Celtic: Postecoglou must axe Adam Montgomery for League Cup final | OneFootball

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou has the chance to secure his first trophy in charge of the club tomorrow if they can beat Hibernian in the Scottish League Cup final.

In terms of which players the 56-year-old could pick in his starting XI for the showpiece decider, one man who started their previous league match against Ross County but should be taken out for the final is Adam Montgomery.

Time to axe Montgomery

Playing on the left-hand side of the front three, the youngster failed to have much of an impact from an attacking point of view before being substituted in the 63rd minute to be replaced by Owen Moffat. During his time on the pitch, Montgomery only completed 15 of his 24 passes, with no shots at goal or key passes made.

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Despite being previously labelled a “talented” player by Postecoglou, the 19-year-old also failed to make any successful dribbles, crosses or long balls in Dingwall, which make it clear why Postecoglou took him off in the second half.

This performance earned Montgomery an underwhelming overall match rating of 6.4/10, making him Celtic’s joint-lowest rated player on the day according to SofaScore. That tied him with Carl Starfelt, who was sent off on the night, showing how much the 19-year-old let Postecoglou down with his performance.

In fairness to the teenager, having predominantly played as a left-back this season, perhaps it may not have been likely for him to have a huge say when deployed in a more attacking position against Ross County.

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Taking this into account, perhaps it would be in Celtic’s best interest if Postecoglou took Montgomery, who is currently valued at £135k according to Transfermarkt, out of the team for the final against Hibs.

In terms of who Postecoglou could utilise tomorrow instead of Montgomery, Mikey Johnston returned to training on Friday and is apparently in contention to play in the final. As a result, there could be every chance that he could force the teenager out of the team if the manager doesn’t trust Montgomery to perform on the left-wing again.