Celtic boss Gordon Strachan will pick a team to match the conditions for Saturday's Scottish Cup fifth-round clash at Kilmarnock.The fixture card has been hit by heavy rain in recent weeks with Celtic's midweek SPL clash at Motherwell falling victim to a waterlogged pitch.

Snow is forecast to cause more problems for this weekend's cup fixtures, while Celtic ground out a 1-0 win at Falkirk last Sunday in a game hit by strong winds.

Strachan has revealed that Georgios Samaras is in line to make his debut following his loan move from Manchester City, but he will have one eye on the weather when he decides his full line-up.

"We will look at the weather conditions and pick a side for that," he said.

"I have a good idea what system we are going to play but it's putting people into that system.

"We picked a team the other night there against Motherwell for the conditions.

"I think that might happen for the next three or four months because the weather conditions have been that bad. Maybe the pack will be a bit heavier.

"We have a nice balance to the team, when surfaces are decent we can play decent football but when surfaces are a bit ropey then we can dig out a result using strength."

Celtic drew with Killie on the opening day of the season before securing one-goal victories against them in their next two meetings.

And Strachan expects another tough test from Jim Jefferies' side.

"We know how tough it is going to be because this season they have made it difficult for us every game," Strachan said.

"Jim has got a system that makes it hard and like most teams they like playing against us because the atmosphere is good for a cup tie.

"But we have shown recently that we can deal with cup-tie football as well as play the beautiful game."

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