Before he left for Japan Shunsuke Nakamura assured the boss that he would be fit and ready for Inverness despite the arduous 12000 mile round trip to his homeland and although Naka's commitment to the cause is to be admired it's likely that he'll find himself on the bench or even rested completely against the highlanders. The Celtic boss is likely to to continue with the rotation policy which has served him so well recently and Nakamura's demanding journey and an eye to the upcoming Champions League game at Old Trafford might just see the Japanese star sit this one out.
Celtic have strength in numbers in the midfield area and it will be interesting to see if the successful partnership of Scott Brown and Marc Crosas is given another outing in the centre following their impressive display against the Accies last time out. Strachan has been impressed by what he's seen from the youngster so far "You have to remember that Marc only played five games for Barcelona in I don't know how many years so it's unusual for him to play so many games." he said, "He's getting used to that and he also needed to get match fitness, so we're happy with him, Marc has also been fine within the group and we all enjoy his company."
Scott Brown has started to show the form that we knew he was capable of and he returned to Lennoxtown clutching his Man of the Match award after a fine display for Scotland against Norway last week. Brown was the standout player at Hampden and following that performance many critics thought that at last they had seen the player worth the £4.4million transfer fee that Celtic had paid to Hibernian for his services. Scotland boss Burley deployed Brown as a holding midfielder but Strachan is confident in Brown's ability to adapt in any given midfield role.
"Scott is now in a state of mind where he can play in any midfield position, you can put him anywhere." said the manager "For a while he played only in the one role but he had to change to deal with a different style of football. He's at a stage now where he knows where he should be in conjunction with the ball. That's good because he gets himself in better positions and the games become easier for him."
"He will play different roles for us because he has that ability." continued Strachan "Even so you cannot take away what he naturally has in his game and there's no way he will be a defensive midfield player for myself. Other managers can use him in any way they want. What I'm saying is that he now has the knowledge in his locker to do a lot more than he once could."
"We are all learning the game all the time." the Celtic boss said "When I was a player, I thought you could only play the right side of midfield in one way. Over the years, I discovered there were three of four different ways of doing it. Scott has the ability and also the fitness that allows him to operate in these different positions. There are some people who can't play in four different positions because their ability and fitness doesn't allow them. Scott can."
Brown has only scored one goal so far this season and many critics feel that a player in his position should be getting himself on the scoresheet more regularly but his boss is happy with his contribution to the team "Should he score more goals? I think that's a bit harsh," said Strachan. 'As long as the team is scoring, then we don't mind. It's a bit of a cliche but it's true. If your total at the end of a month is good then it doesn't matter where they've come from."
The Celtic manager heads to Inverness knowing that Celtic's first priority must always be to win but he's hoping that the performances will also please the supporters "I'm trying to get a team where everyone can pass the ball, everyone is comfortable and everyone can understand what the other good players are doing." he said "Overall we're playing alright. We have been very happy with our form this year - apart from a couple of blips."