Gordon Strachan's strategy to subdue Spartak Moscow has been compromised by an artificial surface he believes will curtail Celtic's creative forces.

The manager's tactical quandary has deepened after a full rehearsal conducted yesterday on the Fieldturf flooring, controversially laid - with FIFA and UEFA approval - inside the Luzhniki Stadium. Initial fears have been confirmed. After displaying a diplomatic bent since the draw for the final qualification round of the Champions League pitted the Scottish champions against the Russian league leaders, Strachan released his pent-up displeasure at the disruptive and restrictive qualities of a tacky, rubber-based field.

Principal among his concerns is the fact that the pitch will hinder rather than help established components of his side such as Shunsuke Nakamura and Aiden McGeady. To that end, he has hinted at a necessary change to his preferred players and, perhaps also, his recognised formation. McGeady, whose wing play is founded on darting changes of pace and direction, may have to be sacrificed for a more robust approach after extensive experimentation gave Strachan cause for alarm.

"It's not good for dribbling - put it that way," he said.

"It's a sticky surface. The ball doesn't move well. It's just not a dribbling surface. There's a spin to it. If you spin a ball at somebody it's exaggerated because there's so much rubber underneath.

"I wouldn't have liked playing on it because I liked to move the ball and have a go at people and get the ball into feet. I think we have to look at our tactics because dribbling on the pitch is a problem. We had a real look at the pitch this morning and we had a full practice match. We normally don't do that but we had to test longer passes. We even had a small-sided game and a full game to find out what we could do and what we couldn't do.

"I'll have to choose the best side to suit Celtic, no doubt about that."

Strachan became increasingly animated during the persistent line of questioning and hurtled into one of his bug-bear monologues on recalling that Dunfermline were required to play a UEFA Cup tie against Hafnarfjordur at St Johnstone's McDiarmid Park despite FIFA part subsidising their ill-fated third generation surface at East End Park.

He was bordering on apoplexy at the fact that the Icelanders were given a say in the choice of away surface.

While Spartak Moscow's version is of a superior quality to Dunfermline's short-lived surface, Strachan's old-school mentality dictates that playing Champions League football on anything other than grass is tantamount to blasphemy.

"Dunfermline had to change their game to St Johnstone, so I find this all very strange," he began. "We were never given the choice.

I was asking someone the other day if Dunfermline played that game at home and found out they had to play at Perth. I don't know why there is a distinction other than one club is very rich and the other club isn't so rich."

His mood, best described as terse ahead of a match with financial implications amounting to around £10m, lightened considerably when presented with a most welcome observation from one of the host journalists inside Moscow's grand Swissotel. According to folklore, good fortune is bestowed on red-heads in Russia; which, incidentally, is as common a sight as a Scot wearing a ushanka.

"Do I have special luck with my red hair?" he said excitedly. "Great! In Britain, we just get abused."

The old wives' tale provided only momentary respite from a mentally taxing build-up to a rummy tie. Artur Boruc, despite travelling with an air of optimism, has succumbed to his shoulder injury. Mark Brown will continue to deputise but Strachan is more vexed by the outfield dilemmas than how his back-up goalkeeper will fare on his Champions League debut.

Stanislav Cherchesov, the former Russian goalkeeper now in charge of Spartak, has continued the expansive policy of his predecessor, Vladimir Fedotov. Roman Pavlyuchenko, the club's predatory striker, will play despite breaking his wrist during Saturday's 2-0 win against Krilya Sovietov. Vladimir Bystrov is a shuttling winger with a propensity for diving, while Mark Wilson will encounter the more aggressive Dmitri Torbinski on the other flank.

Mozart, fittingly, orchestrates from a central berth and affords Egor Titov freedom of expression at the fulcrum. Strachan has issued detailed scouting reports of the various departments and will finalise his own set-up today. There has been a temptation to play Kenny Miller in his Scotland away role' as a lone striker, supplementing the midfield with another layer of protection in Gary Caldwell. Yet the presence and European pedigree of Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink is likely to prove irresistible. Paul Hartley's industry is expected to be preferred to a mollified McGeady and Miller may begin the match from a deeper position.

"There's a lot of mobility and energy in the team - we need to use that," he said in anticipation of a sweaty evening. "It's easier to use the energy at home because of the conditions but it's harder here. It depends how well we handle the ball as to how much we can dictate the game. You can't dictate when you haven't got the ball."

He is hopeful his young side will have learned from parlous past adventures away from home in the Champions League, not least the 3-0 thrashing meted out by Benfica last year. "We have to take that in," he said. "The lessons we have to learn are about our psyche. I have asked myself what information did we give different players? Did we give them too much? Did we moan at them too much? That's what we took out of it as coaches. You can get too much information sometimes.

"We've told the players: you're not playing the stadium, you're not playing the surface, you're playing a team and we have to make them aware that the team's got qualities and deficiencies."