John Hartson believes that Brendan Rodgers will be regretting his key decision to drop Odsonne Edouard against Rangers.
The Celtic great has stated that he thinks the club needs two strikers in January. With Timothy Weah set to sign up on loan until the end of the season, another forward is essential from Hartson’s perspective.
But, with January now in gear, fans are still struggling to shake off what happened last week. Celtic went down to a weak 1-0 defeat at Ibrox to Steven Gerrard’s Rangers.
Much of the talk after the match was regarding the decision to play Mikey Johnston over Frenchman Edouard. Despite the latter scoring a stunner just three days previously against Aberdeen, he remained left out of the starting line-up. Edouard eventually came on for the final 20 minutes.
And Hartson believes that’s still a decision that will be eating away at Rodgers. Speaking in his weekly column in the Evening Times, Hartson said the following:
“We don’t know when Leigh Griffiths will be back and nor do we know the extent of Odsonne Edouard’s injury.
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“In saying that, I think that Brendan will have regretted his choice not to start with Odsonne on Saturday, whether he was struggling or not.
“Knowing that you have the best part of three weeks off before the next game, I would have been sorely tempted to get the big lad out on the pitch, even if you know you are only going to get 45 minutes out of him.”
The obvious error
It was an error many Celtic fans could’ve pointed out when you first read the team-sheet. Starting Johnston over Edouard never looked right, and so it proved.
To be fair to young Johnston, he did look bright on the few occasions he received the ball. The problem was actually getting it up to him. Without Edouard’s presence, Celtic couldn’t mix things up and hit the long-ball.
Edouard has shown on a couple of occasions now that the’s more than capable of dominating a Rangers defence. Rodgers even stated before the Rangers match that Celtic could only get 60 minutes out of the Frenchman. Instead, however, fans only saw around a third of that.
It’s a mistake you wouldn’t fancy Rodgers making again. With the Hoops set to sign Weah as well as look to do a deal for Vakoun Issouf Bayo, work is being done to get new strikers in the door.
It’s obvious, however, that the Glasgow Derby striker decision was the standout error from Celtic on the day.