Brendan says ‘Sorry Leigh’
Brendan Rodgers won’t be able to grant Leigh Griffiths his wish of pairing up with Moussa Dembele at Hampden.
Last season’s 40 goal striker will have to settle for a place on the Hampden bench as his boss sticks with his 4-2-3-1 formation.
Injury cost Griffiths his place in the side with his French team mate proving to be a more than adequate deputy with a string of important goals.
The prospect of fielding both strikers is an appealing one for many Celtic fans but the realist in the dug out feels that with his current squad he can only accommodate one striker.
Asked about granting Griffiths’ wish Rodgers said: “We’ll see. I’ll sit down with the coaching staff. If it was as simple as that it would be all right, wouldn’t it?
“To play with two players up front you need to have a certain dynamic behind that, but you also need certain physical qualities in order to cope with that.
“But yeah, they’re both talented players and we will see what the game needs. The issue with that is we don’t have certain physical qualities in order for that function to work as I would want it to work.
“So at times one can play through the middle and one can play off the side, but it doesn’t really work for us because they are both natural strikers.
“If you play a diamond you then need mobility and power in the middle of the field. So it’s not as easy as just putting in the players.
“We have other good players as well, Patrick Roberts, Ryan Christie and Stuart Armstrong. I will always pick the best team to win the game and sometimes that means some of the good players don’t always play.”
Griffiths’ hamstring strain arrived at the worst possible time for his club and country prospects.
After missing Scotland’s rout over Malta the striker was absent from Celtic’s 5-1 win over Sevco and the Champions League opener away to Barcelona.
Despite starting against Motherwell and Borussia Monchengladbach it seems certain that Dembele will start tomorrow, his third match in eight days after returning from international duty.