Celtic fans are buzzing again and it is all down to Ange Postecoglou delivering on the promises he made in his first few press conferences. It didn’t take long for Ange to reel the vast majority of Celtic fans in with his first few press conferences the way he spoke about football but actions always speak louder than words. 
Giving the state of the Celtic squad and the lack of defenders at the club inflicted on the new manager I went into “He’s going to need two seasons” mode. But what we have witnessed in the past few weeks has been a transformation nobody expected.
Celtic are still really short at the back and overall in squad depth. There is no way players could be expected to play at the pace they have been three times a week for the whole season. Hopefully, the manager can get two or three more players in this window and maybe have another one or two lined up for January.
Celtic are looking for their sixth win in a row today when St Mirren visits Celtic Park in the Cinch Premiership. Buddies boss Jim Goodwin will be absent after testing positive for Covid-19.
Ryan Christie will return for Celtic when they host St Mirren and the manager has no new injury concerns ahead of the game. With a trip to Holland midweek followed by a Glasgow derby on Sunday, today might be a day big Ange considers making a few changes.
With the teams just officially released this is how the Hoops will line up today:
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The ????? line-up for #CELSTM! ?#COYBIG ? pic.twitter.com/SNxWgSof6y
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 21, 2021
Ange has gone with two strikers again today and Celtic fans will be hoping for another glut of goals. Tom Rogic drops to the bench and Ryan Christie returns to the starting eleven after his injury absence.
- Celtic have won 21 of their last 24 league meetings with St. Mirren (D2 L1) dating back to the 2010-11 season. The Hoops have scored 61 goals in those matches while conceding just seven, keeping 18 clean sheets in the process.
- St. Mirren won their last league visit to Celtic Park 2-1 in January of last season; in the entire 21st century, only two sides have won back-to-back away league games against Celtic: Aberdeen in 2004 and Rangers in October 2020.
- In Celtic’s 6-0 win over Dundee in their last league match, Kyogo Furuhashi scored a hat-trick on his first league start for the club. In doing so, he became the first player ever to score a hat-trick on their first Scottish Premiership start since the competition was rebranded in 2013. Indeed, including in Japan’s J1 League with former side Vissel Kobe, Furuhashi has now scored nine goals in his last five league starts.
