Celtic are back in Scottish Premiership action once again this evening as they prepare to welcome Dundee to Parkhead for Martin O’Neill’s last game in charge.
The 73-year-old manager has confirmed that the match will be his last as the interim boss before Wilfried Nancy is in post ahead of the clash with Hearts at the weekend.
Celtic won 2-1 away at Hibernian in his final away game in the dugout for the Hoops, but the experienced Northern Irishman may want to make some changes to the starting line-up from that win.
Celtic's best performers against Hibernian
Among the players who should keep their place in the XI after that game against Hibs is goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, who only gave possession away 11 times from 54 touches and saved all three of the shots against him from open play, per Sofascore.
Celtic’s number one made a couple of impressive close-range saves towards the end of the game and completed all three of his run-outs to clear the ball to preserve all three points, whilst it would be incredibly harsh to criticise him for not saving Martin Boyle’s penalty.
The two goalscorers, Daizen Maeda and Arne Engels, should also retain their positions in the line-up, along with Reo Hatate and Hyun-jun Yang, who set up the goals.
Whilst Yang was not officially credited with an assist for Engels’ goal, the clip above clearly shows that it was his cross that was slightly deflected into the Belgian’s path.
Liam Scales, despite being harshly penalised for a handball, should also keep his place after winning eight of his 12 duels, per Sofascore, and completing 95% of his attempted passes.
Meanwhile, there were a couple of players whose performances may lead to them dropping out of the line-up, including right-sided attacker Luke McCowan, who should be dropped this evening.
Why O'Neill should drop McCowan today
The Scottish central midfielder has been utilised on the right wing in recent weeks, in the absence of any natural options in that position, and he started there against Hibernian on Sunday.
Unfortunately, the left-footed star was unable to deliver a high-quality performance to suggest that he deserves to keep his place in the team heading into O’Neill’s final game against Dundee.
McCowan, who was signed from Dundee in the summer of 2024, played the opening 63 minutes of the clash with Hibernian, before the manager opted to bring Benjamin Nygren on out wide.
Minutes
63
Touches
34
Shots
0
Key passes
1
Big chances created
0
Goals + assists
0
Duels won
1/4
As you can see in the table above, the 27-year-old flop had fewer touches in the game than Schmeichel, a goalkeeper, and failed to make much of an impact at the top end of the pitch.
The experienced midfielder also lost 75% of his physical duels in the win, per Sofascore, which shows that he found the physicality of the game a bit too much to deal with whilst playing on the right wing.
McCowan provided quality on a regular basis in the final third in the 2024/25 campaign, with a return of eight goals and eight assists in 36 league outings for Dundee and Celtic combined, but he has been unable to carry that into the current season.
The Hoops midfielder has not provided an assist in the Premiership since O’Neill’s first game in charge against Falkirk, and his only goal of the league season came against St Mirren on the opening day at the start of August.
This shows that McCowan has not provided much of a threat at the top end of the pitch for the Scottish giants in recent months, which may be why the experiment of playing him on the wing has not been too successful.
It is also why O’Neill should ruthlessly drop him from the starting line-up for tonight’s clash with his former club, opening the door for Nygren to start on the wing instead of in central midfield.
Celtic flop who was "really shaky" v Hibs is the first player Nancy must bin
This Celtic flop is the first player who should be sold by incoming manager Wilfried Nancy in January.
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The Sweden international has scored seven goals in all competitions for Celtic this season, including five in the Premiership, per Sofascore, and he may carry more of a threat than McCowan did from the start against Hibernian on Sunday.