Celtic travel to Livingston on Sunday afternoon as they aim to keep up the pace in the Scottish Premiership title race.
Yesterday, manager Brendan Rodgers provided a wealth of updates surrounding some key members of his team. Yang has developed a slight issue and while Reo Hatate and Cameron Carter-Vickers are fine to feature, Luis Palma will just miss out on Livi.
Captain Callum McGregor isn’t being risked on the plastic surface.
Taking this information into consideration, we give you a predicted lineup for Sunday’s game.
Goalkeeper and Defence
In football, consistency is key and Brendan Rodgers will want to keep this starting eleven as close to the one that lines up at Ibrox as possible.
In goal, Joe Hart will remain ever-present, hoping not to get sent off at Almondvale this time around.
In front of the veteran will be a stable, and relatively strong, back four of Alistair Johnston, Cameron Carter-Vickers, the returning Liam Scales, and Greg Taylor.
Midfield
Midfield is where the majority of question marks lie. With McGregor still absent, Tomoki Iwata will start at the base of the engine room.
Matt O’Riley will keep his place in a more advanced role while I back Brendan Rodgers to give Reo Hatate the nod.
The Japanese maestro played 45 minutes in a bounce game last week and has been building up fitness in full training for a fortnight. There is no reason to say he can’t manage at least an hour at Livi, putting him in prime position to start at Ibrox next Sunday.
Attack
The front three pick themselves based on injuries and current form. Nicolas Kuhn has shown his true colours in recent weeks and will start on the right while Daizen Maeda will line up opposite the German.
Through the middle, Kyogo Furuhashi should begin. With two goals in his last two, the lively hitman will want to carry on his recent scoring spree.
Among the subs will be the likes of James Forrest, Anthony Ralston, Stephen Welsh, Adam Idah, Daniel Kelly, and Scott Bain.
Kick-off tomorrow is at midday. The match is live on Sky.
Personally believe Paulo will start ahead of Hatate, due to the risk factor involved upon that surface imo?
See how the game unfolds before making any other decisions upon replacements?
Would prefer a CCV and scales CB partnership to start, but again with risk factors involved?
Kyogo is potentially another player that risk factors could be applied to also?
Unfortunately we aren’t in a position to allow the risk factors to dominant the decision making upon the potential starting line up also, but can’t be totally ignored either?
Get the game won early where hopefully CCV, scales and kyogo could be withdrawn early enough and allow for Hatate to be introduced in a less pressurised situation would be my preferred choice?
Football rarely works out to be that simple especially within Scottish football with an agenda in place to try and stop ourselves in any manner possible?