Ange Postecoglou has opened the door to outcast Albian Ajeti to stake his claim as a Celtic regular following injury to Kyogo Furuhashi.
The Swiss striker has not started a game this season amid fears his career at Parkhead could be in jeopardy.
New signing Kyogo, however, picked up a knock on international duty and will miss up to a month of action and fellow newbie Giorgios Giakoumakis is not yet up to speed.
Added to the fact that Odsonne Edouard is now a Crystal Palace player and Celts are light up top.
Ajeti, then, finds himself in a position where he becomes one of the only out-and-out strikers available and Postecoglou has challenged him to bang in the goals and ensure he can't be dropped - even when Celtic's star hitmen return.
"Spot on," Postecoglou said in response to a question about Ajeti coming in. "And I've said before I don't go around giving players cuddles but I will give them opportunities when it comes. It's up to them.
"To be fair Albian has worked his socks off in training and I know that if the opportunity arrives for him tomorrow he's done everything he can to be in a good position to take it. If he goes in there and starts banging goals in he makes it difficult for others to take his position."
Postecoglou also acknowledged that the forward areas was never too much of an issue when he arrived at Parkhead.
The Australian pointed to the defence as the area he needed to strengthen most and quickest.
However he understands the irony that he is now short up front and strong at the back.
"I love football, it's great, you have the best laid plans," he laughed. "If you had asked me at midnight on transfer deadline day I'd have said, 'Yeah we've got some great options up front, I'll be able to rotate some players and make some substitutions'.
"But you live with that as a football manager.
"If you've been in football for a while like I have you understand that's the way things go sometimes.
"That's the beauty of it, that's the challenge for us. If it was an easy existence a lot more people would have success with it.
"We had challenges at the back going through that first period, we were really light at right full-back and centre-back and we got through it by the skin of our teeth to be fair.
"Now all of a sudden we've got cover in all those areas which is great but we're a bit short at the other end.
"That's the challenges football puts up to us. I'm still confident with the players we've got available and the way we're playing our football we'll still be a good team going forward.
"If we can get through this period where Kyogo is missing and we get Giorgios up and running, then guys like James Forrest and Mikey Johnston who hasn't played at all, if we can get through this period without them it just means we'll have even stronger conviction about what we're doing moving forward."
