Will Celtic squad respond to Brendan Rodgers’ demands against Hibs?

Brendan Rodgers will be looking for a response when his Celtic side welcome the visit of Hibernian to Parkhead this evening. The response required isn’t following a result but rather a poor first-half display that brought out the manager’s fury at half-time, with Brendan Rodgers saying that his reaction during the break was the angriest that he has ever been in his managerial career.

He doubled down on those quotes by saying, “They were too comfortable and there was no intensity whatsoever. I think we were deservedly behind and in the second-half it was a different team with the intensity, energy and quality. We scored three goals and could have had more, which is what you expect when you play for Celtic.”

Rodgers got the aforementioned response that he was looking for in the second-half at McDiarmid Park against St Johnstone, but the fans were still left frustrated following the game and will be expecting much better from the team tonight in a game which may see the manager ring in the changes for the visit of Nick Montgomery’s side.

Hibs didn’t begin the season with Nick Montgomery in charge as it was the now Fleetwood Town manager, Lee Johnson, who was in the post and was given his marching orders following three straight defeats in their opening three league fixtures as well as suffering a humbling 5-0 loss to Aston Villa in the Europa Conference League play-off round.

Nick Montgomery joined the club off the back of securing the A-League title with Central Coast Mariners and has had a positive start to life in Leith. The Englishman has only suffered two defeats since taking the post at the start of September, those defeats coming in a 4-0 loss at Ibrox against Rangers as well as defeat in the Viaplay Cup semi-final against Aberdeen.

He has seen some impressive results in his first few months as Hibs coach, including two victories over Aberdeen, both home and away, a draw against Celtic at Easter Road as well as a draw at Tynecastle in the first Edinburgh derby of the season as a late Elie Youan double saw Hibs secure a point.

 

Hibs would have been hoping for more of an impact from some of their big money summer signings, with the likes of Dylan Vente and Elie Youan impressive in bursts but never holding that consistency required to take them to the next level. Hibs will present a tough challenge for Celtic tonight, however, and the likes of Joe Newell and Martin Boyle being at the top of their game will go a long way towards helping them cause the home side some problems.

As previously mentioned, Rodgers will be expected to ring in the changes as, at the weekend, it was the club’s fringe players who came on and made the impact required to secure victory in Perthshire.

The likes of Mikey Johnston and Oh Hyeon-gyu will most likely come into the team but there could even be space in the starting XI for Tomoki Iwata, with Rodgers mentioning in his media duties a few days ago that Iwata and Johnston aren’t far away from a start.

JAMES MCKENZIE // Follow James HERE