Billy Stark says Brendan Rodgers will need all his midfielders in the upcoming season.
The Celtic squad is choc-a-bloc with central midfielders, with Brendan Rodgers having as many as nine players in that position at his disposal.
It may seem that the midfield area is congested, but according to former Celtic player, Billy Stark, Rodgers will require the services of all of them.
The 60-year-old believes that if Celtic are to do well both domestically and in the Champions League, they will require a strong depth in the squad.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers
The signings of Olivier Ntcham and Kundai Benyu means that Rodgers now has up to nine men who can play in centre midfield with skipper Scott Brown, Stuart Armstrong, Callum McGregor, Nir Bitton, Tom Rogic, Eboue Kouassi and Liam Henderson all on board.
With only three positions available in midfield, there will be a tough competition for places.
Stark says that all these players offer something different from each other, and therefore it is not a question of one being better than another.
“The way Brendan wants Celtic to play, I can understand why he is stockpiling players for that part of the team,” said Stark, as quoted by The Daily Record.
“He wants the side to be high-pressing, high tempo and when you have the demands of the Champions League as well as the competitions in Scotland, it’s clear there is going to be a big demand on players.
“That means you need to have a level of depth of selection available.
“If you look at the likes of Rogic and Armstrong. They are further up the pitch but they are different kinds of players.
“Rogic has the special ability to get in behind defences while Armstrong is a strong runner who finds goal scoring opportunities.
“In deeper roles there is obviously Scott Brown, but there’s Callum McGregor who has done well towards the end of last season, there’s Bitton, as well as Eboue Kouassi and now Oliver Ntcham coming in. Benyu has arrived as well and it adds even more competition for places.
“Brendan will want every option covered and it looks like has has that available.”
While it will be a challenge for Rodgers to use all his midfielders at the same time, he will be able to rotate the squad without compromising on quality.
General view of Celtic Park
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