The Celtic partnership of Odsonne Edouard and Leigh Griffiths may just be something we’ll start seeing more of.
Both men put in terrific displays in the 5-0 rout of Nomme Kalju yesterday at Celtic Park. The result effectively takes Celtic into the third qualifying round of the Champions League. The thought of losing the tie at this stage just doesn’t bear considering.
It was, incredibly, also the first time we’ve seen the striking duo up top together in some time. Brendan Rodgers favoured the one-striker approach, with only two forwards being thrown on if absolutely necessary. Lennon stuck to that same philosophy to ride out last season, but now appears to be putting his stamp on things.
And, speaking before the Kalju match in the Celtic View (Volume 55, Issue 3, Pages 6+7), Lennon hinted that it’s something we’ll be seeing more of.
“At times I like to go with two strikers. They’re important players and they can make the difference. The two of them have had amazing moments in their time here already at Celtic, so it would be interesting to see the possibility of them playing together.
“The formation needs to be tweaked a little bit, but they’re both great players who can adapt and work within different formations. They’ve both got plenty of goals in them. Leigh’s historically been a fantastic goalscorer and you can’t ignore that kind of talent.
“We all know what we’ve got with Odsonne as well. At times he can be a little bit isolated up there on his own, so it’s something we’ll look at going forward.”
New Celtic partnership needs time to develop
It was one of the real buzzes of the night when we all first seen the team-sheet. Lennon effectively slapped us in the face after we said yesterday that he likely wouldn’t go with two up front!
It’s clear that the partnership needs some patience and time put into it, however. Both men have totally different styles of play, regardless of the fact they play in the same position.
There wasn’t much in terms of combination play between the two. That was often because the likes of Ryan Christie and Callum McGregor were dictating things and always looking for combinations themselves. Given how much Griff and Edouard like to move around, it was to be expected that they didn’t really see a lot of each other.
But having both on the pitch gives Celtic different options going forward. There were times when we went long to try and get Griffiths in behind. There were other times when Edouard dropped deep and looked to play clever one-twos. It gives us variety and keeps defences guessing with the pair of them.
Lennon will have been delighted with both men last night. They both played their hearts out, and Edouard was unfortunate not to find himself on the scoresheet too.
But what the game did prove is that we should be seeing much more of this partnership in the future. Edouard and Griffiths = goals. Who can argue with a formula like that?
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