What Brendan Rodgers said before Hibs defeat offers clue to Celtic’s starting line-up vs Aberdeen, predicted XI

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Celtic take on Aberdeen tonight in the 28th fixture of this season’s Scottish Premiership campaign.

Brendan Rodgers witnessed his Celtic team record just their second defeat of the season against Hibs at Easter Road as VAR denied the Hoops at least a point.

With Aberdeen up next, Rodgers may have dropped a clue as to what he is thinking about his starting XI against Jimmy Thelin’s side after what he said before Celtic lost to Hibs on Saturday afternoon.

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What Brendan Rodgers said about Jeffrey Schlupp before Hibs defeat

The Celtic manager made three changes to his starting XI for the trip to Easter Road and what Rodgers said about Jeffrey Schlupp being dropped to the bench offers a clue as to what he’s thinking about for the Aberdeen game tonight.

Rodgers said, “The likes of Jeffrey, who was great during the week, that was his first sort of full 90 minutes of the season.

“So Greg [Taylor] can come in, he knows the stadium, he’s played very well. We’ve got another game on Tuesday, so just freshen up each sort of line of the organization.

“But yeah, Luke’s come in and been really good for us anyway and big Adam coming in giving us that reference up front.

“So yeah, we’ve done it all the way through the season, when we’ve had the midweek games.”

So it seems Rodgers’ starting team for Hibs was made with the Aberdeen visit in and with that, here is 67 Hail Hail’s predicted XI to face Jimmy Thelin at Parkhead.

Celtic predicted XI vs Aberdeen

With a number of players off the boil at Easter Road, it is likely Rodgers will make a for tonight’s game at Celtic Park.

• Goalkeeper: Kasper Schmeichel
• Defenders: Jeffrey Schlupp, Auston Trusty, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Alistair Johnston
• Midfielders: Callum McGregor (c), Reo Hatate, Arne Engels
• Forwards: Nicolas Kuhn, Daizen Maeda, Jota

Greg Taylor, Adam Idah and Luke McCowan all drop out as Hatate, Schlupp and Jota all return to the Celtic starting lineup.

With just 12 games to go, Rodgers will be keen to wrap up the title as soon as possible so the Northern Irishman can put his full focus on winning the Scottish Cup and wrapping up another record-breaking domestic treble for Celtic.