Celtic great Pat Bonner has criticised Sam Cosgrove’s performance against the Hoops at Pittodrie this afternoon.
Cosgrove came into the game having scored 15 goals in 16 appearances for the Dons. He had also only scored against Celtic once, however, via a penalty last season.
He came up against his biggest test of the season this term in Christopher Jullien and Kristoffer Ajer. However, after trying to target the former, he got little change in aerial duels.
And, after a performance where he was effectively chasing shadows, Bonner wasn’t impressed. Speaking to the BBC post-match (14:00), the ex-Celtic ‘keeper had this to say on the Englishman:
“I don’t know what’s wrong with Sam Cosgrove today but he’s been really ineffective. He’s not got the usual strength or mobility.”
Simple – he was up against a better player
We spoke earlier in the week about how Jullien and Ajer had a chance to silence the Cosgrove hype. And whilst they likely will start up again the next time he scores, Celtic shut them up today.
There’s no denying Cosgrove was up for it. He did what he always does. He got physical and tried to get in about the Hoops centre-backs.
He leaned more towards targeting Jullien. Goodness knows what his thinking was there. But the fact is he was bullied out of any individual battle by the big Frenchman.
John Beaton almost seemed to guess when to give either man a free-kick. But if Jullien’s job was to keep Cosgrove quiet, he managed it in convincing fashion.
This should also quieten down any rumours about Celtic going for Cosgrove in the future. He is, by no means, anywhere near Celtic class. If you’re going to interest a club like ours, you have to perform in games against us. Cosgrove barely ever does.
So a big thumbs up today for Jullien and Ajer. Cosgrove had his chance to show that he was as good as many say he is. Once again, he failed to live up to it. A fine performance from our centre-back pairing.
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