Livingston manager makes brilliant Celtic admission

David Martindale’s Livingston did Celtic a huge favour last weekend by drawing 1-1 against the Rangers at Ibrox. The result meant that Ange Postecoglou’s side went four points clear at the top of the table, having won 4-3 against Hearts, in a thriller of a game away in Edinburgh, marred by VAR controversy.

This time around though, it is Celtic who will come up against Livingston, when they go on an away trip to face Martindale’s side.

The result at Ibrox must have done their confidence no harm and they would surely believe that they can take something out of the game against Celtic as well. At the same time though, it looks like Martindale is not going to approach the two games in the same manner.

In fact, the Livingston manager clearly views Celtic as the team to beat this season and was full of praise for them. As reported by Glasgow Live, Martindale said while speaking to Sky Sports:

"“Two totally different games. I think Celtic are the team to beat. I think Ange has done a fantastic job. They’re flying. Very, very difficult to break down and very, very difficult to stop. But we’ll go into the game with our own game plan.“Probably two banks of five, I’m only kidding. We’ll go in and try and impose our game plan on Celtic but I think they’re the team to beat this season.“I think they’re fantastic. They’ve made massive progress from the minute Ange walked into that building to where they are now, he’s transformed them. They’re a top, top team.”"

Livingston manager full praise before facing Celtic

While it is great to hear praise coming from rival managers, when the whistle blows, Livingston will do everything in their power to take points off of Celtic and thus, Postecoglou’s side must be ready to take on their best version.

Interestingly, Celtic have not looked the most convincing in recent times except for their wins over Hibernian and Motherwell.

Before that, they had been on a seven-game run during which they had just won twice and lost four times, while finding the back of the net on just six occasions. And their win against Hearts was also a narrow one, even though there is a lot to be said about some of the decisions on the day. When it comes to the Champions League, they have not won a single game and their last chance to do so is against Real Madrid at Santiago Bernabeu.