Worried Kris Boyd already making excuses as he fears "one outcome" for his team vs Celtic

By John McGinley

April 15, 2022

Kris Boyd sounds like a worried man heading into Sunday’s match between Celtic and Rangers at Hampden.

The man who absurdly called for Ange Postecoglou to quit his job last summer reckons Giovanni van Bronckhorst could make a critical mistake for the Scottish Cup clash – relying on the fatigued players who performed well against Braga.

The Sky Sports pundit has already publicly conceded the Scottish Premiership title to the Bhoys and is concerned the Scottish Cup will be another tournament we outplay Rangers in.

Writing in his Scottish Sun column this weekend, he said: “They have been invincible in Europe one minute and then pretty vulnerable domestically the next. It is a strange conundrum to get your head around.

“The lack of trust the manager clearly has in some players has certainly hindered them on the home front.

“Playing guys who are running on empty has not helped Rangers’ cause domestically. And if he asks too many of the Braga heroes to go to the well against Celtic on Sunday, there will only be one outcome.

“There were a lot of tired legs after 120 minutes of European action at Ibrox on Thursday. The league title has already gone for Rangers. There is no way they will claw back six points in five games.”

Postecoglou and Joe Hart have both made it very clear today that they will not fall into a trap of thinking Rangers are weakened by their exploits in the Europa League.

In fact, Hart reckons it shouldn’t even be an issue given Rangers are used to a Sunday to Thursday schedule. This is modern football.

Postecoglou thinks Ibrox morale could be boosted and that the Bhoys need to prepare to play their best game of the season.

There is not going to be any complacency on the Celtic end.

For me, all of this is simple excuse-making from Boyd because he has a fear that this derby will end up the same way as the last two – him and his fellow Rangers supporters looking glum.

It doesn’t sound like he has much faith in van Bronckhorst to make the right team calls to get the job done on Sunday.

As I’ve said repeatedly this week, Rangers do have the capability to cause us problems on Sunday, but the difference on our side is that there is complete trust in the manager and players to give their best.

Hopefully it truly is a long weekend for Boyd and not just because of the Easter bank holidays.

In other news, Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou reveals the hilarious origins of the now iconic jumper.