OPINION
After Thursday’s joyous 2-1 victory over RB Leipzig in the Europa League at Parkhead, Celtic must return to the weekly grind of Scottish Premiership action on Sunday.
The Hoops travel to the Almondvale Stadium to take on a Livingston side who have seen their phenomenal start to the season evaporate in recent weeks.
Brendan Rodgers’ outfit have witnessed quite the opposite, with their early season struggles forgotten amid a tremendous run of form that culminated in victory over the German heavyweights on Thursday.
The Bhoys boss must decide how many changes to make from that magnificent victory, and the Northern Irishman would be wise to keep them to a minimum, with just the one change being necessary to crush Gary Holt’s team.
Indeed, Mikael Lustig underperformed again against Leipzig and has had a poor start to the season overall; rarely-seen Costa Rica international Cristian Gamboa should be given the chance to stake his claim at right back given the 31-year-old’s struggles.
Craig Gordon is the man between the sticks for Celtic and there’s no reason why the Scot shouldn’t continue on Sunday, while Kieran Tierney will be looking to build on his goal-scoring display on Thursday at left back.
Filip Benkovic and Dedryck Boyata look like they have been playing together for years in the centre of the Hoops defence, and both men should be able to continue their partnership against Livingston.
Callum McGregor and Tom Rogic have excelled as a central midfield duo in recent games and should both start on Sunday, while James Forrest and Scott Sinclair are locked down as the team’s starting wingers at this point in time.
Ryan Christie has arguably been the team’s most in form player over the last few games and should continue playing off Odsonne Edouard, who continued his magnificent form by scoring the winner against Leipzig on Thursday.