After a home defeat to St Mirren in November precipitated Gary Holt’s resignation as Livingston manager, the West Lothian club have won all eight games played, by any measure, they are the form team in Scotland right now. They were 13 points behind fourth placed Hibernian after that St Mirren defeat. Hibs have played three games more than Livingston since then but the gap has shrunk to 7 points.
That should illustrate how Livi will be a more difficult opponent than Hibs were this week. New manager, David Martindale, will fancy his chances of making a name for himself at Celtic Park tomorrow.
Celtic are still without their 13 isolating players, as well as the long-term injured, although Nir Bitton returns from suspension and will likely replace Stephen Welsh. I expect David Turnbull to move into the middle at the expense of Tom Rogic, with Ewan Henderson starting on the right as he finished against Hibs.
Neil Lennon might be thinking long and hard about Diego Laxalt, who conceded the late foul Hibs equalised from on Monday, and did the same at Ibrox, preceding the corner kick Newco scored from. It is not totally Diego’s fault that we cannot defend set-pieces satisfactorily, but we need to find a way to stop him conceding them. Replacement by Greg Taylor is an option.
I have no suggestions as to what we do up front but would not be surprised if Mikey Johnston moved inside. On the positive side, Livingston will not know what to expect from us.
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If we lose CH to RD in NY then we are in a sorry state.
The guy has a lot of talent and has been a standout over the past 12/15 months.
The issue is with us not him.
MM
Nothing accidental about covid19 – made in China like all of the rest of the stuff we import.
TET! The same stuff you are posting on here ! You know it I know it and quite a few others know it !
TET
OK. May have went a wee bit overboard on the killing babies thing. But it was you who mentioned the eugenics loving bit.
Gates is promoting vaccines. The same vaccines that WHO are promoting. The same vaccines that have been used in Ireland and Britain today to high degrees of sucess. The fact that he is using his vast wealth for humanitarian purposes rather than accumulating more is worthy of commendation. I dont understand why he is getting attacked for that or how that makes him a believer in Eugenics
Johnston CF ?
Who plays in front of Laxalt?
Hopefully NL makes full use of the 5 substitute rule.
MJ is not and never will be a CF — it would have been better to start a speacialist.
” JIMTIM on 16TH JANUARY 2021 1:34 PM
Livi will arrive at Celtic Park confident.
Says it all really .what a disgrace”
What is disgraceful about a team of professional footballers in great form feeling confident when about to face a team missing thirteen first team players,the Manager and the coach?
Bitton and Rogic – not starters for me.
I wonder if Eddie Howe has a sign in, to watch the game?
A defence of Ralston, Bitton and Duffy in front of Hazard….
Should be fun….
HH
I take back what I posted yesterday – not even the right players in the wrong position.
Ernie Wise CSC
Not a fan of the BG’s angle in all of this.
He should have paid the tax on his huge wealth — not get involved in fiscal gymnastics to keep the money for his own purposes.
Now — BG pays little tax / gets to fund his own hobby horses / interests.
Future — BG pays more tax / the electrorate get to choose where the money is spent.
It is our money he is playing games with.
He delivered innovation once / the rest of time he was in full rentier mode to maximise his cut.
BIG WAVY on 16TH JANUARY 2021 1:49 PM
MoTM Welsh dropped for Bitton, to help form the slowest Celtic CH pairing in living memory with Duffy….
=====
I’m probably in the minority in liking the Big Israeli Hash-Smoking Fiend, but I also don’t agree with dropping Welsh.
Looking a bit lightweight up front with Rogic and Johnston – I like both players, but Livi are nothing if not rugged at the back.
Will need to win via silky skills!!
HH
BGFC
For the record. I am not a cheerleader for Bill Gate and definitely not of philanthropy as the best way to cure our ills
MM
Philanthropist = tax evader
Null and void would be so funny😁
Pre-emptive all the faux outrage in advance- yes even though all the list of “things” and “stuff” and “buts” I would laugh, alot, for weeks maybe even months. 🤣😂
Mondays mom, dropped for the guy who cost us the game against huns.
We might get 65 mins out of Rogic, which would be improvement on Monday
Sums up this season
Came on for the football chat, instead I’m reading idiotic nonsense about the Covid vaccine.
Covid is a fecking war. It is devastating. It kills as we all know.
Two of my kids are doctors working on Covid wards. It is hell on earth. They work at full risk to themselves, as with all their other NHS colleagues, nurses, ambulance drivers etc. They have had and are absolutely delighted to have had their Covid vaccinations (and I’m relieved about that). They now have a little bit less to worry about and can fully focus on saving lives. Think I will listen to their expert advice rather than the wisdom of some on football blogs. Personally I cannot wait for mine, but Im not a priority and happy to wait my turn.
Please don’t buy into this uniformed, dangerous garbage about not taking the vaccine.
And why is flu down this year ? Really ? Erm we are all wearing masks etc etc etc (plus the successful vaccination programme).
Shakes head and leaves.
Wee BGFC,
Having watched the 6 goals in their last 2 games Livi look small and fast up front.
That doesn;t usually end well with Bitton and Duffy but here’s hoping. Play deep and let the ballers for us do the damage.
HH
Think the Lurgan Klopp will instruct the Laptop Klopp to field much the same side as the one that dropped another two dead rubber points against Hibs in the Brian Rix border line farcical SPL.
Cameron Harper apparently in pre contract talks with New York should drop out IMO, making way for Oko Flex who might be given the fake striker role, since there’s nobody else that resembles a striker. It’s time for Mikey Johnston ( who doesn’t seem to know when to pass the ball ) to show he’s got a future when the new manager comes in. Tom Rogic should just do so much better, and will probably see that Scott Robertson starts on the bench.
Hoping ‘to take three points off Livingston at home’ where did it all go wrong CSC
Can’t do anything about the team, so come on the Celtic, intrigued to see how they play🍀
I’d have preferred Bitton for Rogic with Welsh at CH
If CF moves to RB in NJ with LLCJ and Peirs Morgan Corbyn, with the Anti-Hoovers led by HMTQ, with HHTP on the left wing we should play in little triangles.
That just about sums it up for me.
This Nir Bitton who is, apparently, pretty rubbish. He is, isn`t he, the same one who regularly performs well at International level for Israel?
I can understand those who prefer the blood and thunder type of defender but I am a fan of the more classy type. So, I would invariably have Nir Bitton in my team.
PS Eight of today`s team could legitimately be considered first team players so this might not be so easy for Livi as is being forecast.
MARTIM1980
Your right.
But I do get deflated when I see Bitton at centre half.
I think it’s probably reasonable that any professional outfit, on the back of some good form and some great results would be confident on venturing to Celtic Park, especially when the Celts are missing so many first team picks and the management structure is in disarray…………..
Few, Tims imo would look forward to such a prospect tho’……………..
Aye.
Question @ 1:58pm
“And why is flu down this year ? Really ? Erm we are all wearing masks etc etc etc (plus the successful vaccination programme).”
For some, the obvious is not obvious enough :-)
I enjoyed your post.
Too many not giving enough consideration of the fact that we are 13 players down. We do not have 5 subs of quality like we normally have.
This game rests on our senior players stepping up to the mark which only some of them did against Hibs.
3 – 1 to the Hoops
COYBIG
Old TR — Desperately needs to deliver a performance.
Huge talent that has been on the slide since the 2018 WC.
Young TR — We owe him for all the crap he has had to suffer over the past 4 years.
BR was an erse for putting him in the team against PSG — ML didn’t fancy it?
No coaching and support just a case he was in the youths with KT so he will be OK.
MJ @ CF — NL is playing darts again or this a bat signal to the bookies to say we are not going to try a leg and they should act accordingly.
MJ starting has been a mascot for a horrible performance — BR and NL.
Maybe things have changed but the past still hurts.
3 of his 5 first starts were aginst TFOD2?
SW @ sidelines — he talked SD through the game on Monday night / some reward.
I think e-tims have lost what remains of their moral compass If they think it is worth us paying a bribe (permanent handover of Celtic fans gate money) to other clubs for the privilege of being allowed to pay them more money as visiting fans whilst getting this season declared Null & Void.
That truly would be a Tainted Asterisk?
We lost this league and they won it. Paying money to get it removed from the record book would be a Hun move.
P.S. Should the Authorities , without bebefut of Celtic influence ir bribe, declare it Null & Void- that is another matter. But how did we get to the point where Barry Ferguson makes more sense than e-tims?
HS @ 2.05
Plus we are washing our hands more.
Food poisoning will also be done.
Plus no more ladies with deep heat burns in private places on a Saturday night.
Seemingly a occupational hazard if you were nicking about with an egg chaser back in the day.
Puuting it on strains and bumps after coming out of the shower was seemingly the issue.
WTF
Looks like Gavin Strachan and Neil Lennon are experimenting with the team shape and personnel.
Either they believe we are still favourites to beat Livi anyway or they think there will be a free pass for losing this game as we have lost the league and, temporarily, our large squad already.
I think they are mistaken. We ahve to keep winning to finish this season on the upswing
Hope im wrong and he has great game but never been impressed with Tony Ralston.Think the lad Welsh has done well and would have played him on right.
Come on Celtic..we need a bit of cheering up been a right shitty week.
I honestly cannot understand the decision to drop Stephen Welsh
He did very well on Monday night, not letting us or himself down
Some confidence building that Celtic 😡
BIG WAVY on 16TH JANUARY 2021 1:48 PM
The return of Tony Ralston….
Neymerr…please neymerr 😊
Like a climber on a rock who has lost his shoe
He has got to get off the rock.
We adapt with what we have today
Mon the Tony Ralston
HH
HH
BFFC
Say a pic of MrD over Christmas when J was down
I’ll add her to my prayers mate ..
Young TR was overhyped back in the day.
He was not allowed to develop at his own pace.
The connection to KT has not been good for his progress.
He has a fair bit of talent / potential but it needs a lot of work.
He hasn’t got it from us and he doesn’t seem to have gotten it when he was on loan.
Surprised he got the RB berth in front of SW.
SW played well on Monday and deserved another start.