Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v Aberdeen - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - July 31, 2022 Celtic players in a huddle before the match REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
Wilfried Nancy has made four changes to the Celtic side that beat Livingston for tonight’s match at Motherwell.
Kasper Schmeichel replaces Viljami Sinisalo in goals, the three other changes are harder to work out.
Liam Scales, Paulo Bernardo and Reo Hatate come into the side with Luke McCowan, Arne Engels and Johnny Kenny dropping to the bench.
Assuming that Nancy is sticking with his 3-4-3 system it looks like Kieran Tierney is pushing forward to the left-wing with Daizen Maeda replacing Kenny as centre-forward.
Hatate and Bernardo come into midfield, replacing Engels and McCowan.
Following wins over Aberdeen and Livingston Celtic find themselves three points behind Hearts who don’t play tonight.
The Edinburgh side have a superior goal difference of four meaning that Celtic would require their biggest SPFL win of the season to move into top place.
BACKGROUND
At the start of October Celtic enjoyed a 3-2 win over Motherwell thanks to a stoppage time winner from Daizen Maeda.
The Lanarkshire side have enjoyed a great season to date, sitting in fourth place above Hibs who have a far higher budget.
On Saturday Motherwell lost 1-0 at Ibrox, ending a run of five consecutive clean sheets in the SPFL Premiership.
New Danish boss Jens Berthel Askou has been a breath of fresh air to the SPFL, playing an aggressive passing game that has paid dividends.
Kevin Clancy is tonight’s referee with Andrew Dallas on VAR duty with the match being shown live on Premier Sports.
Celtic kick off 2026 on Saturday when they play host in the Glasgow Derby
CELTIC: Schmeichel; Ralston, Trusty, Scales; Nygren, McGregor, Bernardo, Hatate; Yang, Maeda, Tierney
SUBS: Sinisalo, Simpson-Pusey, McCowan, Shin, Kenny, Engels, Murray, Forrest, Donovan
I’ve no confidence whatsoever in this ‘manager’….chopping and changing and playing players out of position is not the answer. I appreciate he has a thin squad but what he is proposing is just nonsense now. Dogmatic, like Amorim and this 3-4-3 Concerned about the weekend for the first time in a long time.
FFS, it’s watching from behind the couch again!
It’s not just that Tony Ralston can’t play RCB (or effectively anywhere else) but he’s added Scales who’s a bombscare defender too. What TAF has Auston Trusty done to deserve those two for ‘comrades in arms’ ? He’ll have to work his arse off all night and hopefully not drop to the other two’s level. Motherwell will go straight for our jugular so we’ll need REAL performances in mid and up front in the hope that we score more then The Steelmen do.
Lawwell, you bastard, this is on you.
NAP, Starve Them Out.
There could be trouble ahead……..
Ralston,Trusty Scales? There’s all the encouragement you need Motherwell.
Why? Just fucking why? ?
A shambolic mess getting played off the park
Get this guy to f*ck
Has any manager ever been sacked at half-time?
Hopefully its over after tonight. Shades of 91 scottish cup semi final replay about this.
Dodgy at the back, nothing up front 40 mins nothing on target, and a midfield that seems unable to get hold of the game. Can’t see how he’s going to fix this at half time?
I’m being serious here i reckon A Talbot have a good chance of beating us under this guy
No matter what happens in the second half,I’d never let Hatate wear the shirt again….he’s a fucking disgrace. The whole performance is without doubt the worst I’ve seen since my first game in 1969.
Really shameful…I’m convinced now most of the players aren’t interested. End Nancy tonight.
Defo. As bad as Nancy is the celtic midfield should hang their heads in shame tonight also.Right from the start the passing was shocking.
Nicholson and Tisdale must fall with Nancy? They can’t appoint the next guy.
Getting a showing up here – 2-0 to Motherwell and sad to say that they’re good value for it. We look clueless. He’ll need to go asap or the league is gone.
Wilfred Nancy is condemned to the delusional wafflers lounge for all of time. Last time I seen celtic so open was at the tennents sixes.
You could put Kenny & Yamada together and they still wouldn’t be good enough to start for any bottom 6 side
I can not believe this is the same team that martin o’neil had 2 months ago
Battered by Motherwell tonight…
Hammered by Sevco on Saturday…
What a time to be alive !