CELTIC face a trip to Rugby Park on Sunday lunchtime, with the Hoops looking to at least maintain their twelve-point gap at the top of the league.
Rugby Park is one of two stadiums in Scotland to have a plastic playing surface, Livingston the other ground to also have an astroturf pitch.
Ange Postecoglou has admitted that the poor quality of the surface does play on his mind when selecting his team. Speaking to Celtic TV, the manager said:
“Yeah, [the surface comes into my thinking when selecting the team].
“if you’ve got certain players who would feel the effects of a surface like that, you’d take that into consideration.
“From our perspective, the games are different on an artificial pitch. It doesn’t change the way that we play, we still want to try and play the football we play on a weekly basis. The players understand that, and we’ll have a run on our artificial pitch as normal tomorrow, give them a taste of it, and tackle whats before us on Sunday.”
So, with that in mind, we can expect Ange Postecoglou to make a couple of changes to his starting lineup on Sunday.
Joe Hart is expected to keep his place, probably having the most secure position in the team.
With Ralston injured, Johnston will keep his place.
I think there could be a shakeup in the central pairing, with Kobayashi playing alongside Starfelt. Carter-Vickers has had his injury worries over the past few weeks, and with a big semi-final in a few weeks’ time, it isn’t worth the risk of aggravating it.
On the left of the back four, I also think Greg Taylor won’t be risked, with Bernabei stepping in. Regardless of the pitch, I would expect the Argentine to start anyway, with Ange commonly rotating his full-backs.
Midfield is a tough one to predict, but I think Callum McGregor will line up with Matt O’Riley after the pair starred in the Glasgow Derby. After praising Iwata, and Mooy’s poor derby performance and injury, I believe the Japanese midfielder could be in from the start.
I expect Jota and Maeda to keep their places in the team, and I think kyogo will continue leading the line but I wouldn’t be surprised if Oh got the nod, especially with his national manager to be in attendance. Although, you can’t justify dropping Kyogo when he’s in the form he’s in.
