Match preview & team news as Celtic face Dundee

Celtic return to action following the international break as they look to build upon a vitally important derby win at Ibrox when they welcome the visit of Dundee to Celtic Park.

Celtic’s start to the season had come under criticism from fans and supporters alike but supporters are riding the wave of positivity following the 1-0 win against Rangers. Rodgers’ men will be hoping to put up a dominant display against the Dee before Tuesday’s trip to Rotterdam to take on Eredivisie champions Feyenoord, a fixture that the gaffer will have one eye on as he prepares for league duty this afternoon.

The news that Liel Abada will be out of action for around four months after suffering an injury in training whilst on international duty with Israel will give Brendan Rodgers a lot to think about with regards to team selection, with the potential for the impressive Yang Hyun-jun to be given more minutes being the likeliest solution.

Brendan Rodgers holds an impressive record against the Tayside team, with 8 wins and 1 draw from 9 games against the Dens Park side meaning Rodgers is unbeaten against them. In those 9 games, Rodgers also boasts a dominant aggregate score of 20-2. Rodgers has also faced off against Dundee boss Tony Docherty before as Docherty was Derek McInnes’ right-hand man throughout his career, including his time as Aberdeen boss. We all know how good Rodgers’ record against McInnes’ Aberdeen side was, his only loss against the Dons coming on the final day of the 2017/18 season.

Newly-promoted Dundee have seen a mixed bag of a season so far, but given many would have had them as favourites to immediately go back down, fans will be satisfied with sitting currently in 6th place.

Dundee boasts a squad with an impressive young core, the likes of Lyall Cameron and Josh Mulligan amongst others being regular features for the Scotland U-21s.

The aforementioned Cameron is most certainly the player to watch and the main danger-man for Dundee, sweeping the club’s player of the year awards last season which resulted in interest in his services from Hearts during the summer.

Dundee dropped out of the Viaplay Cup in the group stages but a home win against Hearts on match-day 3 is the highlight of the season so far as a Luke McCowan goal downed the Jambos.

Draws against an out-of-sorts St Johnstone as well as the in-form Motherwell were in amongst that Hearts win, but no matter the form of Dundee, Celtic will always be the favourites to win on the day on paper.

,Celtic will be boosted by the return to training of Reo Hatate as well as the availability of Nat Phillips as the Liverpool loanee becomes available for his first start. The English centre-back may see some competition for a place, though, after the impressive displays from Gustaf Lagerbielke and Liam Scales at Ibrox.

Brendan Rodgers has plenty of selection headaches, some good and some bad, but the team selection will be the biggest decision Rodgers has to make this weekend as he prepares the team for not only the visit of Dundee but the Champions League curtain-raiser at De Kuip on Tuesday evening.

JAMES MCKENZIE // Follow James HERE