Celtic interim manager John Kennedy has talked up Leigh Griffiths’ fitness improvement – with three games of the season remaining.
Griffiths has struggled to get himself into shape this season and struggled largely under Neil Lennon because of it. The former Celtic manager had always maintained that Griffiths wasn’t fit enough to play regularly [Glasgow Times].
Last night, however, he came up big for Kennedy. Celtic were heading for their second straight defeat at Pittodrie before Griff came up with a superb late header to seal a point. It was as meaningless as a Celtic game could possibly be, but undoubtedly a big moment for the Hoops striker.
And Kennedy has bigged up the striker’s fitness despite the fact we only have three games remaining of this nightmare of a campaign.
Speaking on BBC Sportsound post-match [21/04, 22:02], Kennedy said: “Yeah. He’s been a little bit stop-start this year, but he’s training well just now. He’s got himself into better shape and tonight it was good for him to come on and get the goal for us.
That’s what he is, he’s a penalty-box player. We got into the second half and 10 minutes in I’m thinking ‘we’ll have enough of the ball and enough presence at the top end of the pitch that if we give Leigh half a chance he’ll score’.
So we probably didn’t give him enough service at times and that’s something to look at. But when the big moment came in the end he’s a clinical striker so it was good to see.
A bit late to be talking up Leigh Griffiths’ fitness
The truth is it’s simply too late for all of this. Maybe if we had four months of the season to go and were in a title-race it would’ve been acceptable. However, Griffiths being in better shape doesn’t do much for us now.
Griffiths had always claimed that he simply needed minutes on the park to get his match-sharpness back. In that sense, none of us will know who was right between the Celtic striker and the manager. But there was never any good reason for simply leaving a goalscorer such as Griffiths out. You have to imagine he had been struggling to impress or get himself up to the required fitness standard.
It all feels a bit pointless to big up the fact he’s in good shape now. The season is over and we only have three matches left to play. None of them really mean anything either.
Of course, for the player personally, he’ll be satisfied with last night. Coming on for the final half hour and bailing your team out of another defeat? Job done in is book. Especially with him looking to earn an extension to his contract.
It also puts him in a good place heading into our next match at Ibrox. With Odsonne Edouard misfiring, there’s no real reason not to play Griffiths either on his own or up alongside him.
I’ve been one of the first to criticise Griffiths for not being in the right shape all season. But credit where credit is due, he made a fine impact last night and deserves another opportunity for it.
In other news, Celtic have been linked to a silly restructuring proposal.
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