Predicted Celtic team vs St Johnstone: 2 changes from Kilmarnock rout as Rodgers to send out a clear board message

Brendan Rodgers may have confessed that talks over a new contract for Greg Taylor are now out of his hands - but the Celtic manager will be sending out a clear message to the Parkhead board if he were to select the left-back in his starting line-up on Sunday.

The Hoops take on Premiership strugglers St Johnstone in the second Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden Park this weekend, with Rodgers’ men chasing down another domestic treble and a third successive triumph in the competition.

After a 5-1 demolition job of Kilmarnock last time out, it’s unlikely that Rodgers will make too many changes to his XI, but picking Taylor over Crystal Palace loanee Jeffrey Schlupp would outline just how serious the Northern Irishman is about keeping hold of the out-of-contract star this summer.

Two players who could come back into the reckoning for the visit to the National Stadium are Jota and Nicolas Kuhn, with James Forrest and Adam Idah dropping to the bench. Should those changes occur, Daizen Maeda would be likely to play through the middle.

For goalkeeper Viljami Sinisalo, this won’t be the Finnish international first experience of playing at Hampden Park, having already ran out at the national stadium for his country in a friendly against Scotland ahead of Euro 2024 last summer.

He admitted: “Everyone is looking forward to the game. I’ve played at Hampden once before and I’m very much looking forward to it. I wasn’t meant to play in that game but the keeper done something just before half-time.

“I was in the changing room and I got a tap on the shoulder to say I was coming on. It was the biggest game I had been involved in at that time in my career. We went down 2-0 and pulled it back to 2-2. They’re great memories and hopefully we can create some more on Sunday.

“We’re expecting a tough game on Sunday. They’ve proved that they can compete when we played them at their place. We know them, we’ve played against them a few times this season. Every game is a tough game, anything can happen in football so we have to be on our game, compete first and foremost and hopefully the result will follow.”

Predicted Celtic XI vs St Johnstone (4-3-3)

Viljami Sinisalo, Alistair Johnston, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Liam Scales, Greg Taylor; Callum McGregor, Arne Engels, Reo Hatate; Jota, Nicolas Kuhn, Daizen Maeda.

SUBS: Scott Bain (GK), Auston Trusty, Adam Idah, Luke McCowan, Jeffrey Schlupp, Maik Nawrocki, Paulo Bernardo, James Forrest, Anthony Ralston.

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