When will we see the Hoops’ invisible men?
It has been a constant game of whack-a-mole for Brendan Rodgers this season with the mallet out on a weekly basis trying to hammer down problems that keep popping up.
The Celtic boss has done a pretty remarkable job in battering them down and remaining unbeaten in the league, even if some hardto-please punters expect the Hoops to be the Harlem Globetrotters every week.
But there’s likely to be another pesky issue poking its head up today, with Cameron CarterVickers a major doubt for the game at Kilmarnock.
The big defender was sent for scans after feeling a twinge in his hamstring the other night against Hibs and it would be a major surprise if he was risked on the Rugby Park ice rink.
That means there’s another centre-back mole to deal with. Rodgers is already mending and making do without key men such as Reo Hatate, Liel Abada and Daizen Maeda – who are major misses.
He could well do without his best defender heading back to the treatment room, having already sat out the start of the season after recovering from a knee operation.
And it will also feed into the slightly bizarre situation surrounding a couple of his summer signings.
If Carter-Vickers is out today then it’s likely going to be Nat Phillips coming in to partner Liam Scales.
That’s fair enough and it’s probably a game that would suit the on-loan Liverpool centre-half.
The big fella has got a Premier League badge but you get the feeling if you cut him in half like a stick of rock you would see the word ‘Championship’ running through him.
Not in a bad way. It’s just that Phillips seems much more comfortable dealing with the ball in the air than on the ground – and that is made for facing a direct Kilmarnock side who are the best in the league with dead balls.
But taking today’s test out of the equation, where does all this leave the forgotten men of this Celtic C squad?
Just where the heck are
Maik Nawrocki and Gustaf Lagerbielke?
Rodgers has been whacking moles but these two seem buried so deep underground they could be playing chess with w the Chilean miners.
It is all very strange. Rodgers hints the pair need to do more in training to force the issue.
And he did admit he doesn’t
like to tinker too much with centre-back pairings.
But Phillips is not long for the parish as a loanee.
He was signed as emergency cover but it turned out he wasn’t needed much after all and he will return to Liverpool with a handshake and best wishes.
At some point, Celtic fans are entitled to ask when they might see the £7million worth of talent who are jogging around cones or playing in B team testimonial matches. They have been lumped in with the other summer projects but they are not bairns and both penned five-year deals.
Nawrocki is 22 years old and was on standby for the Poland World
Cup squad last winter.
Lagerbielke, meanwhile, is 23 and nipped home to collect a Player of the Year award in Sweden recently and is still getting a game for his senior national team.
Nawrocki got injured after just three games but looked decent early on.
Lagerbielke showed promise but gave punters – and his manager – palpitations at Ibrox before losing his marbles against Feyenoord in Rotterdam.
But one has been absent since August and the other since September and it’s all starting to become quite a head-scratcher.
Scales has surprised everyone by going from bomb squad to one of the first names on the team sheet.
At some point in the not too distant future, though, one of these two is going to have to poke his head above the ground.
These two seem buried so deep they could be playing chess with Chilean miners