Shaun Maloney has admitted he’s excited to take on the challenge of Celtic again as he opened up on his main goal for Hibs this season.
Celtic fans are certainly watching Shaun’s managerial career with interest after taking up the reins at Easter Road in his first role as a number 1. So far it’s been a rollercoaster for him with 5 wins in 11 games. In recent times, he’s started turning things around in a more positive manner with victories over Arbroath and Ross County respectively.
Maloney has already faced Ange Postecoglou’s Hoops this season too. The pair clashed at Parkhead in the first game after the winter break. A comfortable 2-0 victory for the Bhoys ensured Maloney left Glasgow with nothing on his Celtic Park return.
However, he’s certainly in a good frame of mind as he gets set for another stab at Celtic this afternoon, this time in Edinburgh. And as he commented on Celtic’s Euro exertions on Thursday night, he isn’t expecting any negative side effects from us this afternoon.
As quoted by the Daily Record, Maloney said: “I don’t see it as a problem [for Celtic]. It’s something I’m fighting for here as a club and I hope we have these types of conversations in the near future. I’ll never see playing in Europe as anything other than a privilege. So, I would never ever see that as a negative – and I don’t see that as a negative for Celtic.
“Finishing fourth has to be the objective. But it’s also the objective of four or five other teams, so it’s going to be a fight for that position – and I hope that it’s us who come out on top. I know I’m at the very beginning of my time here, but a real big passion is to try to get European football in the group stages here.
“It’s a big challenge this weekend and I’m really looking forward to it. We have to be as aggressive as we possibly can out of possession and really the same in possession. We have to be as brave as we were at Celtic Park but the difference has to be we have to go and create more chances and be as clinical as we can when we get them.”
Hibs welcome Celtic with plenty of personnel problems today
Hibs could face Celtic with as many as 9 players missing today. That will leave them needing to throw inexperienced teenagers on the bench as Maloney counts the cost of a horrendous injury crisis [Edinburgh Evening News].
Granted, that hardly guarantees us anything this afternoon in isolation. Remember, we faltered to a 0-0 draw away to St Mirren back in December when they had a major Covid crisis rippling through their club [Sky Sports].
The worst thing Celtic could do today is turn up and think we only need to produce 50% of our true quality to win this one. This is still Easter Road. It’s still the venue where we’ve only won 1 league game at since 2014. That doesn’t change just because they have an injury crisis.
If we want to be champions, then we have to be turning up on days like today and turning Hibs over in a professional manner. Let’s not underestimate just how much 3 points today will seriously hurt the Rangers. Especially after coming back from a tough European trip in Norway.
This is the kind of match our rivals will be pinpointing as a potential banana skin. Coming through it will only demoralise them further as we trickly closer to the Premiership split.
We all want Maloney to do well at Hibs in the long-term. But it’s imperative we strike him with a big blow this afternoon and ensure he’s 0-2 when it comes to his head-to-heads against Ange.
In other news, Callum McGregor explains his classy post Bodo/Glimt vs Celtic gesture
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