Celtic vs Dunfermline Athletic in the Betfred Cup isn’t the kind of fixture that whets the appetite after Tuesday night.
Celtic’s 5-4 aggregate Champions League elimination to CFR Cluj continues to gnaw away at angry supporters. It’s been a difficult couple of days to get through so far. Fortunately, however, the games are still coming thick and fast for now.
And it all starts for Celtic once again on Saturday. Anything other than a convincing victory over Dunfermline would be a huge disappointment. But at the same time, Neil Lennon could do with injecting some excitement into the tie with his team selection.
With a pretty much season-defining game against AIK Stockholm next week, expect many of the big players to miss out against the Pars. Here, we have what will likely be an optimistic stab at the starting XI.
The team
Scott Bain’s injury probably comes at an opportune time. The Evening Times has reported that he’ll miss this Saturday’s clash with a hand injury. In truth, however, he needs some time out of the side anyway. With fans still furious with Bain, Gordon would probably have made the team regardless of Bain’s injury.
Lennon spoke in the Celtic View this week about how Hatem Abd Elhamed’s conditioning still isn’t quite there. He says that the right-back was tired after the Cluj contest (Volume 55, Issue 06, Page 21). Therefore, we’ll go with Christopher Jullien to take the right-sided spot in a back three.
With Jullien on the right side, we’ll put Nir Bitton and Kristoffer Ajer alongside him. Bitton didn’t feature at all against Cluj at Parkhead. The defence will make up part of a 3-5-2 in our team.
In our midfield five we’re going to be hopeful and predict that Marian Shved gets his first Celtic Park start. James Forrest has been in lethal form with three goals in his last three games. But there’s no need to risk the Scotland hero this Saturday with AIK looming.
This is where we’re going to get bold. Perhaps this is more optimistic than anything else, but this is also a midfield we would quite like to see. It involves Scott Brown as always, as he continues to play every game for the club under Lennon. Alongside him, however, we’re really freshening things up by throwing in Luca Connell and Ewan Henderson. The duo were part of the Celtic Colts side that lost to Falkirk on Tuesday night in the Challenge Cup.
Can Morgan get his first Celtic goal?
At left-mid, Lewis Morgan came on and struggled to get into the game against Cluj. He’s still searching for his first Celtic goal, however, and could be given the chance to nab it against the Pars.
And up top, there’s absolutely no reason to risk Odsonne Edouard. There are two strikers behind him who are absolutely itching for game-time. So, for the first time in competitive action, we’ll go for Leigh Griffiths and Vakoun Issouf Bayo to start their partnership together.
Sure, this is probably optimistic, but you have to expect Lennon will make wholesale changes. When a manager does that, it’s always difficult to predict who is going to get their chance, and which of the experienced players will stay in the side.
But there’s no reason to not throw both barrels at the Championship side on Saturday. Hopefully, we just get a convincing win to get us back on track. As always, here’s the team in list form:
GK – Craig Gordon
RCB – Christopher Jullien
CB – Nir Bitton
LCB – Kristoffer Ajer
RM – Marian Shved
CM – Scott Brown
CAM – Ewan Henderson
CM – Luca Connell
LM – Lewis Morgan
ST – Leigh Griffiths
ST – Vakoun Issouf Bayo
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