Odsonne Edouard must tread carefully against Lazio

Add as preferred source on Google

There is no doubt that one of Celtic’s key men against Lazio will be striker Odsonne Edouard. The player has been in sensational form this season.

Edouard most recently showed this in the 5-2 win over Hibs on Saturday. He didn’t score in the game, but provided two assists and caused Hibs all sorts of trouble.

Must keep his discipline in game

Therefore, he will be one of the players tasked with helping the Hoops to a rare victory in Italy on Thursday. However, he will need to be very careful against the Italian side. He will need to ensure that he avoids picking up a yellow card in the game.

Should he get booked in the game, then he will miss Celtic’s next Europa League fixture against Rennes. Normally that would be a blow for the Hoops, but one they could recover from. However, at the moment Edouard is Celtic’s only fit striker.

Hopefully that situation will change by the time of the Rennes game. Leigh Griffiths has returned to training. However, he might not make the game.

Hoops could play game without a striker

Therefore, if Edouard gets booked, Celtic could be forced to play against Rennes without a recognised striker. That is a situation that Neil Lennon will desperately want to avoid.

Edouard must make sure that he keeps his cool in the game. He can’t afford to react to any incidents in the game. He is not a player who gets that many bookings, so it must be annoying to the player that he is on the verge of missing a game in Europe.

Three bookings gets you a suspension, and he has already picked up two in the group stages. Edouard will not want to change his style of play. He will want to be as involved in the game as he is in all of his other appearances for the Hoops. A by-product of that though, could be a yellow card. Hopefully that is not the case though.