Why Celtic star misses latest Premiership match vs Livingston amid calls for first-choice starter to be 'phased out'
Wilfried Nancy has named his Celtic starting line-up to face Livingston in their latest Scottish Premiership encounter in West Lothian
Wilfried Nancy has named his Celtic starting XI to face rock-bottom Livingston for this afternoon’s Scottish Premiership clash in West Lothian.
The Hoops, who are six points behind league leaders Hearts heading into the latest round of fixtures, are on a impressive run of nine consecutive win over the Lions, who are seeking their first win since August.
Despite Celtic dominating this fixture over the last four years, the reigning champions are hardly in scintillating form a present. After a rough patch that saw new boss Nancy lose his first four games in charge, the Frenchman clinched his first victory at the fifth attempt with a spirit-lifting 3-1 triumph over Aberdeen last time out.
Team news: One change between the sticks, Schmeichel omitted due to ‘injection’
Nancy makes only ONE key alteration to his starting line-up from the side that managed to stop the rot of consecutive defeats against the Dons before Christmas.
Back-up goalkeeper Viljami Sinisalo takes over between the sticks, with first-choice Kasper Schmeichel left out of the matchday squad all together after getting “an injection” on Monday, with the veteran Danish shot-stopper failing to recover in time amid calls from some sections of the club’s fanbase for him the be “phased out” after a string of errors this season.
Nancy sticks with his favoured 3-4-2-1 formation, while Sebastian Tounekti and Michel Ange-Balikwisha remain absent due to their AFCON involvement.
What Benjamin Nygren has said pre-match
“Playing over the festive period, in Scandinavia, the Christmas period is usually off. The Swedish league ends in November, and it is the same with the Norwegian and Danish leagues too. That’s at the beginning of December.
“Of course, it’s a bit different. I’ve been in both Belgium and Netherlands, and that is the same as here. So it’s not the first time I’ve experienced this kind of schedule playing during the festive period.
“The game against Livingston is going to be an important game, like all of our games, and we’re going there to win. I think it was a very good performance (against Aberdeen).
“I don’t know how many times we hit the post and we could have scored a lot of goals. That is what it’s all about, to play well and create as many chances as possible because then your chances of winning are a lot higher. I think we did well.
“We showed in the last game that it wasn’t just a win, it was also a good performance, and we had a lot of chances. I also think that in some of the other games we’ve also created a lot of chances without scoring, so we're feeling good.
“It’s important to stay to together, to train hard like we always do and try to focus on what we can do to win games that are ahead of us.”
Here's your confirmed starting XI’s ahead of today’s encounter at The Home of the Set Fare Arena in West Lothian...
Livingston XI:
Jerome Prior, Ryan McGowan (C), Scott Pittman, Lewis Smith, Stevie May, Daniel Finlayson, Mo Sylla, Macaulay Tait, Cristian Montano, Danny Wilson (C), Teti Yengi.
SUBS: Jack Hamilton (GK), Mahamadou Susoho, Robbie Muirhead, Connor McLennan, Andrew Winter, Jeremy Bokila, Andrew Shinnie, Joshua Brenet, Samson Lawal.
Celtic XI:
Viljami Sinisalo; Anthony Ralston, Auston Trusty, Kieran Tierney, Yang-Hyun jun, Callum McGregor (C), Arne Engels, Luke McCowan, Benjamin Nygren, Daizen Maeda, Johnny Kenny.