Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers will have some interesting selection dilemmas to wade through ahead of our trip to Dundee this Sunday.
Defensively, the Irishman will know his side need to tighten up over the Scottish Premiership run-in after shipping three goals to Aberdeen last weekend.
Nevertheless, there also has to be major credit distributed to the group, who once again proved their mettle under pressure by navigating the psychological minefield of a penalty shootout to progress to the Scottish Cup final.
Rodgers moved to laud the contribution of James Forrest at Hampden in light of his goalscoring impact from the bench, citing his game-changing quality at a pivotal moment in the tie.
He stated: “He’s just a big-game player with big-game experience. Another big plus was that when we took Callum off, Jamesie gave us another experienced head out there. I wanted to bring someone on with calmness and authority, and James had that.”
Hyunjun Yang and Nicolas Kuhn started on the flanks; meanwhile, Luis Palma emerged as a substitute to convert from the spot.
Peter Grant’s forthright verdict on Celtic winger situation
Rodgers has the options mentioned above available to him in the wide areas amid Daizen Maeda’s absence due to injury.
Speaking on the Go Radio Football Show, former Hoops midfielder Peter Grant has given a broader oversight of the winger situation at Parkhead, claiming that his old side looked at their most dangerous against Aberdeen when Forrest was situated on the left-hand side.
Grant also elaborated on Yang and Palma’s recent form, stating: “Before the suspension at Hearts, I think he (Yang) found his feet and was playing well in the games prior to that. Since he’s come back from that, he’s not got near the levels that he was showing then.
“It’s the same with Palma, and that’s why I thought James Forrest would start. James gets criticism or whatever, but it was ironic. I thought his best period in the game and Celtic’s best period in the game was when James was on the left-hand side.
“When he had to switch to the right-hand side, and Palma had to go out to the left-hand side, I thought we started to lose the flow again. That was the difficulty; we let too many crosses in the box, and I just thought with Aberdeen doing that, that was playing to their strengths.
“James made a big impact when he came on. Celtic were on the front foot, but Yang and Palma have not done enough for me in the last few weeks to warrant playing in front of James Forrest.”
Celtic will have their focus squarely on trip to face Dundee
It may be easy to get drawn into a rabbit hole surrounding player fitness at this point in the season. However, Celtic have to deal with what they’ve got, maximising the output of Rodgers’ available group at Lennoxtown.
There are enough options on the flanks to select from, though the Irishman has to find the right combination to penetrate opposition backlines while providing service to Kyogo Furuhashi and Adam Idah.
Chance creation hasn’t been a problem recently for Celtic, who have netted 26 times in their last eight fixtures across all competitions, which is a trend the wider support will hope can continue.