Brendan Rodgers won’t be feeling sorry for himself as he prepares his team for Wednesday’s Champions League Play Off against Astana.
When the Scottish Cup was won in May the Irishman would have expected to have Moussa Dembele, Patrick Roberts, Dedryck Boyata and Erik Sviatchenko available. For various reasons none of that quartet will play with the manager admitting that Stuart Armstrong is below par due to his contract stand off.
Rodgers will put all of those issues to one side and concentrate on finding the best defensive combination knowing that a clean sheet at home takes Celtic halfway to the promised land.
Getting the defence right and answering the Nir Bitton question will go a long way to deciding whether or not Celtic will be in the Champions League or drop into the Europa League, with the Champions League qualification odds saying it’s likely to be the former.
Rodgers will have a gut feeling about what is best at the back and go for it, if the evidence of the match suggests otherwise he’ll make changes rather than try to prove a point.
With the return of Patrick Roberts unlikely- for now anyway- the attacking positions are easier to predict with the scene set for the second most nervous night of the season- next Tuesday being the real big one…