the highs of the Champions League on Wednesday night, it’s back to domestic action for Celtic this weekend with the visit of Falkirk in the Scottish League Cup.
Celtic put a lot of effort and running into their 5-1 win over Slovan Bratislava and with lower league opposition up next there’s expected to be a bit of rotation in the team.
Brendan Rodgers won’t be taking anything for granted against the Bairns but has the squad depth to make changes without significantly weakening his starting eleven.
Neither Alistair Johnston nor Cameron Carter-Vickers were spotted in Lennoxtown for Friday morning training and while the manager hasn’t declared any big injury problems for Sunday’s match, he has confirmed there are one of two carrying slight issues.
Brendan Rodgers ‘won’t take risks’ with Celtic team vs Falkirk
Speaking in a media conference, Rodgers said [The Herald]: “We’ve got a few players with niggles so we will have a look at that and assess that by the end of play tomorrow. We won’t take any risks with one or two.
“It was the second day of recovery as well so there was a group of the players out recovering and a group training hard and then one or two inside just making extra recovery inside rather than out.”
Potential first Celtic start of the season
Auston Trusty made his debut against the Slovakian champions, appearing as a substitute. He could now earn his first start in a Celtic shirt, with there being no need to aggravate any ongoing Carter-Vickers problem.
Alex Valle is another candidate to come into the team in place of Greg Taylor, who had to sit out recent Scotland international action.
Elsewhere we could see returns for Paulo Bernardo and Adam Idah, freshening up the eleven without changes being a detriment to Celtic’s overall performance.
With a busy schedule ahead, this match looks like a good chance to see what the wider squad can do even though the pressure to win remains very much there.
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