Reo Hatate starts his first Celtic match since October as the hoops take on Livingston looking to return to the top of the SPFL Premiership.
The midfielder came off the bench for 20 minutes away to St Mirren on January 2 and hasn’t been seen in a Celtic shirt since, later that month he suffered calf injuries at the Asian Cup.
Paulo Bernardo drops out of the midfield to make way for Hatate but there is no sign of Callum McGregor who hasn’t played since the February 28 win over Dundee.
The inclusion of Cameron Carter-Vickers to start on the plastic pitch at the Tony Macaroni Arena is something of a surprise but after two full weeks of training Brendan Rodgers will be hoping that the former Spurs man is back to full fitness. Liam Scales replaces Stephen Welsh on the left of Carter-Vickers.
There will be plenty of attention on referee Don Robertson and the instructions that he gets from Alan Muir on VAR.
CELTIC: Hart; Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Scales, Taylor; Iwata, O’Riley, Hatate; Kuhn, Kyogo, Maeda
SUBS: Bain, Idah, Yang, Nawrocki, Bernardo, Kelly, Forrest, Ralston, Welsh
Strong team.
My take on the game…
Work rate is very impressive…Man to man from back to front is very good to watch…
Although we overdo it at times…BUT
I’ll keep saying this ….
Our final ball is woeful…and I’m amazed that we continue to produce that poor standard.
Main thing is though…
3 points…clean sheet…
Bring on Sevco.
Three – Nil to the Champions. And we’re still Top of the League!
I thought it was just great to see Reo back and looking really positive, even apart from his goal. His body language on the few appearances he’s made this season never looked good. It did today.
With CCV back and Reo, we just need Captain Fantastic, CalMac for next week and, even against a fitba’ team who’ll run through walls (and Celtic players unpunished) for a result, we really should have enough. Of course, MIB, VAR and Peter Lawwell’s compliance will work against us but, please, COME ON YOU BHOYS IN GREEN.
Fukk Lawwell and Desmond, aye, fukk the board!
COME ON YOU BHOYS IN GREEN!