Moritz Bauer’s chances in this Celtic side may have been limited in recent weeks, but Neil Lennon has promised we’ll see more of him.
The Austrian arrived back in August on loan from Stoke City. However, he was always fighting a losing battle with Hatem Abd Elhamed ahead of him in the pecking order. Bauer initially looked to be making a decent impact as he played against the likes of Kilmarnock, Hibernian, and Livingston respectively.
However, the emergence of Jeremie Frimpong hasn’t helped his chances. Frimpong has played against Partick Thistle, Ross County, and Aberdeen in recent weeks. Those were potentially all matches that Bauer could’ve featured in had he not burst onto the scene.
But Lenny has moved to assure Celtic fans and Bauer that his chances won’t fully dry up. Speaking in the Celtic View (Volume 55, Issue 17, Page 06), Lennon says that we’ll see more of the Austrian.
“Moritz can find himself very unlucky not to be in the team because he’s had good competition there. We know Hatem can play centre-half and that’s probably his preferred position overall. But we like the combination of Ajer and Jullien at the minute.
“As we go forward with the amount of games we have, we’ll see more of Bauer.
“We kept looking at Hatem while looking at other options, but we kept going back to Hatem. He hasn’t disappointed us.”
A big boost for Bauer, but things still look bleak
This is great news for Bauer. This is pretty much confirmation from his manager that he’s going to get more opportunities to shine in this Celtic side.
The loan star was always signed as a back-up to Elhamed. However, the idea would’ve been that he played more regularly than he has done. So far, Bauer has only made five appearances for the club. He would’ve envisioned playing more than that when he joined over two months ago.
What he’ll likely have to do is settle for his opportunities coming against the likes of St Mirren, Ross County, Livingston, and sides expected to finish in the bottom half of the table.
The fact is that Lennon also just can’t ignore the pretty surreal breakthrough from Frimpong. He’s been too impressive to just knock out of the team for someone on loan.
It would be extremely interesting to know if Bauer had something in his contract about playing a certain amount of games. After all, we already had Elhamed signed up when Bauer arrived. Why would Stoke give him to us when he was always going to be a back-up? It would hardly be surprising if there’s something in the deal about game-time.
But in any case, Lenny has confirmed we’ll see a bit more from Moritz. Hopefully, when he gets his rare opportunity, he takes it with both hands.
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