THERE are few disagreements among the Celtic support at the moment about which of their players are the best in their respective positions and what their strongest starting line-up is.
Kasper Schmeichel, Alistair Johnston, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Greg Taylor, Callum McGregor, Reo Hatate, Nicolas Kuhn, Daizen Maeda and Kyogo Furuhashi are all, it is widely if not universally agreed, automatic selections for big matches if fit and free of suspension.
There is, with Arne Engels often struggling to show why the Scottish champions shelled out a club record £11m on him back in August in the last four months, some debate in the Parkhead stands about who should be deployed next to Hatate and McGregor in midfield.
Many Celtic fans are quite happy to see the young Belgian internationalist get game time – but others believe his Portuguese club mate Paulo Bernardo is a far better option at this juncture.
Yet, when it comes to who should partner centre-half Carter-Vickers, opinion in the East End of Glasgow is sharply divided.
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Auston Trusty, the United States defender who joined in a £6m move from Sheffield United in the summer, has his backers. Liam Scales, the Republic of Ireland cap who has often had to content himself with a place on the bench this term, has his as well.
That ongoing discussion is sure to intensify in the wake of the 3-3 draw which Celtic were held to by Dundee in a William Hill Premiership match at Dens Park on Tuesday evening.
Nobody in Brendan Rodgers’ team performed to the level expected by the large travelling support which crammed into the Bob Shankly Stand. Up front, Adam Idah and Bernardo both squandered excellent opportunities in the first half. The three points would been wrapped up by half-time if they been more clinical in the final third.
However, Celtic were woeful, absolutely woeful, at the back. They allowed Seun Adewumi to net, Josh Baldwin to get a shot away which Carter-Vickers turned beyond Schmeichel and Aaron Donnelly to head home at a Fin Robertson corner. Tony Docherty admitted he was frustrated that his injury-ravaged side had only scored three at the end of the 90 minutes. Their rivals were porous.
Rodgers didn’t hold back in his post-match appraisal of his team’s abject display and didn’t spare Trusty, who allowed himself to be muscled off the ball by Donnelly, from criticism either.
The Premier Sports Cup winners need to prevail in the first of those outings to keep alive their hopes of completing a world record ninth domestic treble come May. If they come out on top in the second fixture they should book a place in the knockout phase play-offs.
So who will Rodgers play alongside his vice-captain Carter-Vickers? Will he trust in Trusty despite his poor showing on Tayside? Or will he opt to select Scales instead?
The strong likelihood is that he will keep faith with the former. He has given the former Arsenal man the nod in Celtic’s last two European ties against RB Leipzig and Club Brugge and has not had cause to regret his decision. In fact, 23-year-old was outstanding on each occasion.
That said, Scales, who took his opportunity after being handed an extended run in the first team last term due to a raft of injuries, has shown he is by no means out of his depth at the highest level in Europe either. He was named Man of the Match after the Champions League victories over Feyenoord last season and Slovan Bratislava back in September.
He did, too, help the Premiership leaders to keep a clean sheet in their 0-0 draw with Europa League winners Atalanta over in Italy in October when he teamed up with Trusty in the absence of the injured Carter-Vickers. The nine-times capped 26-year-old is exceptional in the air and has a tendency to rise to the big occasion.
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Rodgers had no qualms about, with his underperforming team trailing Rangers 1-0, hooking Trusty and replacing him with Scales at half-time in the Premier Sports Cup final at Hampden last month. The arrival of the former UCD and Shamrock Rovers player on the field sparked a second half fightback.
“I thought we had no cleanliness in our build-up at all,” said Rodgers when he was asked about the surprise change after Celtic’s dramatic penalty shootout triumph. “It was so clunky. We couldn’t get through the pitch and we looked a wee bit edgy. I didn’t like that.
Celtic are overriding favourites to beat Young Boys on Wednesday night. Their next Champions League opponents have lost all six of their games to date and are currently in 36th place out of the 36 teams involved in the league phase. They have conceded 22 goals and scored just three. They are a lowly ninth in the Swiss Super League.
It should be a straightforward evening for the hosts. But Rodgers can ill afford any needless slip-ups at the back against opponents who will return to action after a month-long winter break this weekend when they host Winterthur at the Wankdorf Stadium and who should field former Rangers striker Cedric Itten and Switzerland forward Joel Monteiro in attack.
Both Trusty and Scales have their strengths. But both can be prone to costly errors at times as well. It will be interesting to see who establishes himself alongside Carter-Vickers in the Celtic defence in the weeks and months ahead. At the moment, the berth appears very much up for grabs.
