How Bad Is Our Injury Situation? Celtic’s Crocked XI Would Win The SPL At A Canter

Tonight Celtic will step onto the pitch against Zenit and we will be the underdogs. We would have been the underdogs even without our current injury crisis, but that crisis reminds us of what a season this has been. In terms of player fitness, it has been a dreadful one and no amount of blame casting is going to change that or help with it.

One media report yesterday suggested that we have, out, the better part of a team capable of securing the SPL crown. I want to take a look at that claim, because it seems clear to me that the team would, in fact, be strong favourites for the title.

It is a credit to our current squad that they have soldiered on in spite of this. If they win tonight it will be a triumph against obvious adversity, although the media will barely mention that. But an entire Celtic starting eleven will miss out here; that’s no joke. Whether there are training ground issues or whatever is an argument for another day.

Every one of these players would walk into any other team in the country, and tonight not one of them will be available to the Celtic manager. That is incredible.

Craig Gordon – Goalkeeper

Not only Celtic, but Scotland’s first choice keeper. And he will probably not kick a ball for the rest of the domestic campaign. That’s a blow, but not a massive one as we have an able understudy and have managed to bring in young Scott Bain. But his injury, just before the window closed, was the last thing a team facing multiple players out needed.

Thankfully the injury is not one that threatens to derail Craig’s career as earlier ones did. That’s the definition of Good News as it applies to this situation. You can’t help but feel for the guy though, and for the manager who must have been thinking “Oh come on, another one?” when the big man went down. Worse was to come of course.

Anthony Ralston – Right back

A big loss to us, especially as he was coming onto a game and really starting to look like a formidable young player. He has been out for many months, and that pressed other players into playing more games, perhaps, than they might otherwise have. In terms of where this kid is in the first team squad, it seems clear that the right back slot is his for the taking. If he can grow into the role and be even half the player young Kieran is we’re on a winner.

Dedryk Boyata – Central defence

A player a lot of our fans are unsure about, but when he got injured at Kilmarnock you could hear the groans from a mile away. That diabolical plastic pitch of theirs took quite a toll that day, and Del was one of the casualties. He has often had a torrid time since signing for Celtic; his career here has been blighted by injury issues.

He has improved as a player under Brendan, and has added goals to his repertoire as well. Whilst question-marks remain over his ability to improve us in the long term there’s one thing about him which is in no doubt at all; he’d be a guaranteed starter at every other club in the SPL.

Marvin Compper – Central defence

We’ve never even seen this guy play, but he comes with a pedigree that’s quite unarguable. He is a top quality player from a top quality league and will be a big asset for us in the next campaign. Yet he too has become a victim of the Celtic injury curse and has yet to play a match for us. He would be ineligible tonight, but as far as the SPL goes he’s a player who you’d think will be a dominant force. To have lost him to injury so soon after signing him … well bad luck doesn’t get much worse.

But Marvin should be fit soon, and will have a good chance to bed into the team before the next European campaign starts. Then we’ll see what we’ve got.

Mikael Lustig – Left back

I’m putting Mikael in at left back because you can’t leave him out of the team entirely and I didn’t want to put Jonny Hayes there in spite of the manager predicting that he could play in that position. I have my doubts if I’m being honest. Mikael has played at left back before, for club and for country both, and even in that unfamiliar position he would get into every team in the land … and yes I include the Sevco team, over their ludicrously over-hyped full back Tavernier.

He is a player who’s served us well, and although a lot of fans think its time for him to step aside his absence from this team is still a blow.

Nir Bitton – Central midfield

Unbelievable this one. I was shocked yesterday when I heard that the big chap would be out for the rest of the campaign. Nir is not everyone’s favourite player, but he can do a job for this team and no mistake, and at central defence has been one of the more eye-opening stories of the season. Has Brendan found his role, adapting him the way Guardiola did with Mascherano, to a position he appeared unsuited to but where he fits like a glove?

I think next season will tell the tale there. I thought he was a certainty to leave in the summer of last year; I will be amazed if he does in the summer to come. I’ve put him in at central midfield because that’s his natural position, but Brendan has ideas beyond this campaign and I do believe Bitton is a big part of what those plans are.

Stuart Armstrong – Central midfield

Widely tipped to leave in the summer to come, but don’t be too sure. Even with our abundance of midfielders he’s still one of the best in the side and when he’s on his game he looks like he can go on to be a true great. There is no dispute that he would walk into any other team in Scotland – most would hand him the captains armband along with a starting berth – and he would stand out a mile as the best player not at Celtic Park.

Whatever his issues, I do hope this guy hangs around and fulfils his potential here. But there’s a steady drumbeat from inside Parkhead about midfield being due a clearing out and I do suspect he will be one of the casualties of that. Which will be a great shame.

Tom Rogic – Attacking midfield

He was named in the squad for this game and almost didn’t make this team as a result of it; his place would have gone to Patrick Roberts for this role whilst Michael Johnson played wide right. Johnson would also walk into any team in the country; he doesn’t even make it into the Crocks XI because Rogic is out for tonight. That’s a measure of our problems.

Rogic is one of the biggest losses of the season. He never looked fully fit during this campaign after a gruelling close-season where he was on near constant international duty. But on his game he is one of the most devastating weapons we possess and to say he has been missed is an understatement. He would have brought that dynamism to our midfield that has been sorely lacking of late, and his goals in big games have often been crucial to us.

I really hope he’s fit soon and gets back to his best before next season.

Jonny Hayes – Left wing / left midfield

Last season’s best player outside Celtic Park was a bit-part footballer at our club, which is a nod to the overall strength of our squad. Sadly for him, the injury came just at that point where he was starting to show us what he could do. No club in Scotland would say no to Jonny Hayes, fully fit. He is the player Sevco wish they’d got in Jamie Murphy.

Will he be a guaranteed started next year? No, but he will play games for us and probably quite a few of them as part of Brendan’s squad rotation, which will be more important than ever when you consider how many matches we’ll have to play just to reach the Champions League.

Patrick Roberts – Right wing / right midfield

The chances are that we’re seeing the Last Days of Patrick Roberts as a Celtic player, and that is a tragedy. The bigger tragedy is that we never got to see his best whilst he was here for this second spell. It is hugely disappointing because the wing wizard was hailed as our big signing of the summer after a pursuit that seemed to last forever.

I still hold out a flicker of hope that we could secure him on a permanent deal, but you do get the impression that it’s unlikely and that Brendan realises this himself. He would be a superstar at other clubs, not only in Scotland but further afield.

What a credit it is to James Forrest that he has made the right side position his own during this campaign and may even parlay it into a Player of the Year award.

Leigh Griffiths – Striker

Losing a player like Leigh Griffiths is a blow from which many other clubs would not have recovered. He would walk into every club in Scotland and most in the UK without a shadow of a doubt. He is the best natural finisher this club has had since Henrik Larsson. Injury has plagued his season, and he’s found himself out of the team on a number of occasions to accommodate Brendan’s squad rotation system. But every time he gets a chance he grabs it.

What a loss he is to us tonight. Even the option of bringing him on from the bench would have greatly improved our chances of getting through the tie. He is just a few goals shy of 100 for the club; when people ask me if I think he’ll get fed up here and want to go I tell them the same thing; 100 goals is just the beginning.

He’ll be here for 150 and 200 after that.

Beyond Tonight, Who Can Stop Us With This Squad?

When every player in the squad if fit, we’re going to have some decisions to make. Brendan has amassed quite a stockpile of players at our club and one day – you hope – all of them are going to be fit at the same time. That will give him headaches but it should give the opposition even more of them because who is going to stop us when all these guys are good to go?