Pundit fights corner of Celtic star who isn't getting the service as he makes early Old Firm lineup prediction

Celtic striker Kasper Hogh hasn’t been getting the service according to Kris Boyd - but the pundit still wouldn’t be starting him at Ibrox on Sunday.

The £11m summer signing returned from injury straight into the starting XI in their 1-0 victory away to St Johnstone. Despite playing an integral role at the top end of the pitch, for the fifth time in his six Hoops appearances, the Dane failed to trouble the scoresheet. His hat-trick against Kilmarnock remains Hogh’s only goals in Celtic colours.

While in context, three goals in six games for a player still acclimatising to the Scottish game isn’t bad reading, during Hogh’s absence fellow new signing Camilo Duran lead the line. The Celts looked far more dangerous going forward with the Colombian playing through the middle after he was previously exiled out wide to accommodate Hogh.

With not one, but two mammoth fixtures against Rangers ahead, as well as Ferencvaros, Martin O’Neill now has a dilemma to deal with of who to start at number nine. After the St Johnstone game, O’Neill claimed even he, at 74 could’ve scored against the Saints, but Hogh was defended by an unlikely source.

Boyd sticks up for Hogh amid dry spell

The former Rangers striker admires the movement and energy of Hogh but also acknowledges he’s not a striker who will come short to link up the play. Even still, he thinks he should’ve been given better service by wingers Haissem Hassan and Sebastian Tounekti in Perth on Wednesday night. Boyd told Sky Sports: “It will be interesting to see what Martin makes of it all once he goes back and watches it again. He’s having a go at Kasper Hogh but we’ve been able to see it and look at the clips.

“When you look at Kasper Hogh there’s one thing about him and that’s that he never stops moving, he’s always on the go. Until he’s maybe done it two or three times. Because as soon as a winger goes touch, touch, touch. As a striker you know the space is getting tighter and tighter. You want that ball early so as soon as you have wingers who are touch, touch, touch then as a striker you go, ‘Do you know what? I’m not moving any more’. And that’s what Martin O’Neill is talking about there – you had to put it on a sixpence for him.”

Boyd makes Duran prediction for Old Firm

Duran was left out of the Celtic starting XI against St Johnstone for the first time since his £6m from Qarabag. As O’Neill made clear he was only resting the Colombian ahead of an intense fixture schedule, Boyd reckons Duran is a nailed on starter for Sunday in place of Hogh.

He continued: “I don’t see Kasper Hogh as a striker who will link the play. He takes himself away from it, to give himself as much space to come back across the front of defenders and go and attack it and that’s why I think Camilo Duran will play through the middle on Sunday (against Rangers). I just feel they’re in a far better place with Camilo.”

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