In my opinion there are a couple of reasons for recent results, Lowland League has impacted Rangers and Celtic Under 18's to some extent. Probably Celtic more so as they have fielded a lot of U18's in the Lowland League, Rangers have played a few.
Last season's U16's group moving into this season's 18's group as U17's were culled with only four getting pro contracts. Two U17's were recruited externally, so only six full-time U17's. There are a further four from last season's 16's on amateur contracts, none of those four have started any 18's game. So the squad is quite thin on numbers. By contrast Celtic gave most, if not all of their 16's from last season pro contracts.
The three defeats have been close games. Both Celtic and Hibs probably deserved to edge wins. Dundee United was a strange one, Rangers had the bulk of possession but the two u17 centre backs struggled against a big powerful striker and we lost poor goals to lose 1-3.
Early games suggest Dundee United and Hibs are two of the stronger teams in the league, the coming week may tell us more with home games against Aberdeen and Motherwell.
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