Form of Scots goal hero has given boss headache up front

ITHINK that Brendan Rodgers has a conundrum on his hands over who to play up front for Celtic in the Champions League qualifiers, and it’s all down to the hard work and great play of Leigh Griffiths.

If you had asked me a few months ago who should play up front in these matches, there would have been no doubt in my mind that Moussa Dembele was the man to get the nod.

If you put me on the spot, I would probably still just prefer the young Frenchman, but the fact that there is absolutely nothing between the pair now is a great credit to Leigh.

I had him as a young kid at Livingston for a spell, and you could tell even then what a great prospect he was.

Of course, it’s very hard to tell at that stage what level a player will reach, but it doesn’t surprise me that he is doing so well for the best team in Scotland, and also for his country now too.

His goals against England are obviously grabbing the headlines and the attention, and fine strikes they were too. We’ve always known that Leigh had that in his locker though.

What impressed me almost as much in the game was how he led the line.

In a game where Scotland were hardly set up to be offensive, he constantly harried defenders, held the ball up well, brought others into play and used the ball intelligently when he had it.

He has been criticised in the past and overlooked at times for both club and country because of questions over his ability to play such a role, but he answered any lingering doubts over that particular issue with an accomplished display.

WYes, he made the bench for the final against Aberdeen, but we haven’t seen him in action since, and there must be a question mark over how sharp he will be and if he will be matchfit come the qualifiers.

Griffiths on the other hand has seized his opportunity when Dembele was on the sidelines, picking up the mantle as the main striker in the team again.

Considering he was second choice for much of the campaign, his return of 18 goals for the season was impressive.

Added to that, he was involved in competitive football right up until the start of June, when he performed so admirably at Hampden, and by all accounts has returned to training with Celtic looking lean and sharp.

The other question mark that has hung over Leigh during his career concerns his attitude and application, but I must say that my experience of him was the opposite of what the public perception has sometimes been.

I appreciate it was a while back now, but he was conscientious and more than ready and willing to take things on board. He was a really nice lad.

It’s great to see that whatever issues have been there in the past over his fitness appear to have been remedied, and if he continues to rise to the challenge laid down to him by the presence of Dembele, then who knows how good he can become?

For now, he has obviously set his sights on making it impossible for his manager to remove him from Celtic’s starting line-up.

He has been patient, and taken his chance when it has come around.

As gifted as Dembele is, and I believe he is an exceptional talent, it would be quite a sore