Leigh Griffiths has said that he believes his rekindled partnership with Odsonne Edouard has the ability to fire Celtic into pole position to deliver a tenth successive title. The pair were at the forefront of the incredible run that sealed the 9th title last season but due to injuries, fitness concerns and COVID-19, the pair haven’t been able to click.
However, in yesterday’s 3-0 win away to Hamilton Accies, Griffiths and Edouard combined and looked like they were slowly getting back to their best – which is timely considering the trip to Ibrox next season. As reported by The Scottish Sun, Griffiths says that this partnership have the ability to fire Celtic to the much coveted 10IAR, overthrowing the 16 point gap that Rangers currently hold – despite Celtic’s three games in hand.
Griff will benefit from game time & will form a good partnership with Edouard, the team looks more dangerous in the 3-5-2 formation? Will Lenny stick with it at Ibrox I wonder? pic.twitter.com/79QDWaLugs
— Lisbon Lion (@Tirnaog10) December 27, 2020
“Odsonne had quite a second half. He’s not been playing his football of late, but you saw how good he was. His link-up play, his hold-up play, his running off the ball was brilliant.
“Hopefully that’s him turned the corner and we can get him firing again. Let’s hope we can put a run together, but we just need to take it game by game. We’ve played well together the last two games and hopefully we’ll get the chance again on Wednesday against Dundee United to prove we deserve to be up there.
“I like to go in behind and he likes to come short to feet. It stretches defenders when they don’t know whether to stay with him or drop off.
“I like to play on the shoulder and follow stuff in, so we complement each other well.
“With runners like Ryan Christie, David Turnbull and Callum McGregor behind us, we’re an attacking side and we want to go and exploit that.
“You saw how good it was at the back end of last season and hopefully we can rediscover that now.”
Leigh Griffiths was back on the scoresheet with a thunderous strike from the edge of the area. That now takes the 30-year-old to three goals in three games as he continues his return to fitness. What Neil Lennon will be more impressed with is that Griffiths & Edouard appear to be hitting their stride again. The pair connected well and seemed to find their groove into the second half as it will likely take a wee while to click before they get back to their all-conquering best. The second half saw Odsonne Edouard inspire a quick-fire two goal lead with an assist and a goal for the Frenchman, he was also involved in the third goal as his header cracked the post before Turnbull slotted it home. The promising sign would be that Edouard was being able to come deep and interact in the game, taking the ball on the turn and running at the defenders, while Griffiths runs in behind.
Griffiths believes that now that Celtic have put a run of wins together, they will continue to get better and better and know not to panic if things don’t go their way straight away – like today.
“But the performances are coming together now. We look more assured and hopefully we can take that forward.
“We want to play on the front foot and get as many chances as we can. If we can’t break teams down early on, we keep banging on the door like we did today.”
Celtic face Dundee United at Celtic Park on Wednesday before travelling to Ibrox next Saturday. The games are must wins if Neil Lennon’s side want to lift the league title in May.
