Creative force, left-back, fringe players future - the key Celtic talking points ahead of first friendly

Celtic travelled to Austria on Monday as their pre-season preparations stepped up a notch.

It is the first stop for the club prior to moving on to the Czech Republic. They will play two friendlies before they do so. Rapid Vienna are opponents this weekend, but prior to that is a meeting with Wiener Viktoria in the Austrian capital on Wednesday.

Seven into three

Ange Postecoglou has plenty of choice in the final third of the pitch. The answer as to how he will get seven players – Jota, James Forrest, Mikey Johnston, Daizen Maeda, Kyogo Furuhashi, Liel Abada and Giorgos Giakoumakis – into three positions is quite simple – squad rotation.

As usual Celtic, will be operating on four fronts this season, with the added excitement and demands of Champions League group-stage football. Then there is the mid-season break due to the World Cup in Qatar. Between the first league fixture against Aberdeen and the break, the club will likely play 24 matches in 104 days.

The team’s identity under Postecoglou means players will need to be energetic and recover well to go again and again.

Forrest and Johnston

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It is relatively easy to surmise that sixth and seventh choices are James Forrest and Mikey Johnston. The latter’s season could just about be summed up by the anguish felt when he suffered an injury after being handed a start in a Scottish Cup clash with Raith Rovers. In two seasons when he should have been making a claim for a starting berth, the 23-year-old started just seven games due to injury issues.

Then there is Forrest, whose influence has been on the wane over a similar time period. Again, not helped by injury problems. Pre-season will be a big one to try and push