Ange has delivered a major hint that he’s ready to go with Tomoki Iwata against The Rangers on Saturday after Reo Hatate was ruled out of the SPFL tie.
The Hoops support had been waiting all week to find out if Reo had made it in time for the game after going off injured against Hibernian before the international break.
Ange was hopeful last week that Reo could play some part in the game, but due to the precarious nature of hamstring injuries — the Japanese midfielder will not make it back in time.
With that in mind, there’s a huge vacuum in midfield that needs to be filled.
There’s two major options for the Celtic manager. Play Iwata from the start in Callum McGregor’s usual holding role and push the Celtic captain further up the field with Aaron Mooy, or play O’Riley in a straight away for Hatate.
Speaking on Friday, he appears to lean towards Iwata.
“I thought Tomoki handled it well last week.”Ange stressed to Celtic TV. “He’s a player who is probably a bit more experienced than the other lads. I know him well, so I’m pretty comfortable with his progress. I know what he can deliver for us.
“We’ve got Aaron back, we’ve got Tomoki available, and there’s Matty (O’Riley), David Turnbull and Callum McGregor. We’re really strong in that midfield area and that gives us some real options in there. We’re going to need them tomorrow whether they start or they come off the bench and come into the game later.
“It’s going to need every one of us, every one of the boys to get the job done. They’re all ready to go. They’ve had a good week of training and I’ve got a group of players who are ready to perform tomorrow.”
Iwata was Japanese player of the year and is no shrinking violet. We’ve not managed to see much of him yet, but there should be no fears about putting him into the game on Saturday afternoon.
Whoever Ange goes with, he has the trust of the Celtic support.
