Ex-Celtic ace Mark Wilson wants Forrest at right wing-back at Ibrox

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Celtic face their bitter rivals in the Scottish Premiership this weekend, and Brendan Rodgers has some tough decisions to make.

In comments reported by the Daily Record, former Celtic defender Mark Wilson has suggested that he is expecting Brendan Rodgers to start with a back three at Ibrox this weekend, but claimed that the manager does not trust Cristian Gamboa and insisted that it would be unfair to have Anthony Ralston start the game.

With Rangers high on confidence and seemingly set to hand Celtic their toughest test since their promotion to the Scottish Premiership in 2016, Rodgers faces a number of tough and important decisions with his team selection – and one comes in the defence.

Mikael Lustig is suspended for the game after his red card at Aberdeen, and Rodgers seemed to open up his options by playing a back three in their Scottish Cup tie with Morton at the weekend with James Forrest seemingly playing in that right wing-back role.

And with Gamboa barely featuring this season and Ralston not featuring since September, Wilson suggested that he would keep Forrest in that role against Rangers as it would be unfair to throw Ralston into the mix.

“It has been shown that Brendan doesn’t have much trust in Gamboa,” he said, as reported by the Record.

“I think James Forrest will play on the right and occupy that right wing-back role that he does so well,” he went on to add. “Ralston is a terrific talent and he will have a huge future at Celtic.

“It would be a wee bit unfair on Ralston to bring him in after being out so long.”

It may be something of a gamble for Celtic to adopt a back three with Forrest patrolling Rangers’ left wing with Jamie Murphy looking brilliant since arriving at Ibrox on loan and the likes of Josh Windass and Jason Cummings going into the game off the back of some extremely impressive performances.

What should give Rodgers more than enough confidence is that with Kieran Tierney surely nailed on to play at left wing-back, the back three can easily convert into a back four, which should give Forrest all the freedom he needs to put Rangers’ left-back to the test.