Celtic have sprung a surprise on Kilmarnock by starting Colin Kazim Richards for todays game.
I gotta admit, I am as shocked as anyone that our manager has broken with his usual tactical consistency to go with two up front today. Surprised, but delighted.
This is much more like it, and in keeping with the piece I wrote earlier today on The Art of War the very unpredictability of the move is what makes it brilliant in many ways.
Oh we could gripe (and some will) about the continuing absence of Patrick Roberts and Ryan Christie – the omission of the latter from the squad entirely, for the second game in a row is especially frustrating – but for those of us who wanted to see two up front today is a good day.
I’m no great fan of Richards, as everyone who read my early pieces on him will be well aware; I thought we’d signed an unexploded bomb. He’s behaved so far, save for that moment of lunacy in his debut, and I thought he looked very sharp last week.
Today will be a chance to see him properly, and I hope we get something good from him.
It’s too early to assume this is an experiment with the Scottish Cup semi-final in mind, but I am encouraged by the sight of the manager doing something no-one could have called in advance.
Celtic today by three!
Celtic XI: Gordon, Lustig, Sviatchenko, Mulgrew, Tierney, McGregor, Brown, Bitton, Commons, Griffiths, Kazim-Richards
Subs: Fasan, Boyata, Armstrong, Forrest, Roberts, Rogic, Johansen