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Leigh Griffiths nodded in a late winner as Celtic beat Rosenborg in their Europa League Group B opener

Leigh Griffiths is "vital" to Celtic, says manager Brendan Rodgers, who "loves" working with the striker.

Griffiths came off the bench to score the 87th-minute winner in Thursday's Europa League win over Rosenborg.

The Scotland forward has only started four of Celtic's 15 matches this term, but Rodgers says he "needs" Griffiths' goalscoring nous in the squad.

"I know that whether he plays or whether I bring him on, we have a chance to score," the Celtic boss said.

"It's him realising as well at 28 that when you're at the biggest clubs, you have to fight, and he does that."

After his team-mates squandered a host of chances, Griffiths came to the rescue as Celtic opened their Europa League Group B campaign with a 1-0 win over the Norwegian champions.

Amid competition from Moussa Dembele, sold to Lyon this summer for £19.7m, and club record signing Odsonne Edouard, Rodgers believes the striker has worked hard to improve his all-round game.

He also says the former Hibernian striker has been unaffected by recent off-field issues.

Hours before the Rosenborg fixture, Griffiths - who signed a new four-year deal last week - was found guilty of speeding.

"He's got this in-built brain to deal with all this," Rodgers added. "A lot of players, whatever happens in their world can be a real distraction. He learns to deal with it. I know I can rely on him."

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Former Scotland midfielder Michael Stewart

Leigh Griffiths would be in my team. He scores goals and even when he's not playing well, you still think, this guy's a threat.

I think everybody looking from the outside would have them in their team, which to me suggests there's something else that happens in training that we don't see, which just plants little seeds in the manager's mind that, 'I need to keep on his toes, ask questions of him constantly, I can't just have him in the team every week'.

Rodgers has got to manage Griffiths. I don't see what goes on every day and I'm surmising there's got to be something else, because if there wasn't, he'd be in the team every week.

Source: bbc.com

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