Neil Lennon simply must throw Celtic striker Albian Ajeti back in against Aberdeen on Wednesday night.
Not because the Swiss striker has bossed it in his latest trio of appearances of course. It would be pretentious nonsense to say otherwise. Ajeti’s goal at Kilmarnock hasn’t been followed by impressive displays against Motherwell and St Mirren respectively.
In truth, the former Basel and West Ham forward has been quiet in the subsequent two fixtures. But his game-time this season simply must be taken into consideration.
When Ajeti started against Kilmarnock earlier this month, it was his first since November [Transfermarkt]. He hadn’t even played more than 28 minutes in a game for almost three months neither.
Yet he was dropped once again after his third consecutive start for today’s 2-1 win at St Johnstone. Albian sat on the bench and didn’t even get a single minute on the pitch, despite warming up during the second half.
Lennon’s excuse for this was fatigue. Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland [14/02, 11:59] before kick-off, Lennon said: “Albian Ajeti is feeling a bit fatigued, so we go for a bit of rotation and Ryan Christie looked fresh and energetic when he came on the other night.”
Lennon has already touted a run of Celtic games for Ajeti; Aberdeen start is a must
Lennon once provided reporters with the same excuse for Ismaila Soro’s absence from a starting XI vs Kilmarnock. He hasn’t started any of the three matches since then. That’s despite the fact he had been impressing beforehand.
However, the manager must remember what he said about Ajeti after his goal-scoring performance at Killie. Speaking to Celtic TV after that one, Lennon said: “Look he’s had injury problems and fitness problems, but he’s bided his team and he looked really good tonight.
“You can see the conditioning work that he’s done has paid dividends and he had a really good 90 minutes. Hopefully, we can get a run of games out of him now.”
That run of games has lasted for two more matches since these comments before he’s been dropped again. Interestingly, Lennon didn’t even stick with a two-striker system in Perth today either. Instead, he went with Odsonne Edouard up front on his own.
But even so, if it was a decision made due to his second-choice striker needing a rest, he should be in again for Wednesday’s game against Aberdeen. Unless it’s a Soro-type “rest”. In other words, one that’s used as an excuse to drop him.
Hopefully, that’s not the case. Edouard bagged a brace yesterday but generally performs better alongside a partner. Let’s see if that happens on Wednesday night.
In other news, this Celtic star was clearly annoyed by last week’s developments.
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