MISSING INACTION
IT says much about Scott Brown this season that he has been most notable these past few weeks by his absence.
Scotland is one matter, Celtic another.
Having tweaked a hamstring in the win over Anderlecht in the club’s last Champions League outing, Brown has been missing in action for the past three weeks.
He is due to return for the game against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night – the German champions walloped Freiburg 5-0 at the weekend – but in his absence at the heart of the Celtic midfield there has been a palpable lack of dominance in both the game against Hibs and Saturday’s game against Dundee.
Neil McCann’s side made life difficult for Celtic with forgotten keeper Dorus de Vries called upon with a couple of impressive stops to prevent the Dens Park side from taking anything from the occasion.
For Celtic, it was simply another notch on the ladder; 59 and counting.
The Parkhead side are yet to taste domestic defeat under Brendan Rodgers, a consistent run of form that is difficult to underestimate.
Wednesday night’s game, however, is a step into another sphere altogether. Few would expect Celtic’s chances to benefit much regardless of whether Brown is back or not, such is the magnitude of the task in the Allianz Arena.
However, it has been notable in recent weeks that Celtic miss their captain and his influence when he is not there.
KIERAN TIERNEY captained Rodgers’ side in Brown’s absence on Saturday afternoon – a sign of things to come, some would imagine – but Brown’s drive and leadership remains key to how Celtic play.
The Parkhead side effectively took a massive step in securing a Europa League berth with their win in Belgium at the end of last month but still, they will want to avoid coming away way from Germany on the back of a morale-sapping sapping walloping.
Bayern and PSG will be expectedxpected to claim the two wo places for the knockout out stages meaning but ut Celtic will still want to walk out of f Munich this week k with their head up.
In that respect, espect, Wednesday day night’s team am will have an entirely dif- f- ferent hue to th the one who took the points from Dundee. The expectationexpecta is that Craig Gordon will b be back between the sticks albeitalb that De Vries did himselfhim no harm at all w with a timely remi minder of his pr presence. Similarly ly, Jozo Simunovic andan Dedryck Boyataat will be expectede to pair up at theth heart of defencefe with the duo theth favoured partnershippa at theth back. StuartS Arm- strong could be back too with his pace and energy important, although one player who can potentially give Celtic something special against Bayern is Patrick Roberts.
In the final minutes of the Roberts was spotted indulging in a bit of keepie-uppy, an impudent reminder of the price tag he carries.
In securing Roberts for another season, Celtic’s belief is that they have a Champions League quality player available to them and it will be interesting to see just how he fares in the remaining games in the tournament given the fact