Celtic great John Hartson has given his reaction to Albian Ajeti being dropped for the Hoops’ visit to Riga this evening.
Ajeti failed to make the starting XI for tonight’s Europa League third qualifying round match in Latvia despite managing to score four Premiership goals for the club in five matches. He’s yet to score in Europe, and played the majority of Saturday’s 3-2 win against Livingston.
Celtic haven’t found the net in the first half in Latvia, with the scoreline still level at 0-0.
But Hartson didn’t seem to be too concerned with the decision before the game kicked off. Instead, he’s insistent that Lennon’s decision can only be judged come full-time.
If Ajeti isn’t fit, shouldn’t Klimala be playing?
Regardless of how the second half goes, there’s a reason we have four first-team strikers to begin with. It’s not so a number 10 can play in behind one of them.
It doesn’t matter what tonight’s score is either, Celtic shouldn’t be playing with any pessimism in Riga. This is the kind of European contest where you should be confident in playing two up top.
It screamed like a game that would’ve been ideal for either Ajeti or Klimala to start. Especially alongside a striker in Edouard who is just returning from injury and could maybe use a hand.
But Hartson’s base point here stands up. Lennon will be judged on results alone. If Celtic manage to secure progression in the second 45 then there’s no harm done and nobody will be talking about it come full time.
It’s just a shame for the supporters who would’ve hoped to have seen Ajeti from the starting line-up more regularly. The more he plays with Edouard, the less time it’ll take for them to click together.
Lennon will undoubtedly mix things up as the game rolls on. Celtic haven’t been great in the first half, but we haven’t been shocking either. Yet you can clearly tell we’re not playing with two strikers once again given how frustrated Edouard has been.
Hopefully, Ajeti and Klimala get some minutes in the second half. Lennon has to be wary of burning his best players out, but you would hope they’ll be able to feature in such a crucial fixture.
In other news, the Celtic fans weren’t happy with Ajeti’s omission today either.
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