CAMILO DURAN scored in three consecutive pre-season games against Sporting Lisbon, Middlesbrough and AC Milan as he hit the ground running after his £6million arrival from Qarabag.
However, the Colombian hitman fired blanks in the two opening Premiership outings of the season following the £11million-plus recruitment of Kasper Hogh from Bodo/Glimt.
The Dane went straight into the attack-leader’s role while Duran switched to the right.
Duran failed to register in the wins over Dundee (1-0) and Kilmarnock (5-1) – where Hogh hammered in a first-half hat-trick – but claimed his first competitive goal in the 4-0 Premier Sports League Cup triumph over Dundee United at Tannadice at the weekend.
PARADISE…Camilo Duran celebrates his first goal at Parkhead in the 1-1 pre-season draw with Middlesbrough last month.
With an eye to tomorrow night’s Champions League Play-Off first leg against LASK at Parkhead, Hogh came off in the 68th minute and Duran moved into the middle where he looked comfortable.
Now that Egyptian World Cup winger Haissem Hassan has arrived from Real Oviedo and made a second-half appearance on Tayside, it looks like Martin O’Neill will now plot a new role for Duran.
The Celtic boss said: “It’s good to have that firepower. Haissem Hassan coming in, you would probably want to play him wide right, where he can beat players and go outside.
“It’s about looking at systems we want to play.
“We’ve been pretty rigid in 4-3-3, but we should be able to change.
“I think Camilo Duran is a fine player and I don’t see why he couldn’t play just off the centre-forward.
“Therefore, we have to look at different ways of playing.”
THIRD TIME LUCKY…Camilo Duran flicks in his first competitive goal – Celtic’s second in the 4-0 win over Dundee United – after firing blanks against Dundee and Kilmarnock.
O’Neill, speaking to the Scottish Daily Mail, added: “It shouldn’t be that difficult, in terms of shifting players a few yards, but it’s just a case of practising it.
“It’s far better to have the options. Of course, it is.
“Sometimes you think: ‘Oh gosh, how are we going to do this?”, but sometimes it just develops.”
The Hoops fans may get a glimpse of O’Neill’s strategy against the Austrians tomorrow night under the lights in the east end of Glasgow in the opening tie in the winner-takes-all £40million encounter.
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