Shaping midfield, Tomoki’s run of starts

Shaping the midfield for the game before the game is the challenge for Brendan Rodgers on Sunday.  Callum McGregor and Reo Hatate are both likely to be available to him for the trip to the Plastic Pasta Stadium and both would benefit from gametime, although putting them in together would be too much of a risk.

Callum is uber-fit and I have no concerns about him coming in from the cold to a high-pressure environment.  Reo is the man I would concentrate on.  Start him alongside Matt O’Riley with Tomoki Iwata in the holding role.

This would be Tomoki’s sixth successive start.  For a player who (in the main) deputises for the captain, that is more than he would have expected at the start of the season.  It is also enough for you and me to make a proper assessment of the player.