@Bandage will take us through the likely selection permutations for Celtic shortly.
@RaymondCrotty will advise on players returning from international duty in Asia. Maeda is sitting on the bench for Japan right now. If he doesn’t come on, he might have a chance of making the bench. The same could be true of Rogic later but he’s less likely, given the later match and he will surely start for the Socceroos. @Little_Lord_Fauntleroy can chip in on carbon offsetting opportunities.
@starryplough will post the likely Sevco lineup later.
@Fulvio_From_Aughnacloy will analyse the officials appointed for the game and assess our likelihood of overcoming a masonic conspiracy.
Huge if true. McCarthy too slow for this sort of game. Get Maeda back and things start to look a lot brighter as midfield is where this will be won and lost. Asking too much for Kyogo on the bench??
Scratch that it appears he doesn’t want to play …
“ I’m probably going to be a little bit short for the Old Firm game but hopefully I can get myself ready this week and look forward to getting ready for the weekend, really,” Ramsey told Rangers TV.”
Apparently He’s only played 97 minutes for Juventus this season …
An old hand like myself naturally waited for the manager pre-match press conference before replying.
We’ve had the masked singer and I particularly wanted to discover if we’d have a masked captain tomorrow night. I think the answer will be “yes”. McGregor in for the suspended Bitton.
I still have nightmares about Efe Ambrose landing back from the ACON on the morning of the CL last 16 clash with Juve, being selected to start and then being at fault for 2 goals in the opening 10/15 minutes. I accept it’s slightly different with an attacking player but I’d prefer if Maeda was primed for 20-30 minutes of high intensity bench activity. I think Giakoumakis will lead the line, despite failing to follow up his promising display against Hearts at the weekend.
I imagine we’ve been carefully building up Jota’s workload ahead of this game too. A start against Hearts last midweek but taken off after an hour and brought on at half time on Saturday. He should be ready to be unleashed and he’s been in great form in these shorter bursts. Then it’s a case of Forrest or Abada and I think the latter gets the nod here. Not just because of his exploits on Saturday but Forrest has been poor since the Christmas break and he doesn’t have a stellar record against the huns. He’s scored a couple of goals against them over the years but he’s had plenty of ineffective games too.
Ange seems to have settled on his favoured back four now too, which is tough on Ralston after his first half of the season.
Interesting. I think I’d go with that too. Any chance of Abada up front and Forrest starting? I thought it was telling that we went with Abada up front at the weekend when we needed a goal. I still expect Giakoumakis to start but wouldn’t be surprised to see Abada through the middle at some point.
I understand jetlag going west is much more bearable but I’ll defer to @RaymondCrotty here. As it is logistically possible and he should have some recovery time during the day, I think he could definitely be sprung from the bench.
I feel a bit like Gordon Strachan here - he’d leave out a flair attacker so he could get someone tall into the team to help at defensive set pieces. It’s not quite like that in a roundabout Forrest or Giakoumakis choice but I think we need to consider that. They beat us in the first derby from a header at a corner and we’re not the biggest side. Bitton usually augments that area but he’s suspended. Ralston is good in the air for a full back but he’ll probably be on the bench so we could do with Giakoumakis to help the centre backs. O’Riley is tall but not powerful in the air and the other lads are basically tiny - Juranovic, Taylor, McGregor, Hatate, Abada, Forrest etc. Juranovic has a good spring for a small chap actually. But a general point, we need to avoid giving away cheap/sloppy free kicks and corners. Don’t want to let them get at us that way. But we could in theory see Abada do a stint through the middle. He did it well at St Johnstone at Christmas and seems comfortable playing the role.
I can confirm this. Also he can sleep on the plane for hours. Japan is probably 8 hours ahead though, so an evening kick off won’t suit. I certainly wouldn’t start him as a defender, but a can of proplus and we may get a tune for half an hour.
Didn’t ambrose play inter after he flew home from a game before and cause 2 early goals. We hammered Lennon for that, I’m willing to let it slide if ange does though
Happy enough to plant a few trees if Desmond organises a private jet
