Before Friday’s match at Partick Thistle Alan Archibald claimed that Celtic’s second XI were good enough to win the league.
The size of Brendan Rodgers squad has been well documented, on Friday night Liam Henderson was unable to make the bench despite injuries to Kieran Tierney, Scott Sinclair and James Forrest.
Over the course of this month the squad will be used in full before the winter break brings the chance to assess the progress that has been made over the season to date.
As John Hartson explained there are five players currently at the club that wouldn’t be missed if they leave in January but even excluding them Rodgers can still feel a strong second choice XI.
The closest that the Irishman has come to playing a second XI was at Ross County when he made eight changes between the Betfred Cup semi-final and a league trip to Pittodrie.
At that time the following side emerged as the first choice:
Gordon
Lustig Sviatchenko Simunovic Tierney
Brown Armstrong
Forrest Rogic Sinclair
Dembele
Away from that side there are plenty of options