Celtic have kicked off their new domestic season in a brilliant fashion, thrashing Heart of Midlothian 4-1 in their first game of the Scottish Premiership and then registering a 5-0 win over Kilmarnock in the League Cup with a very young squad. The yardstick which they set last season by clinching the domestic treble would be quite hard to maintain, but then, the initial glimpses of the manner in which Brendan Rodgers’ men have commenced have been riveting to watch.
The Celts have made the trip to the Firhill Stadium in order to face Partick Thistle. The Jags had a rather dismal start to the Scottish Premiership season, as they were comprehensively defeated by Hibernian last weekend. Nonetheless, it would be important for the Glasgow giants to not be complacent about their opponents and we firmly believe that the former Liverpool boss would pen a strong side for the game.
Here is how we expect Celtic to line-up against Partick Thistle:
Defence
With the gloves, it goes without saying that Craig Gordon is expected to start. The custodian has been an important piece for the Hoops for quite some time now and his heroics have saved Celtic on innumerable occasions.
Dedryck Boyata, Erik Sviatchenko and Cristian Gamboa are still sidelined, which implies that the four-man defensive wall is seemingly likely to be comprised of Mikael Lustig and Kieran Tierney in the left-back and right-back slots, respectively.
At the heart of the defence of the Bhoys, we anticipate that the duo of Nir Bitton and Jozo Simunovic to be engineered into Rodgers’ starting line-up. Despite their absentees, Celtic still have the requisite armoury in their arsenal to shield Gordon and this is a testament to their squad’s depth.
Midfield
Scott Brown is likely to be teed up with Olivier Ntcham in the middle of the park to not only cushion the backline, but to also render adequate push to maraud their side forward. On the right wing, we expect James Forrest to start and on the left, Scott Sinclair would be keen to keep his superb form intact.
Callum McGregor has been really effective so far and should be handed another start in the league game as a no.10.
Attack
Despite the absence of Moussa Dembele, who is out until mid September, Celtic have not missed the talented Frenchman as Leigh Griffiths has been banging goals left right and centre. Griffiths bagged a brace against Hearts and Kilmarnock and should lead the line this weekend.
Predicted Line-Up:
Gordon
Lustig-Simunovic-Bitton-Tierney
Ntcham-Brown
Forrest-McGregor-Sinclair
Griffiths
