Brendan Rodgers should copy Rangers legend Ally McCoist's tactic with Celtic facing Asian Cup headache – Chris Sutton

The Asian Cup in the New Year is going to give Brendan Rodgers a headache with half of his squad likely to be heading to Qatar.

But perhaps the Celtic boss should take a leaf out of Ally McCoist’s book. After all, didn’t he get a game postponed against Forfar back in the day when he had a couple of guys on international duty? Maybe it’s something Rodgers will need to look at as the likes of Kyogo, Daizen Maeda, Oh Hyeon-gyu, Yang and Reo Hatate – if he’s fit – could all be summoned by Japan and Korea, leaving Celtic seriously short for important matches against Aberdeen, Hibs and Ross County.

Joking aside, Rodgers won’t want to be sitting out three rounds of fixtures at such a crucial part of the season as points in the bag are more important than games in hand. But the Asia Cup does give him a headache. I’ve seen fans talking about signups as cover – but you can’t sign players for just three matches.

There’s a clamour for another striker if Kyogo and Oh are away – along with Maeda – it leaves Celtic with a huge hole up front. But are they going to splash the cash to bring in someone who is going to play second fiddle to Kyogo and perhaps hinder the development of Oh? I doubt it.

Some people have chucked Lawrence Shankland’s name into the frame. Forget about it. There are enough people trying to hawk him to Rangers and it remains to be seen if they can even afford the Hearts striker.

Celtic can afford him – but he just doesn’t fit the bill. That’s not to say I don’t rate him as a player. It’s got nothing to do with his apparent allegiances either.

He would probably score goals for Celtic. But are they going to spend maybe £3m or £4m on a 28-year-old back up? Highly unlikely.

Shankland needs to be playing every week