Odsonne Edouard urged to produce "something extraordinary" for Celtic in Scottish Cup Glasgow derby

By David Walton

April 15, 2021

Celtic striker Odsonne Edouard has been urged by Chris Sutton to produce “something extraordinary” at Ibrox this weekend in our Scottish Cup clash.

The Hoops travel to Govan looking for our first win over our rivals this season. However, more importantly, securing the victory is essential if we’re to try and claim a fifth successive Scottish Cup win.

In order to do so, it’s generally accepted that all of our top players will need to be on form. That includes the likes of Odsonne Edouard, Mohamed Elyounoussi, and James Forrest to name a few. Edouard in particular has struggled to produce for us in the last two derbies. A quiet display at Ibrox was followed up with a profligate display last month at Celtic Park.

This time around, however, Sutton wants to see more. He’s been talking on the Record Celtic podcast, and he believes Edouard owes the fans an “enormous, explosive performance”.

“I think that Celtic are due a performance from Edouard. I think he’s improved as the season has gone on. But we haven’t really seen an enormous explosive performance in a big game, and I think he owes that to Celtic this season.

“If this is going to be his last season at Celtic then he wants to bow out on a high. Win the game and do something extraordinary which we know he is capable of.

“This season he has just seemed off the pace. He hasn’t seemed at his best – I don’t know what it is, whether his head has been turned. But he certainly owes it to the Celtic support and to the manager to put in a big performance.”

Celtic progression in the Scottish Cup will be hugely reliant on Odsonne Edouard’s performance

Edouard’s stats are actually still impressive despite being sub-par for much of the season. He’s actually managed to net 21 for Celtic this term and has five assists to his name too. That’s 26 direct goal contributions for the season [Transfermarkt].

It’s perhaps a sign of how much responsibility and expectancy we place on the Frenchman. It’s also easy to forget that Edouard is only 23 also – he has plenty of development to find in the coming years.

But Sutton, unfortunately, isn’t wrong. We haven’t seen an explosive performance from Eddy whatsoever this season. In the derby matches he’s been disappointing, whilst he’s been almost non-existent in Europe too. We were entitled to expect a lot more from him over the course of the campaign.

More of this, please / (Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)

Sunday gives him a glorious chance, whether he realises that is anyone’s guess. It gives him an opportunity to get himself back into the good books of a support that’s been frustrated with him this season. Criticism of everyone, of course, has been heightened this term given the emotion surrounding 10IAR.

But let’s be honest, whoever the match-winner is on Sunday, he’ll be given a monumental level of praise and heralded by the support. That’s just what this fixture does for players who make the difference in it.

Nobody would be surprised if Edouard proved to be that man at Ibrox. A big performance, however, is long overdue.

In other news, we look at why Patryk Klimala’s reportedly imminent Celtic departure should be a one-off for now.