Rodgers praises performance of 'blonde Cafu' Armstrong

Brendan Rodgers described versatile Stuart Armstrong as the blonde Cafu'' after his man-of-the-match performance mostly from right-back in the 3-0 win over Inverness.

The midfielder moved back into defence in the 13th minute of the Ladbrokes Premiership encounter when Sweden international Mikael Lustig limped off with an ankle injury and he adapted without fuss.

Goals from Scott Sinclair, striker Leigh Griffiths and substitute Tom Rogic gave the home side a comfortable win over the visitors who ended the match with 10 men after midfielder Greg Tansey picked up two yellow cards.

Rodgers revealed that Lustig and skipper Scott Brown, who came off just after the hour mark with a numb foot, are doubts for Sweden and Scotland's respective international fixtures.

When asked about the contribution of former Dundee United midfielder Armstrong, he mentioned the famous former Brazil full-back who starred for Roma and AC Milan, among others.

The Blonde Cafu,'' he said.He was up and down that wing, wasn't he?

The boy did brilliantly to adapt the position.

He has played a central role for me and I see him developing and progressing his game day in and day out and he is now looking the part.

He is a clever boy, he knows the role and obviously a couple of adaptations at half-time to allow us to open up the sides a wee bit more on the inside and his only disappointment is that he never scored, he had enough chances.

But I thought he was brilliant.''

When asked to compare him with James Milner, whom Rodgers bossed at Liverpool, the Northern Irishman said:

James is someone I brought him in to be a midfielder but I knew he could play a couple of positions, he has played everywhere, all over the pitch.

Just a total footballer and I though Stuart showed that today, he has that ability.

Sometimes going into that position can frighten a player, they can say I am not really sure.

Firstly, he defended very well but his ability to get forward with his energy was outstanding.''

Celtic's 10th win in their first 11 league fixtures - they dropped their only two points against Inverness in a 2-2 draw in September - took them 10 points clear of Aberdeen with a game in hand.

Inverness boss Richie Foran believes Celtic could go rest of the league season unbeaten if they keep up that standard of football.

However, he claimed his side were nervy'' and played withfear.''

He said: We never expressed ourselves. We had opportunities to go on the counter and we never believed in ourselves.

I'm a little bit disappointed in their performance but maybe even one of our better performances might not have been good enough for Celtic today.

They dominated the game and maybe Brendan has created that fear factor here and credit to him.''

Foran had no complaints about Tansey's two bookings, the first for persistent filing and the second for tangling with Callum McGregor in the build-up to the second-goal.

However, he had a gripe about referee Crawford Allan allowing Griffiths to get away with a foul on Liam Polworth and Celtic defender Jozo Simunovic's tackle on substitute Jake Mulraney late in the game.

He said: We don't want to see any players getting booked.

It's a man's game but there was a nasty enough tackle on Liam Polworth right at the dug-out from behind.

Liam's going to leave on crutches and looks like a bad injury at the moment.

We've got Jake in at the end on a two versus one and he skips past two or three of their players and he gets took down when he's in on goal and it's just a free-kick.

As I say I'm not one for getting players booked but we just want referees to be fair with us.''