Ange Postecoglou has some big team selection decisions to make in Australia for the Celtic vs Everton match at the weekend. And there are a number of critical factors to take into account. The Hoops were missing a few things from their loss in the opening Sydney Super Cup fixture against Sydney FC.
Obviously Postecoglou is four key players down with Daizen Maeda, Aaron Mooy, Josip Juranovic and Cameron Carter-Vickers all away for the World Cup. A more serious omission though was the seeming lack of hunger and energy from the players in that first Sydney Super Cup fixture, especially in the first half. The manager wasn’t accepting any excuses after the match though and will clearly demand more against Everton.
After a hectic period of matches domestically and in Europe recently, Postecoglou might have liked the chance to rest some players. That is another critical point to factor into his team selection, but it’s likely that the poor showing against Sydney FC means the time for rest will come later.
He has boosted his squad for Australia by taking B team players like Rocco Vata and Bosun Lawal with the team. They did both feature in the better second half performance against Sydney FC and will be hopeful of another outing at the weekend. Finally, there are some players who will want an opportunity to stake a claim for more regular game time as part of the revolving squad of players regularly used for matches.
Celtic boss has some big decisions to make against Frank Lampard’s Everton
Oliver Abildgaard will be one such player, looking for minutes to show what he is capable of. Yosuke Ideguchi is another, recently recovered from another injury and yet to establish himself at the club, despite having arrived in January.
Both players were in the side which started against Sydney FC and although the team took the lead through Kyogo, the performance was pretty poor. Ideguchi had some nice touches at times and was perhaps working his way back to match fitness. Abildgaard didn’t stand out much at all and has perhaps missed a chance to impress the boss and the fans. Both players were replaced at half time, and it’ll be interesting to see if or how Postecoglou uses them in the next match.
Postecoglou’s competitive nature and the fact that the next match is against an English Premier League side in Everton, suggests that he may want to put out a strong team.
Although there are rumours that Everton may be interested in the Hoops boss as a replacement for Lampard, Postecoglou is much more likely to be keen to claim a victory over a Premier League side.
Whatever he decides against Everton, it’s almost certain we’ll see a Celtic side much more keen to press, score and win, no matter who plays.