Scottish Premiership 2022/23: Our writers predict the final league standings
It's been but 78 days since the final whistle blew on terminal flavor, but the Scottish Premiership is back, and our writers have answered some of the questions that will ascertain the next x months.
Bask…
Who will win the 2022-23 Scottish Premiership — and why?
JJ Bull: I have a feeling information technology might be one of Rangers or Celtic, so I'thousand going to stick my neck out and suggest one of those. As to which one actually lifts the trophy adjacent May, that I'm less certain of. Rangers appear to take recruited well and a full pre-flavor volition accept allowed Giovanni van Bronckhorst time to construct a team more in his image, simply Celtic have incredible command over games and that crucial cutting edge to open packed defences.
Kieran Devlin: Celtic. Plainly, I'k going to say that. Case for the defense force is: their arrivals since June 2021 will do good from their first full pre-season under Ange Postecoglou, many of their players suffering fatigue towards the end of terminal season will exist well-rested afterward a summer without national-team tournaments or stressful Champions League qualifiers, and their transfer activity, while perchance non improving the level of their starting 11, certainly improves their strength in depth. Postecoglou sides across his career traditionally top in their second season too, if history is any indication.
Hashemite kingdom of jordan Campbell: Rangers, just. Van Bronckhorst has brought in seven players who fit his way of play, so this squad will be very much his vision. It is refreshing to have two clubs with differing approaches both building at the same time and it feels like a neck and cervix race this season.
Rangers take moved apace to reinvest the funds raised from the transfers of Joe Aribo and Calvin Bassey but the title volition likely come down to whether they have recruited enough goals in the forward areas. Celtic have an array of players who have proven they deliver numbers, so Rabbi Matondo and Tom Lawrence are the two players you'd expect will have to evangelize double figures if they are to overpower Celtic.
Who volition go down — and who will supersede them from the Championship?
Devlin: These predictions are always incorrect, but it volition be interesting what versions of Livingston, Ross County and St Johnstone plow upwardly. All three went on positive runs that either salvaged their 2021-22 flavor or, in County's case, elevated them to the top vi, but bad form tin be spiralling. St Mirren have been inconsistent during the early League Loving cup rounds too, and at that place are notwithstanding question marks over manager Stephen Robinson. Motherwell sacking Graham Alexander after the defeat by Sligo Rovers in the Europa Briefing League qualifiers, less than 48 hours before their flavor opener away at St Mirren, does not bode well either.
In the Championship, Inverness could challenge, but Dundee, nether new managing director Gary Bowyer, take been impressive then far in the League Cup and could bounce dorsum at the starting time time of asking.
Bull: It's almost incommunicable to answer without looking dizzy later on, merely whichever one of Ross County, Livingston, St Johnstone or St Mirren gets the first unlucky streak is the most probable. Then many of the teams are equally matched that 1 defeat might plough into another, so confidence drops, and a relegation battle looms.
Caley Thistle should challenge in the Championship, meanwhile — and I wouldn't put it past Cove Rangers to ride momentum and be close to back-to-back promotions.
Campbell: Last season wasn't vintage, which can be proven by pointing to the fact Motherwell made it into Europe. Derek McInnes should be able to make Kilmarnock competitive enough to be comfortable, whereas Motherwell, who are already looking for a new manager, St Mirren and St Johnstone strike me as iii teams defective any sort of verve, so I'd pick from those 3. Livingston are always written off but David Martindale continues to defy the financial likelihood that they should terminate 12th out of 12 by building team after squad — and this flavour he hasn't had to rebuild.
I'll become for Inverness to come after falling short terminal flavor equally Baton Dodds has them playing proficient stuff, and it would besides exist a picturesque ground to have back in the top flying.
Which team can get closest to Rangers and Celtic?
Bull: Hearts should exist at that place but Aberdeen have been highly impressive in pre-flavour. If the well-nigh entirely new team Jim Goodwin has assembled performs as well in pinnacle-flight games equally they have in the League Cup, they should be pushing for third.
Devlin: Hearts await the strongest candidate later finishing third last yr and Aberdeen will be fascinating too, only Hibernian have had their own interesting rebuild nether Lee Johnson and it feels like they could go either fashion; either challenging for tertiary, or, if their draw with Championship visitors Greenock Morton in the League Cup (later turned into a 3-0 defeat due to Hibs using an ineligible player) is any indication, potentially having a much more anxious time down the lesser of the table. At present that prediction has been made, sentinel them identify a safe and wearisome sixth or seventh, purely out of spite.
Campbell: I'chiliad pretty terrible at predictions and so apologies to Hearts fans in accelerate but I call up they've got by far the strongest squad as it stands. Robbie Neilson built them into a actually solid side last season and there is stability throughout the guild. They've retained Alex Cochrane on a permanent deal subsequently a good loan spell and picked up two good bargains from rival clubs in Lewis Neilson and Alan Forrest, while Jorge Grant and Lawrence Shankland have added some creativity to their ranks. There is depth at that place at present and they are better placed to remain consistent, merely how long that tin can last remains to exist seen.
Best new arrival to the Premiership — not at Rangers or Celtic?
Bull: I accept to cheat and choice two: Anthony Stewart and Bojan Miovski, both to Aberdeen. The defense force was dreadful terminal season and Stewart already looks like a commanding, authoritative figure desperate to keep a much-needed clean sheet, while Miovski has the international full-blooded with Due north Republic of macedonia and the technique Aberdeen have lacked upwards forepart.
Devlin: Aberdeen have made interesting signings as JJ notes (Who doesn't dearest the idea of Macedonian and Albanian internationals at Pittodrie?) but I'yard too fascinated by the influx of Australians. Kye Rowles joining his compatriot Nathaniel Atkinson at Hearts is fun, especially as they are starting to break through regularly with their national team, as is the well-regarded Lewis Miller at Hibs. Whether he will be a success or not is uncertain, simply the return of quondam St Mirren and Hearts frontward Esmael Goncalves at Livingston is a solid boost of nostalgia.
Campbell: It'due south hard to look past Shankland. Information technology may not have gone perfectly with Beerschot in Belgium for him concluding flavour merely he deserves credit for taking the plunge to move out of his comfort zone. He turns 27 adjacent month and Hearts are signing a proven goalscorer who can lead the line. Along with Liam Boyce, it gives them ii proper options, and I call up Grant could be competing to exist signing of the summertime every bit he is an heady thespian in his prime.
Why is VAR non being introduced until halfway through the season? Will it accept a positive affect on the Scottish game when it does get in?
Devlin: The SPFL's principal executive Neil Doncaster claimed in April that VAR " only wouldn't accept been ready" for the beginning of the season, and so a "staggered start" to its introduction would be the all-time solution, hence the mid-flavour option. I don't remember fifty-fifty the most eloquent and persuasive of writers can write something about VAR that hasn't been written a grand times already, particularly with everyone pretty stubbornly set in their views on the topic past at present. But my two cents is that it'due south a load of rubbish that removes the immediacy and joy from the game and will cause more refereeing controversies than information technology volition solve.
Bull: There is petty point trying to understand the decisions fabricated by the governing bodies of Scottish football equally they rarely brand sense. Reverse to what feels like popular opinion, I feel similar VAR will make a positive difference and benefit the game — I can't even count the number of times I've felt like a game has turned on an awful refereeing conclusion over the years.
The problem, as ever, is that trust in the quality of refereeing in the league is so low that fifty-fifty with the help of video replays, slow motility, multiple angles and years of examples to learn from, I don't know whether fifty-fifty the most basic of penalty awards will end upward being fair. Pessimistically, I also can't help simply wonder whether its application is likely to introduce several stoppages in play purely to correct the errors and non-awards made on the pitch past the official in charge.
Campbell: I'g only looking frontward to it removing any claims of bias, the prospect of referees needing Witness Protection and the Monday phone-ins now being purely focused on the latest tactical trends every bit opposed to accusations of skullduggery and claims to the knowledge of which schoolhouse the human in black went to.
I'1000 pretty blah to the debate about whether VAR is practiced or bad for the game. I have fears well-nigh what Kieran mentions, with regards to information technology ruining the euphoria as fans wait to see whether a goal volition stand or not but, having experienced Rangers' run to the Europa League final last season, it didn't strike me as having a detrimental effect on the drama.
I attended the SFA'southward media solar day a few months back when we were able to test the VAR equipment and meet information technology in action. The clubs have gone for the full packet rather than a watered-downward version, one of which would accept had a satellite ready at each basis with just replays available, rather than Hawk-Eye's offside technology. I'd accept been on lath with that on the basis of cost efficiency, every bit I retrieve the offside calls can exist ridiculous when they're so close and it can be too fourth dimension-consuming.
It is strange that information technology is coming in midway through a flavor every bit the integrity of the competition could then be called into question if a team happens to exist on the cease of a few bad human errors before the technology is there to right information technology, but it wouldn't exist Scottish football without the potential for schadenfreude and paranoia, would it?
What's one thing you'd like to see happen in the Scottish game this season?
Bull: Someone breaking the duopoly and winning the league. Additionally, pigs flying over Pittodrie.
Devlin: A more serious slant on JJ'due south answer, but someone bridging the budget gap to the height two through keen recruitment and coaching would be fun, even if that gap is so gallingly broad that it is obscenely difficult to exercise and would need one, or maybe both, of Celtic or Rangers to have an unexpectedly grim season. Failing that, a more competitive fight for third would be interesting.
Campbell: I love a good underdog story, so seeing Arbroath come then close to winning promotion to the Premiership was terrific. Dick Campbell is the type of character that makes Scottish football so rich and a function-time team pulling that off would be slap-up to witness.
Ange Postecoglou, third left, lifts the Scottish Premiership trophy alongside Callum McGregor (Photograph: Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Where should readers head to watch live football during the Premiership's month-long World Cup pause in November and December?
Bull: The Highland League is the identify to exist. Whichever guild is closest to your house.
Devlin: There is no way to write this without coming across every bit a self-righteous tosser, simply whichever lower league or non-League squad is local to where you're living if y'all support a Premiership squad. I'm planning on pottering down to Leith Athletic in the East of Scotland First Division.
Campbell: Tin you tell it was an Englishman who posed these questions…?
I'll be taking a fortnight's vacation and boycotting on the moral grounds that if the home of football game isn't involved, World Loving cup 2022 is not actually a proper tournament.
So I'll aim to pop downwardly to a few different grounds: Caledonian Braves in the Lowland League, as I take a mate who plays in that location, Petershill in the Juniors, as they're my local team, and Rossvale, who were my outset boys' gild and have had to commencement once more after money issues (switch the comments off after talk of that, really!).
(Elevation photos: Getty Images)
Source: https://theathletic.com/3460064/2022/07/30/scottish-premiership-22-23-season/
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