While not having the luxury to look beyond taking three points from Motherwell tonight Neil Lennon will naturally have some thoughts drifting towards Sunday’s clash with Rangers.
The return of James Forrest and Biram Kayal is perfectly timed for Lennon to tinker with his formation.
An attack minded 4-3-3 at home can quickly change to a more defensive 4-5-1 which is likely at Ibrox
Gary Hooper’s absence shows up the lack of goalscoring options available to the Celtic manager with Georgios Samaras and Daryl Murphy devoid of form and confidence.
Even if it’s only by elimination process Anthony Stokes looks like being the sole striker against Motherwell.
The availability of Forrest and Kayal gives Lennon a variety of options with Forrest more than capable of playing in a central role as his first team goals against Motherwell and St Mirren have demonstrated.
Boxing Day goalscorers Cha Du-Ri and Ki Sung Yeung will be missing which opens the door for the return of Mark Wilson with Kayal and Joe Ledley competing for Ki’s midfield slot.
Feel free to pick your team for tonight, assuming that Fraser Forster will be in goals, I’ll go with the following selection:
CELTIC 4-3-3 Forster; Wilson, Rogne, Majstorovic, Izaguirre; Brown, Kayal, Ledley; Forrest, Stokes, McCourt
[poll id= “14”]
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Poll only allows one vote Joe.
The same one except McCourt: Forster; Wilson, Rogne, Majstorovic, Izaguirre; Brown, Kayal, Ledley; Forrest, Stokes, McGinn
And bring on McCourt the last 30 minutes, Forrest off.