Brendan Rodgers is delighted by his new defensive option- Nir Bitton.
Erik Sviatchenko’s early injury against Rosenborg forced the Celtic boss into a reshuffle with most fans expecting Cristian Gamboa to come on with Mikael Lustig pushed in to play alongside Jozo Simunovic.
After assessing the early stages of the match differently Rodgers decided to send on Nir Bitton to face the mainly physical threat from the Norwegians.
The Israeli has played almost exclusively as a holding midfielder since joining Celtic four years ago but never put a foot wrong when pressed into action in the centre of defence.
“That’s just what he is, and what we expect from him,” Rodgers told The Sun. “Bitton’s a very good player.
“He’s a controlling player in the middle, but in that role we have Scott Brown and we have Eboue Kouassi, who is a big talent.
“But I like to have a midfielder who can play centre-half. That allows the team to play through and get more strikers on the field.
“Bitton is top class in his work. He’s very good for our squad, he can play a number of positions, he understands how I want to work. He’s someone the players like, and showed his importance against Rosenborg.”
With Sviatchenko waiting for the results of a scan on his knee and Boyata out of action until September Bitton could be in for an extended run in his new position.
Kristoffer Ajer was left out of the squad named to face Rosenborg despite being the man-of-the-match in the first leg.
