Predicted Celtic XI vs St Mirren: New signings ready to make their mark but O'Neill to make just one change
Here’s how we think Martin O’Neill will set up his Celtic starting XI against St Mirren in Paisley on Saturday evening
St Mirren welcome Celtic to Paisley on Saturday evening in a mouth-watering Scottish Premiership clash between the top two early pacesetters.
The Buddies have made an impressive unbeaten start under rookie boss Craig McLeish, collecting 10 points from their opening four league games, while Celtic currently sit top with a blemish free 12 points from the opening four matches.
Saints will be confident they can secure a positive result against the champions after a strong start to the campaign, but they face a Celtic team that comes into the game on the back of a convincing 3-0 victory over Aberdeen on Tuesday night.
The visitors’ attacking quality and greater squad depth make them favourites, although St Mirren’s home advantage and current form could make this a much closer contest than expected.
What has Celtic boss, Martin O’Neill said?
Providing an injury update on Kieran Tierney and Kasper Hogh, who have both sat out of training in recent days, the 74-year-old said: “Yeah, so, Kieran is doing fine at this minute. Really fine. I thought that he might be a wee bit longer, and he’s doing fine.
“Kasper is also on the mend as well. So, I think that, if not next midweek, then hopefully they’ll be ready for the game after that. I would have thought very, very unlikely for both of them (to play against St Mirren).”
On what he expected from St Mirren, O’Neill stated: “I think they’ve been great. Really, really terrific, you know. They fought back against Motherwell. Terrific, really terrific, considering their precarious position last season. They’re playing. They’re an absolute delight, seriously. They’ve been terrific.”
How we think Celtic will line up vs St Mirren
Viljami Sinisalo; Colby Donovan, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Auston Trusty, Liam Scales; Callum McGregor, Mika Baur, Benjamin Nygren; Haissem Hassan, Yang Hyun-jun, Camilo Duran.
SUBS: Sam Johnstone (GK), Joel Van Den Berg, Sebastian Tounekti, Oliver Sorensen, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Shim Mheuka, Dane Murray, James Forrest, Anthony Ralston
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