CELTIC manager Neil Lennon says that his tactical plan for tonight's Europa League first-leg tie in Copenhagen hasn't been disrupted by the loss of Leigh Griffiths through injury.
The striker has started eight of Celtic's last nine games, but hasn't travelled to the Danish capital after picking up a minor hamstring injury in training.
When asked if the loss of the forward, who has struck up a formidable partnership with Odsonne Edouard in attack, has ripped up his game-plan, Lennon replied: “No it doesn’t.
"We have been very flexible, even ‘in-game’ on Sunday we were flexible with that as well. We will see how the game’s rolling.
"It’s not trying to be smart or clever or do something different, it’s just trying to find a way to win the game.
"Hatem (Elhamed), Greg (Taylor) and Griff aren’t here. Griff picked up a hamstring twinge today in training so we didn’t take the risk of asking him to travel. We hope he’ll be okay for the weekend.
“It is [a blow] with the form he’s been in. But we’re thinking it’s only a couple of days, the same with Greg, so we hope both of them will be alright for the weekend.
“I’ve a fair idea what the team’s going to be and how we’re going to play and how we’re going to start, and we’ll see where that takes us.”
Lennon is expecting a difficult tie this evening in the Telia Parken, but he has been buoyed by the way his men have handled difficult away assignments in Rennes and Rome in the group stage of the tournament.
“There has been calmness, good maturity, good control at times and I’m hoping for more of the same," he said. "We have to make sure we take a result back to Glasgow.
"It’s a difficult venue. Defensively they are really well set up and they are a difficult team to break down at times."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here