Celtic visit Pedro Caixinha’s Glasgow Rangers at Ibrox next weekend.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has suggested that Rangers counterpart Pedro Caixinha isn’t completely happy with playing 4-4-2 and believes such a system is borne out of necessity for him.
Rangers missed the chance to move top of the Scottish Premiership on Friday night after being held to a 2-2 draw away to 10-man Partick Thistle.
Nevertheless, the Gers, third in the table and five points behind the Bhoys, have looked better this season than they did in the early stages of the 2016-17 campaign under Mark Warburton, with the Portuguese manager adopting a basic 4-4-2 formation, with in-form Alfredo Morelos and Kenny Miller leading a two-pronged attack.
By virtue of the fact that they have only scored three goals less than Celtic in the Premiership this season, you could argue that it is a fruitful system for Caixinha in regards to offence.
But Hoops boss Rodgers, whose Celtic side visit Ibrox next Saturday for the first Old Firm of the season, isn’t sure that Caixinha wouldn’t ditch that formation and go with something else if he had the players suited for a different way of playing.
“A lot of the European coaches will have different ways. I’m not sure 4-4-2 is what Pedro would purely like to play,” he told The Telegraph.
“I think he is looking at what he’s got and how he can maximise what he gets from the players.
“They played with a diamond, looking to have numbers in midfield and two front players. It’s flatter now in terms of how they are playing it, but their intention, I’m sure, is to win the league and what they have spent is a mark of that.”
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