[Official TC Thread] Celtic v Kilmarnock 24 Sep 3pm ko

Hot on the heels of the midweek cup win and back to the bread and butter games when Kilmarnock come to visit this weekend.

Would you start with the starting XI likely for the big CL game following this one?

Thoughts on what you want to see and who plays?

 

I think De Vries comes back in
Sinclair in for Roberts and Bitton back in midfield
I'd keep Jozo and Kolo together at CB

 

Gordon
Lustig Kolo Erik Tierney
Brown Bitton
Forrest Rogic Sinclair
Griffiths

I would also go with sacraficing Rogic to play Dembele and Griffiths together up top.
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3-0

 

De Vries
Lustig Kolo Erik Tierney
Bitton Brown
Forrest Rogic Sinclair
Dembele​

Team literally picks itself to be honest.

 

4-0 Griff hopefully with a goal on his return

 

Going to this as well then CATB later that night.


I've been to more games this season already than the whole of last season.

Loving it.

 

De Vries
Lustig Kolo Erik Tierney
Brown Bitton
Forrest Rogic Sinclair
Dembele​

I'd be happy enough with Jozo at centre half for either Kolo or Erik.

 

That's our strongest available team at the minute.

I'd be tempted to play Gamboa instead of Lustig. I think the big man has just done 90 mins against ICT and Alloa, and we need him fresh for Man City.

 

De Vries

Gamboa Toure Sviatchenko Tierney

Brown

Forrest Rogic Sinclair

Dembele Griffiths​

 

De Vries
Gamboa Toure Erik Tierney
Brown Henderson
Forrest Rogic Sinclair
Dembele

Christie and Griff on at 60 mins.
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You think he will play hendo when he never even played against alloa ?

 

De Vries

Gamboa Toure Sviatchenko Tierney

Brown Henderson

Forrest Christie Sinclair

Dembele​

Would be my team, if Griff's back get him on for Christie 60/70 mins in. Unless Christie's playing a blinder. Rogic looks a bit off the pace, give him a rest here.

 

This is the hardest team to pick in a long while TBH. We have to pick this with a view to Wednesday. For that reason I would pick Armstrong ahead of Rogic. Rogic is the better player, but Armstrong offers more defensively and more pace on the counter attack IMO.

On the whole, I think it is usually counterproductive to rest players before a big game. The possible exceptions are obviously Lustig and Rogic (though I doubt Rogic will start on Wednesday anyway).

Should we rest Lustig or not?

I'm going to go with yes here. With the exception of Lustig, I think we should start the same players as will start on Wednesday.

Forrest or Roberts?

So hard to choose as Forrest is in the form of his career and Roberts is way off form at the moment; but on the other hand Roberts is obviously a much better player. I think Forrest's tracking back just swings it for me, he'll have to do a lot of that next week.

Simunovic or Sviatchenko

Neither is fully fit yet TBH, but Erik is closer. I think for that reason it has to be Erik (although eventually I hope to see big Jozo alongside Toure).

DDV or Gordon

Gordon is trying too hard and panicking. On the other hand DDV doesn't seem capable of the kind of saves an in-form Gordon can make. I'm going to be controversial and say we should stick with Gordon on the principle of just going for it. To have any chance at all on Wednesday, we will need our keeper to make some big saves. We know Gordon can make those saves and I personally don't think DDV can. It's true that De Vries is less likely to * up spectacularly and will keep possession better; but I'm inclined to roll the dice with Gordon. As the GB said before Hapoel Be'er Sheva: let's go all in. Give him another game on Saturday and tell him to calm the * down.

So all in all, I'm going with this for Saturday (Lustig in for Gamboa on Wednesday, but otherwise the same team):

Gordon
Gamboa Sviatchenko Toure Tierney
Bitton Broony
Forrest Armstrong Sinclair
Dembele​

Griffiths for Dembele and Simunovic for Toure the last 20 minutes.

 

Would like to see Dembele and Griff starting together but also want to see Rogic start as these are the sorts of games he thrives in. Dunno if all 3 can fit in to the same starting XI though?

 

They can but that would mean sacrificing Sinclair and Forrest/Roberts in a diamond.

 

"This was the finger I used ..." :smiley-laughing002: