Neil Lennon has stated that he’s a “big fan” of Leigh Griffiths after the striker made the top-20 in the Celtic goalscorers list.
Griffiths’ most recent goal against Sparta Prague in the Europa League took him to 118 for the club. That was enough to move him into the historic chart as he showed what incredible value he’s been to the club since joining in 2014.
However, even so, the former Hibs man has struggled to catch the attention of the manager this season. Griffiths has only started one game throughout the campaign – a Europa League encounter against AC Milan. Injury and fitness concerns have so far plagued his season.
But as Lennon reflected on his incredible top 20 achievement, the Celtic boss couldn’t help but big up Griff in general.
As quoted by the Celtic View (18/11 page 07) Lennon said: “That’s a fantastic achievement for him and I know that he’ll want to add to that as he goes along. I don’t think he’s finished just yet about the top 20, he’ll be looking to push on and keep going down that list.
“Even getting 100 goals and passing some of the club’s great goalscorers in doing so, that was certainly an achievement. Now he’s way beyond that and he’s in the upper echelons of Celtic’s greatest goalscorers of all time.
“I’m a big fan of Leigh. I’ve always been a big fan of him. He’s such a natural finisher, and that goal he got against Sparta – he was alive to the rebound and took it really well. I’m just hoping for more of the same from here.”
Griffiths in line to play supporting role vs Hibernian
We all have different views regarding where Griffiths ranks in our list of strikers. However, what we can all agree on is that he’s proven to be a heck of a signing since arriving from Wolves in a controversial move nearly seven years ago.
But where does he truly rank in our squad at the moment? Neil Lennon won’t be dropping Odsonne Edouard after his heroics for France under-21s, whilst Albian Ajeti impressed against Motherwell and appears to be getting back to his best.
Griffiths is definitely still ahead of Patryk Klimala of course. The Polish striker has had a decent enough impact when we’ve seen him, but Griffiths has made that bit more of a buzz when he’s come on instead.
But ahead of this Saturday, don’t expect Griffiths to be getting the call to come straight into the team. Given he’s been playing cameo roles for Scotland over the last week, there are still heavy question marks about his fitness levels.
Lennon has shown that he will give Griffiths a start when he thinks it’s right – as was shown against Milan last month. But as things stand, it looks as though the Scotland international still has a bit to do before he’s starting more regularly.
We can’t ever deny how Lennon views Griffiths either. This was the same manager who brought Leigh to the club, so nobody will want him to succeed more than Neil.
In other news, Paddy McCourt has noticed a big difference in Neil Lennon these days.
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