Three to be dropped from team to face Dundee

Following on from last week’s home draw with Sevco, on the back of a poor hour against St Mirren Brendan Rodgers is bound to be thinking of making changes for Sunday’s match at Dundee.

There’s a balancing act between supporting players and keeping them sharp and on top form.

Hindsight is wonderful but Brendan is at his best when he is ruthless, it seems that last week he showed too much loyalty, I’ve no doubt that there will be a couple of changes for the match at Dundee.

With a maximum of six points needed to clinch the title the Celtic boss will need to keep his players hungry with success in the Scottish Cup Semi Final essential to achieve that.

After the game at Dundee we are into April and the countdown to the semi-final, the players need to know that only top form will guarantee their place with someone breathing down their neck to takeover.

Starting at Dens Park we’ll see a new edge on the Celtic side, they saw the celebrations on Sunday, the post match gloating from the tribute act.

No one will be offering Celtic any favours, every honour that we’ve lifted has been through hard graft and against the odds- the benchmark for the rest of the season starts on Sunday.

NIR BITTON

He seems to split the Celtic support but if pushed to pick the best partner for Scott Brown it’s unlikely that Bitton would be the first pick of many fans.

I’ve no doubt that he could make a decent contribution to a mid-table side in a decent league but unfortunately Celtic are neither.

He has good awareness but not the sharpness to keep the ball moving and fit in with the tempo of his team-mates. Stuart Armstrong is the natural replacement.

DEDRYCK BOYATA

He’s done enough to become a member of the first team squad but has a bit to go to become a first pick.

The partnership is all important in central defence but there doesn’t seem to be much of a blend between Boyata and Erik Sviatchenko.

It’s dangerous when something isn’t working to look at who isn’t playing as the obvious solution.

The bigger question is whether we have a central defensive partnership ready for the Champions League group stage?

JAMES FORREST

After picking up a heavy injury against Hamilton and missing two matches it might have been better to start with Forrest on the bench against Sevco.

His defensive work is better than Patrick Roberts, in the current Celtic set-up there’s a big gap between in front of the right-back that needs covered.

With Roberts scheduled to be back at Manchester City when Celtic are playing Champions League qualifiers there is more reasons to select Forrest but while we have Roberts we should make the most use of him over the net two months.