"Our options for shaking it up a little are getting a bit limited because we're running out of players," said the Celtic manager "We were able to shake it up on Saturday in the wide areas because we felt those guys done a helluva lot of running at Old Trafford. We also brought Paul Hartley back in and he gave us tremendous energy as he always does. We had good movement and that pleased me.
Good news for Celtic fans who thought we were struggling in the full back area is the managers assertion that he's happy with the quality, sorry, he's happy with the quantity at least "Last season, at this time, I was struggling to find fit full-backs, whereas now we're pretty well covered there but we've got three strikers out and we're struggling in that department." he said "Yet, we have still been scoring lots of goals which, obviously, is good. It is always good when the goals are coming because it makes everyone feel good about themselves."
News of Shunsuke Nakamura's possible return to Japan in January might be the cause of much rejoicing down Kilmarnock way. He's enjoyed a lot of success against the Rugby Park side in his time at Celtic and who could ever forget his glorious last minute free-kick which clinched the title for the bhoys last year. "Shunsuke has a good record against Kilmarnock and I hope he can do that again for us," said Strachan. "It is just one of these things that he has scored a few goals against them and you do get that sometimes.
Ex-Japanese FA chief Saburo Kawabuchi's revelation of a private conversation with Naka have led to much speculation on the timing of his departure but Gordon Strachan doesn't want to contemplate that scenario just yet. The manager, instead, took another chance to express his appreciation of the midfield genius "I have said it before and I'll say it again; he is a top-class player and it is a delight for us to have him here." he said "His entire attitude and application are exemplary and he is one of the players we have who is capable of doing something that bit special. He knows exactly what we think of him here."
The Celtic boss replaced Nakamura for the last half-hour of the Hibs match on Saturday because he felt the recent travels had taken it out of him "I felt he was a wee bit tired at the weekend, which can be expected." he explained "He isn't the type that would ever say that or complain of it but we took him off against Hibs to give him a bit of a break."
"Our record is good at Rugby Park," said Strachan. "And I think it's because they tend to be attacking games, and Kilmarnock always come out and try to beat us. Kilmarnock, I think, try to play a bit and we always seem to get a decent match, I actually think they have been unfortunate on one or two occasions not to get something from a few of our games."
The Celtic boss has no doubts that his team will treat this game with the same respect as they showed last week's Champions League encounter against Manchester United at Old Trafford, he said "I know I have good players, determined players, and they always want to win, no matter what the game is."