Celtic are due to start their Scottish Premiership campaign against Heart of Midlothian at Celtic Park tomorrow. The Celts chiselled a scintillating domestic season last time around as they grabbed the Scottish Cup, League Cup and Scottish Premiership title, and frankly speaking, the other Scottish top division sides have to manoeuvre something special in the 2017-18 campaign to dethrone Brendan Rodgers’ men from their high pedestal.
Although Hearts might not enter the game as the favourites, they are very capable of causing an upset. The Jambos pencilled a 5th place finish in the Scottish top flight in the previous campaign and are very capable of causing an upset. Rodgers does have some concerns with respect to injuries to his personnel and will have to be spot on in dishing out his side to face Hearts. Here is how we predict the former Liverpool boss might start the first game of the league tomorrow:
Defence
Rodgers will be without centre-back Dedryck Boyata, which implies that the 19-year-old youngster in the shape of Kristoffer Ajer is seemingly likely to be stationed alongside Jozo Simunovic at the heart of Bhoys’ defence. Eric Sviatchenko was replaced after 25 minutes in Celtic’s 1-0 win over Rosenberg earlier this week and isn’t likely to start.
Rodgers had knitted a fine balance between the experienced gladiators and the blossoming youngsters he had at his disposal in the previous campaign and thus, Ajer’s partnership with Simunovic could be an intriguing one for the fans. Craig Gordon will be used between the sticks.
Right-back Christian Gamboa is out with a thigh injury which occurred last month whilst he was on international duty with Costa Rica and this implies that Mikael Lustig might see himself starting from the right-back slot, with last season’s sensation, Kieran Tierney in the left-back position.
Midfield
In the middle, the trio of Tom Rogic, Scott Brown and Callum McGregor are anticipated to be stationed. These three men will have a huge role to play in ensuring that their backline is shielded and their attacking arsenal is backed adequately.
Attack
Leigh Griffiths should be starting up front, considering that Moussa Dembele is reported to be out until September. On the right wing, we believe that the new acquisition of the Hoops in the shape of Jonny Hayes should start and on the left wing, Scott Sinclair would be expected to break Hearts’ defence apart with his exuberance.
Predicted Line-Up:
Gordon
Lustig-Simunovic-Ajer-Tierney
McGregor-Brown-Rogic
Hayes-Griffiths-Sinclair
