Scottish Premiership: Things to watch out for this weekend
- Published
Fair play to Dundee United. In what has been a grim last few days, with news of positive coronavirus tests at St Mirren, a player in self-isolation at Hamilton and widespread concern about what a continuation of the current trend means for football, the Tannadice club signed a player and brought us some cheer.
Is it possible to utter the name Flo Hoti, their new creative midfielder from Kosovo, without smiling? Give it a try. It's got to go down as one of the great football names. United, to their credit, have form in this regard. Twenty-two years ago they signed a player who surely possessed the greatest name ever to grace Scottish football.
Sure, there were contenders in Manny Panther at St Johnstone, Rafael Scheidt at Celtic and Max Cream at United and Dunfermline, but the striker called Jean-Jacques Misse-Misse tops the lot. Inevitably, in his brief time in Scotland, he failed to score. A headline writer's dream - 'Red-Hot Hoti is no Misse-Misse' - we wish the new man well at Tannadice.
Unusually, there are six league games on Saturday, all of them at 15:00 BST. Get the rattle out. It's like the good old days.
Rangers chasing history
This season was supposed to be all about Celtic rewriting the record books but instead we have Rangers with a shot at history against Dundee United on Saturday. One more clean sheet will bring their consecutive shutout tally to seven. That would break a mark set by Celtic in 1906.
There are a few interesting subplots in this one. These clubs met in cup competition in 2013 (United won 3-0 - and why wouldn't they, given Rangers' defence had Sebastien Faure, Emilson Cribari and Ross Perry, who was later replaced by Chris Hegarty) and 2014 (United won 3-1 at Ibrox with a starting line-up that included Andy Robertson, Jon Souttar, Stuart Armstrong, Gary Mackay-Steven and Ryan Gauld). However, it's the first time they've played each other in a league fixture since 2012.
The cast of characters has changed completely since then but the feelings among the respective supporters won't have altered much. There's not a lot of love lost.
Subplot number two comes in the guise of Lawrence Shankland, who's fit and well again. Despite playing the opening game of the season, this must feel like the beginning of the campaign for the striker. Subplot number three is Alfredo Morelos. What are Rangers to do with this guy? Play him and he looks disinterested. Don't play him and their chances of getting a good transfer fee for him reduce. It's a conundrum for them.
In full sulk mode, Morelos could learn something about professionalism from his team-mate, Ryan Kent. The midfielder was the subject of a bid from Leeds United. A big and ambitious club, newly promoted to the Premier League and with a brilliant and charismatic manager in Marcelo Bielsa? There's a lot to get distracted by there, if Kent was the type of player to get distracted.
He hasn't been. Kent's form and focus has been strong throughout Leeds' flirtation. If Morelos has any sense, he'll take his lead from August's player of the month.
When are Motherwell going to win?
Stephen Robinson's team have two points, and two goals, from their first six league games of the season. When you tack on their poor finish to last season they now have one Premiership win in their past 14 matches. Robinson has been linked with a few jobs in recent times. Keeping the one he has is now a priority. Much more of this and he'll be under pressure.
It shouldn't be this hard. This is a Motherwell team with an international goalkeeper, three international defenders, an Under-21 international midfielder and assorted others who are solid enough players at this level. Or should be. There's no David Turnbull now, of course. They couldn't win with him. What are the chances of them starting to put some wins together without him? They host St Johnstone this weekend.
Six games is not a lot. Fourteen games is more than a third of a season, though. More than most managers in the league, Robinson needs a nerve-settling victory - and soon.
Aberdeen finding strength in adversity
The Dons have had the strangest season of all, beginning with an injury to their one reliable provider of goals, Sam Cosgrove, which was followed by a soulless performance against Rangers and the hubbub of the Aberdeen eight. When chairman Dave Cormack went on the club's TV channel to apologise once again for the actions of his coronavirus rule-breaking players, he looked jaded and haunted. As omens go, none of this was good.
From there to here. In the entirety of last season, Aberdeen couldn't string four wins together on the spin, even when Cosgrove was banging in the goals from August to December. Without him, they've already done it. That makes no sense, but it's true. If they beat Killie on Saturday, that'll be win number five. They haven't won five in a row since August-September 2017.
The clouds of week one have lifted. Lewis Ferguson has already scored three times. Ross McCrorie has made a big impact - played three, won three. From the opening day loss to Rangers to the 1-0 victory over Hibs last time out, Derek McInnes changed five of his starting line up, some by design, some by necessity. Looks like he's hit on something.
Highland fling for Celtic?
Ross County will have been working overtime to make sure their test event with Celtic goes according to plan. It would be a surprise if it doesn't. They know that a lot of people are watching and they'll have all their ducks in a row.
Running a professional operation is likely to be their only victory. Over the past two seasons, the cumulative score between these sides is 21-1 to Celtic. Odsonne Edouard, Callum McGregor, Ryan Christie, Tom Rogic, Mo Elyounoussi and James Forrest have all scored two or more goals against Ross County in that time. The hosts haven't won in four. This could be a bit of an ordeal for them.
What will be particularly interesting is whether Shane Duffy starts at centre-half for Celtic and, if he does, who misses out. Duffy has not come up the road to watch Kristoffer Ajer and Christoper Jullien from the stand. Ajer and Jullien had better get ready for a fight.