ALAS GRIFF AND MOANS
Out-of-favour Hoops ace gets out the winter woolies as he cools his heels on the bench
TWELVE months ago Leigh Griffiths was doing a turn for Celtic’s Christmas advert as the Elf on the shelf only to end up on Brendan Rodgers’ naughty list.
The striker was soon playing nice and back in the boss’s good books but as the temperatures have dipped, once more Scotland’s star man has found himself out in the cold.
Griffiths has spent the last three games on the bench as an unused sub, braving the elements as the Hoops sparred it out with Motherwell in the Premiership and Anderlecht in the Champions League.
The third, against his boyhood heroes Hibs at Easter Road, might just have hurt the most.
From Elf on the shelf to the Elf with a skelf.
Griffiths has spent two seasons fighting it out with Moussa Dembele for the frontman role but now Odsonne Edouard is getting his crack in the side and the Scot has been the man to slide down the pecking order.
Unlike last year Rodgers is adamant there’s nothing to see and the Hoops boss says he is simply managing his squad and every player not in the starting side is in the same boat.
At the same time he’s not particularly concerned if Griff’s bottom lip was petted at missing out on a run in Leith.
When asked if he had a huffing striker on his hands Rodgers said: “I don’t know. You would need to ask him.
“I can only speak about him if you speak about every single player that doesn’t play. I respect that he’s Scottish and I respect that he plays for Scotland but if you ask me about Leigh you have to ask why Moussa Dembele or Kristoffer Ajer aren’t playing.
“Or why Erik Sviatchenko isn’t playing. There’s no story in it. I’m picking what I think is the best team.
“Odsonne (below) is coming off a hat-trick against Motherwell where he was brilliant and performed well when he came into the team in the Champions League game.
“It’s about picking players in a good moment and it’s a long season. Leigh is a fantastic young striker for us and what I have now is three players who can contribute depending on what type of game I need to play.
“Moussa and Leigh have their qualities and
Odsonne is a combination of both and I thought he did well against Hibs.”
Celtic are in the middle of a ninematch run in December after a lung busting opening half to the season, battling on three fronts.
Hamilton are in
Glasgow’s East End tonight and another round of shuffling might be required.
Rodgers said:
“We have to utilise the squad to keep a freshness. You see some teams have played Saturday-wednesdaysaturday are now losing players through injury.
“Because it’s tough. But these players here have been doing that since June. That’s what you have to do at a big club – you have to be at your physical and mental best and these guys have been great.”