Hibernian manager Shaun Maloney has addressed the player shortages he has at Celtic Park as he urged his players to improve their temperaments.
The Easter Road club will face off against the Hoops without 2 of their top defenders. Both Ryan Porteous and Paul McGinn will be suspended, leaving Maloney with some big decisions to make.
Porteous is out after a collision with Aberdeen striker Christian Ramirez before the winter break. McGinn, meanwhile, is out after comments made regarding referee John Beaton in the aftermath of their Premier Sports Cup final defeat to Celtic.
And Maloney has urged improvement in his players’ discipline as he touched on the game tomorrow night.
As quoted by the National, the Hibs boss said: “It’s not about individuals, it has to be a team collective because we need 11 players on the pitch as often as possible. Over the course of the season I need to have as many players as possible available to me.
“We have some really good players missing. Some really talented young players, like Ryan and all the options he gives us. Unfortunately, they’re missing for this game. I’ve only been here a few weeks but, moving forward, I think we have to improve on that side of things. But the players have been very receptive to anything we’ve spoken about.”
Shaun Maloney wants to solve Hibernian discipline problem as Celtic game nears
There’s no denying just how needless the 2 suspensions are for Hibs tonight. They came from total nothing incidents that didn’t need to be blown up in the manner they were. Hibs only have themselves to blame for that too.
Porteous, for example, has no reason to kick Ramirez in their win over Aberdeen. It was careless, reckless, and could cost his team badly at Parkhead. As for McGinn, it was sheer petulance on his part to start moaning about refereeing decisions after the final. He should know better.
Ultimately, it’s led to Maloney having to rejig his Hibs defence further down the road. It’s come back to haunt them, and a nasty result for them on Monday night will partly be at their door.
Of course, we would’ve strongly fancied the game in any case. It’s not as if Porteous or McGinn inspired Hibs to success over us in the cup final. They were also bossed in the 3-1 Easter Road success we had before Halloween.
So it’ll be interesting to see what Maloney does tomorrow night. But even so, Celtic would still have had the quality to down the Hibbees even if their star-men were both available.
Hopefully, we prove that with a dominant showing tomorrow night.
In other news, Giorgos Giakoumakis to be given his big Celtic opportunity
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